A Pl- IYS lCS OF

MIDDLE-EARTH

325 any rate, must be oriented correctly in order

for

them to

be co nt ro ll in g the

motion

of

this

camera-space.The light takes a use d; and usi ng the sto nes , a “surveyor” cou ld see thing s short-cut through another physical dimension. Th e standa rd man y mil es away , unl ess the loc atio n he was scr ying was ana log y form ed b y rem ovi ng one dimension ma y co me in dark. Telepa thic conversations cou ld be held be tw ee n th e ha nd y here - instead

of

looking around the surface

of a

operators

of

two

stones; an d the Osg ili ath stone could sph ere , w e lo ok from one point on the sur fac e to another eavesdrop on any

of

these conversations. Just to compl icate thr oug h the spa ce in the middle.

Of

course, this is perfectly the matter

still

further,the

stone at Emyn Bera id loo ked onl y ridiculous. Although

it

is a nice picture,

it

would end up Westward to th e st on e at Avalloné and was not conne ctedt o wit h, in e

!

ect, faster-than-light travel. Admittedly, the only the oth er sto nesin any way . Indeed , the men tio n

of a

Stone thing travel ling faste r than lig ht would be light itself, whic h in th e Fa r We st is surprising: presumably communication mercifully ru le s ou t th e possibility

of

Elven , Palan tir- could have

been set up between the

Faithful (who

had powered, jump-driven starship s, but this is

still

enough to control

of

the stone s) and Valin or. This cou ld explai n a l o t , m a k e causality a

headache

for

anyone. Although th is is a inc lud ing the Fai thfu1’ s knowl edge

of

the plan

of Ar-

drawback from the scie ntiﬁc point

of

view,

it

might well

be Pharazén and their preparations

for

ﬂeeingthe Downf all.

se en as a bonus

from

the textual point

of

view ; after all,

So how coul d these things operate ? Giv en tha t the y ca n se e Pa la nt ir i can also

see backwa rds and

forwards in time, and through mount ains,one might imagine that they “saw" b y t h a t really couldresultin causa lity migraines. means

of

some sort

of

radiation thatisn’t bl oc ke dea si ly , li ke Ev en t hi s pseudo-explanation doe sn’ t t ie in wit h all the neutrinos, but i n tha t

case

why shouldthey reﬂect

o

!

the fa ct s that we ar e given abou t the Sto nes . How could target? And why can’t the stones

see into dark places?

That Osgiliath

e av es dr op ? A repea ter sta tio n lo ca te d in sug ges ts some sor t

of

visible electromagnetic radiation,

hyp ers pac e? Sur ely suc h a th in g is be yo nd th e rea lm

of

unless

“dark”

is bein g used metaph orica lly. This, thoug h, possibility, unless o ne is E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith. An d ho w ar e seems unlik ely, and ligh t isn’t noted

for

its

tenden cy to go thoug hts tr ansmi tted betw een two Pal ant iri in the sa me throu gh moun tains. P os si bl y th e lig ht is bo un ced

o

!

netwo rk? As Jenny sums up th e wh ol e matter

of

hyperspatial somet hing; but wh at? A sat elli te?

It

seems

unlikely that communications, “Aaaaaaaaaargh!” Eiiren dilis sittin g therew ith a mirro r,

even tho ugh he m a y b e T h e w h o l e question

of

foreseeing th e fu tu reis a ve xe d one. described

as

theFlammifer

of

Westemesse.

It’s

at th is

s ta g e T h e

Mirror of

Galadri el shows possible futures, including thatwe could mutte r sagel y, “Hmm. Insu

"

cient da ta .”Even th in gs th at may not com e to

pass. S uc h an intrusion

of

Ten'y Pratchett's

standard cop-out,

“it’s

quantum, innit?”, probability reminds

us

instantly

of

the ﬁeld

of

Quantum doesn’t help

us here. Mec han ics . A fas cin ati ng Horizon programme on televisio n

If

we wish to press on in this matter, we must invoke a abouta monthago (1992) revealed that theore tical physicists scientiﬁc principle which

ha s lo ng bee n th e do ma in

of

are co m in g to ac ce pt th e so -c al le d Ma ny Worlds authors wishing

to

lend an ai r

of

spurious ver isi mil itu de to an int erp ret ati on, and som e oth er serio us and possibly sober otherwise bald and unconv incing narra tive. Yes , fol ks,

it's

theoreticians are starting to sugge st that time travel,

ofa

sort, timefor Hyperspace. Some

of

you may have read

an article is a possibility. The

“of a

sort"

is very important here and I by a cer tai n Mar c Read in Am on Hen (1989, pp. 17-18) shall discuss

it

no w. The main object ion to ti metrav el is th at many years ago, attempting to explain the globing

of

the

it

would

seem

to

be open

to the Gran dfath er paradox - what world

an d the rem ova l

of

the Valar

as a ch an ge

from a w o u l d

happen

if I

killed my grandfather befor e my fat her Euclidean topology

of

space

to a Minkowski topology of

was bom? space- time. Perha ps extra physical dimensions are the si ng le Th e so lu ti on to this lies in the Man y Wor lds theor y. Thi s is most useful tool in today ’s scienc e

for

the Pseudo -Scien tist. an interpretation

of

quantum mechanicswhich suggeststhat When we read about supers tring theory requiringa nu mb er ev er y possible quantum event actual ly occurs .

If

(as is

of

physical dimensions which runs well into doubl e ﬁg ure s, us ua lly the

case)

tw o or mo re

events are contradictory - the perhaps we f eel that our expl anatio ns aren‘t so si ll y af te r al l. wa ve f un cti on collaps es into one sta te or anoth er - then the

But

the counter-intuitive nature

of

m ode m sci enc e, Universe spli ts.In one branch event

“A”

happens, in another fascinating though

it

is, is only a

digression. Let us retum to

it

does not.

In

the classic thought-experiment, we ma y sa y our hyper spatial Palantiri. that in one branch , Berri thiel's cat is killed, and the in other

it

The way in which thevision

of

the Stone is no t bl oc ke d, re ma in s ali ve. For many years thi s was see n to be the most and yet is restricted to the light illuminating the actual scene ﬂag ran t bre ach

of

Occ am’ s Raz or imagi nable: we’re being observed,

goes

to

suggest that the scene is not being inventing untold universes just to avoid letting probability in. transmitted t o the Sto ne by any rad iat ion . Rather,

it

would Jenny points out that

it

is impossible

to

breach a razor, but let seem that the scene i s directly observed by the Surveyor.

It

is that pass. Now I ha ve be en re li a bl y inf orm ed tha t

as

if

the Surveyor were actually there. Or, to put

it

another cosmologists, being depres sed abou t dea lin g with only one way,

it

is

as

if

the light from the

scen e travelled

directly to un iv er se ,th in k th at the oth erMan y worlds

have at least

as

thePalantir. What bett erway for thi s to hap pen tha n for th e mu chc la im to existence

as ours.

Weird. lightto traveldown a “wormhole”, a hyperspatial tunnel,

it

Th e mo st interesting thought th at co me s wi th th is

need o n l y b e a

tiny

s ize . Any lig ht ent eri ng this volume ontological ni gh tm ar e is th at perhaps s om e so rt

of

would then trave l directly to thestone. The various ways

of

communication betwe en the parallel worlds (for want

of a

controlling the palantir

th en tra nsl ate to va rious ways

of

betterterm) is possible. Thus,

it