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[MageSteff]

THink Tank Jake's Log

[scrivener22]

Here's an idea.

Look at this diagram (shamelessly boosted from this excellent time-travel web site):

Suppose the arrow from c back to b represents some random hop--the one made back to the United Nations, for example. This jump causes the time stream to branch into two: abef, in which the observer was present at the UN, and abcd, in which he wasn't. abcd is the 'normal' timestream, where NRU, SPECTRUM, Cypher-Systems existed (still exist? para-exist? wioll haven exist?)

Here's the key. In stream abef, NRU et al. don't exist, for whatever reason. The hopper, whatever he did, whether observe the UN or some other mission we don't know about, changed the future to prevent the construction of NRU and the machine.

Thus, when Jake hopped to escape from Becker, he hopped 'sideways': from point d to point f, from stream abcd into stream abef. abef is recognizable as his life, but with key differences: the car crash, Reggie's mental state, and, of course, the absence of NRU.

The chief problem with this theory is, of course, us. If we haven't hopped, then why are we experiencing the realities of abef instead of abcd? Shouldn't nru.us et al. still be there for us?

Also: Caretaker. Why does he still have the address book with all of the smart people's e-mail addresses? Shouldn't that have never existed in abef?

And why does Jake have memories of abef? He's only entering it at point f; he hasn't experienced the reality of the stream itself.

Time travel, as always, makes my head hurt.