[IW] Looking for Lost Loves

[Flyndaran]

That's not true. Parachronics and conveyors work nearly everywhere or else Homeline/Centrum couldn't get there and back.
It's that projectors only work on worlds in the "present".

[AlexanderHowl]

There are no known timelines with the ability to support projectors, but it could just be that Homeline-style projectors do not work on timelines like Homeline or Centrum (which is one reason why Infinity is careful among timelines with 1990s or better technology). In addition, supernatural methods are capable of substituting for a projector (I imagine that a nightmare scenario for Infinity is that a reality quake or something similar suddenly gives a significant proportion of the people, ~0.01%, in a timeline the Jumper ability). How can you keep the Secret if tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people start visiting other timelines?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not think that there are any other concurrent canon parallels...

There are not. Homeline, Centrum and Shikaku-Mon are it for canon timelines. I've started calling these "leading edge" timelines in Infinite Cabal. That campaign has a fourth leading edge world, Unity, which is very divergent. In ancient Egypt, Imhotep discovered psionics, and everything changed. The world is now populated by a single group-mind of unnerving power; it has memories of when its people explored the worlds, but they don't do that any more.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

There are no known timelines with the ability to support projectors

In infinite Cabal, both Infinity and Centrum are pretty sure that projectors are only possible on leading-edge worlds. Conveyors can be built anywhere with an adequate tech base if you know how, but van Zandt's original invention was the projector (B.524).

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There are not. Homeline, Centrum and Shikaku-Mon are it for canon timelines. I've started calling these "leading edge" timelines in Infinite Cabal. That campaign has a fourth leading edge world, Unity, which is very divergent. In ancient Egypt, Imhotep discovered psionics, and everything changed. The world is now populated by a single group-mind of unnerving power; it has memories of when its people explored the worlds, but they don't do that any more.

In infinite Cabal, both Infinity and Centrum are pretty sure that projectors are only possible on leading-edge worlds. Conveyors can be built anywhere with an adequate tech base if you know how, but van Zandt's original invention was the projector (B.524).

As I recall, Centrum "stations" aren't quite the same as Homeline projectors. Stations can pull in stuff from other timelines, and let you look at other timelines on a viewscreen. Don't know if this is because of some inherent difference in the timeline or just the two technologies developing in different directions. In the former case, Shikau-mon projectors might be another thing again.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

As I recall, Centrum "stations" aren't quite the same as Homeline projectors. Stations can pull in stuff from other timelines, and let you look at other timelines on a viewscreen.

You seem to have some of Centrum's canonical capabilities (IW, p52), mixed up with Infinity's development projects (IW, p27-28).

[AlexanderHowl]

And there could be hundreds or thousands of undiscovered timelines that are concurrent with the three, Homeline and Centrum have only explored a few thousand timelines out of a potential infinity of possible timelines. Just because Infinity has not encountered them does not mean that they do not exist, just that they have not overlapped yet with Infinity. In addition, it is always possible for TL8 timelines to invent conveyers without having the ability to make projectors, which is why Infinity keeps an eye of such timelines (though there is only so much they can do with 10,000 agents).

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by scc

There's a few references to the 'local now' in Infinite Worlds which I think is about this, if I'm figuring it out right then the timeline has to have the same universe date as Homeline, so if a world is so much a 1 year younger then Homeline the working theory seems to be that developing parachronics is impossible on that timeline, magic, superscience, and other paranormal powers excluded.

There are 'local now' type worlds. That's how GURPS can incorporate other contemporary campaign worlds with Infinite Worlds - for instance, present-day Madness Dossier world is an Infinity alternate (and Infinity doesn't know about Project: Sandman and the like). I.S.T., which was released in 1992, is an alternate world in 1992 to Infinity.

And it is does seem that projectors only work on Homeline and Centrum (and maybe same time Shikaku-Mon) - but conveyors work on (almost) every world. That's why it would be so bad if Reich-5 got a working conveyor; they could conceivably reverse-engineer it. Even if Reich-5 is limited to Quantum 3 conveyors, that's terrible.

Furthermore, Infinity doesn't 100% know that locals on other worlds couldn't produce some local variant of the projector that could work on that timeline. Parachronic theory doesn't have any definitive reason why it works one way on Homeline and not everywhere else (even Centrum doesn't seem to know for sure; they were surprised by Secundus!).

(plus, close non-parachronic parallels like Madness Dossier or I.S.T. have all their own issues...)

[AlexanderHowl]

Since Reich-5 has access to the Nine Worlds, they could potential access all of Q4 if they had a conveyor (though it would be quite difficult). They can potentially reach Q5 with their Jumpers, it is really only a matter of time before they get good enough. Imagine the reaction of Infinity if they discovered a cell of Reich-5 spies transferring technology to Reich-5 from a Q5 world.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

And when the kid acts like the unique individuals they are, the parents continue down the path of psychosis. There would likely be a whole Law And Order: Crosstime Crimes Unit.

There might well be something like that.

There would also be the sort of narcissist who is obsessed with his/her alternates, for whatever reason. They'd bear watching.

There'd be a certain sort of fetishist who'd be fascinated by those versions him himself that were female, or vice versa.

There'd be the sort of person who hates on someone on Homeline, but either can't get at them or they're already dead or something, and would be tempted to go after their alternates. Not a very sane reaction, but parachronics and those personalities who are borderline unstable would mix very badly.

Larry Niven actually wrote some stories a long time ago that were based on the psychological and social effects of the discovery of alternate Earths.

[AlexanderHowl]

I am just imagining a couple of serial killers going to every other timeline to kidnap and torture the family members of their 'copies' in order to turn their 'copies' into serial killers just like them. What horrible sins would a person commit to prevent their children, parents, spouses, etc from suffering death and/or violation?