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Scientifictionist, issue 2, 1945

Page 5

POINT OF VIEW
One fan's opinion                      
                           by Lynn Bridges 
SCIENCE-FICTION AND SCIENTIFICTION
     Despite the title of this fanzine, I have long preferred the descriptive word science-fiction to the coined scientifiction in reference to this literature of ours. So in this section of the fanzine science-fiction will be used, altho I may violating an editorial policy of Elsner's. 
     Reasons for the preference, I have given many times before -- in the old ECLIPSE, in my FAPA fanzine, and probably else --where -- and will not bother to repeat them this time. So, on  to the discussion of various things science-fictional.
-------------------------------------
THE WORLD OF IT
      One of the most fascinating of all science-fictional theories, and none which has never, to my knowledge, been developed in a story to its ultimate conclusion, is the theory of multiple and coexisting time-worlds. As I remember it (without a collection at hand for reference) the first story to forward this theory was Leinster's "Sidewise in Time" in one of the early Street and Smith ASTOUNDINGs, probably in 1934. Shortly afterwards came the Weinbaum story in Wonder, "The Worlds of If", probably as good a name for the theory as has been suggested.
       But both Weinbaum and Leinster missed or overlooked the full implications of the idea they presented, and so have a lot of other writers since then, Possibly the best known of all divergent time stories is Williamson's excellent "Legion of Time", but Williamson developed the theory even less fully than had Leinster and Weinbaum before him. Where all of these, and many other writers, hesitated in theory development was in assuming either that the number of other time-worlds was finite or that only extremely important events could cause divergent worlds.
       Thus, in "Sidewise in Time", Leinster has several different worlds existing side by side in time, each of which varies from the next by reason of some major historical difference -- such as the world in which the south had won the Civil War and the confederacy ruled half the present United States in one of the alternate time-worlds. In "The Worlds of If", with the aid of the "subjunctivisor", the hero is allowed to look into the divergent time0worlds and see what would have happened had he done things other than what had actually occurred. Weinbaum's error in reasoning was perhaps the more serious, since Leinster apparently assumed that it took an important event to create a divergency. In the Weinbaum story, tho, even reasonably trivial events were capable of creating another possible world -- and yet it was the assumption that events would flow smoothly enough after such a change that the entire future of the parallel world could be accurately predicted.
      Actually, the only possible conclusion on which can be drawn if the theory is to be considered, is that even the tiniest of variations in the matter of choice is capable of setting up an alternate world and that the number of such other worlds is therefore infinite. Even a minor change of events could cause a variation eventually as great as the major ones considered by Leinster and others. Thus, a man on his way home from work decides to stop at the corner bar for a short one before going home. In the bar he meets people whom he would not otherwise have met, influences them perhaps only slightly in ways which would never have happened had he gone straight home, and sets in motion a widening pool of change which ultimately is apt to affect everyone in earth!
    Followed to its logical conclusion, the theory demands that every action, no matter how small, is only one of many possible actions, and that in some time -
               (over) 
page 5

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POINT OF VIEW One fan's opinion by Lynn Bridges SCIENCE-FICTION AND SCIENTIFICTION Despite the title of this fanzine, I have long preferred the descriptive word science-fiction to the coined scientifiction in reference to this literature of ours. So in this section of the fanzine science-fiction will be used, altho I may violating an editorial policy of Elsner's. Reasons for the preference, I have given many times before -- in the old ECLIPSE, in my FAPA fanzine, and probably else --where -- and will not bother to repeat them this time. So, on to the discussion of various things science-fictional. ------------------------------------- THE WORLD OF IT One of the most fascinating of all science-fictional theories, and none which has never, to my knowledge, been developed in a story to its ultimate conclusion, is the theory of multiple and coexisting time-worlds. As I remember it (without a collection at hand for reference) the first story to forward this theory was Leinster's "Sidewise in Time" in one of the early Street and Smith ASTOUNDINGs, probably in 1934. Shortly afterwards came the Weinbaum story in Wonder, "The Worlds of If", probably as good a name for the theory as has been suggested. But both Weinbaum and Leinster missed or overlooked the full implications of the idea they presented, and so have a lot of other writers since then, Possibly the best known of all divergent time stories is Williamson's excellent "Legion of Time", but Williamson developed the theory even less fully than had Leinster and Weinbaum before him. Where all of these, and many other writers, hesitated in theory development was in assuming either that the number of other time-worlds was finite or that only extremely important events could cause divergent worlds. Thus, in "Sidewise in Time", Leinster has several different worlds existing side by side in time, each of which varies from the next by reason of some major historical difference -- such as the world in which the south had won the Civil War and the confederacy ruled half the present United States in one of the alternate time-worlds. In "The Worlds of If", with the aid of the "subjunctivisor", the hero is allowed to look into the divergent time0worlds and see what would have happened had he done things other than what had actually occurred. Weinbaum's error in reasoning was perhaps the more serious, since Leinster apparently assumed that it took an important event to create a divergency. In the Weinbaum story, tho, even reasonably trivial events were capable of creating another possible world -- and yet it was the assumption that events would flow smoothly enough after such a change that the entire future of the parallel world could be accurately predicted. Actually, the only possible conclusion on which can be drawn if the theory is to be considered, is that even the tiniest of variations in the matter of choice is capable of setting up an alternate world and that the number of such other worlds is therefore infinite. Even a minor change of events could cause a variation eventually as great as the major ones considered by Leinster and others. Thus, a man on his way home from work decides to stop at the corner bar for a short one before going home. In the bar he meets people whom he would not otherwise have met, influences them perhaps only slightly in ways which would never have happened had he gone straight home, and sets in motion a widening pool of change which ultimately is apt to affect everyone in earth! Followed to its logical conclusion, the theory demands that every action, no matter how small, is only one of many possible actions, and that in some time - (over) page 5