Eric
asked:
How do distant clones solve the simultaneity problem of SR? For example, in Chapter 11, "Elena had chose not to wake if any other versions of her had already encountered life". But the clones are light years away from each other! By the time messages arrive from another clone it could be too late. I find this part really unsatisfatory given the overall rigorous and technically detailed style of the book :-(
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Alanhk
The different ships will arrive at their destinations usually many years apart. So if one does find life, the rest will hear about it in a few years, while they are still en route, or long after they have arrived. Very unlikely two would make discoveries close enough to make this a problem. (This isn't a SR problem though. Just a "messages take years" problem.)
I thought that the citizens finding the prediction of the galactic gamma burst just 1000 years in the future, from a message left a billion years earlier, was a hugely unlikely coincidence. Just near enough to create tension, far enough that they have time to do something.
I thought that the citizens finding the prediction of the galactic gamma burst just 1000 years in the future, from a message left a billion years earlier, was a hugely unlikely coincidence. Just near enough to create tension, far enough that they have time to do something.
Nuno Oliveira
Haven't read the book yet but had to comment as I had that same question in many other sci-fi books. The only one that explained it is Iain Banks, who in the Culture novels explains that clones can integrate all their experiences if they both agree. One character fears this process as the contradictions between the personality development in the meantime could lead to mental instability. Maybe here something like that happens.
Adlai
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Outis
Yes, it is a possibility. But is it likely? And would it be a serious problem? There are more than one Elena anyway, right?
If you want to be rigorous however, the simultaneity problem is something else. There's not much difference between the frame of references involved so the versions of Elena who are in orbit of a star wouldn't disagree significantly about what is simultaneous. Communication isn't instantaneous, that's all.
If you want to be rigorous however, the simultaneity problem is something else. There's not much difference between the frame of references involved so the versions of Elena who are in orbit of a star wouldn't disagree significantly about what is simultaneous. Communication isn't instantaneous, that's all.
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