1,000,000 AD Series: Introduction

The Temporale

The Temporale is a world outside time and space. The foundation for this fictional cosmos is explained below, in grinding detail and brave conjecture. For info and highlights of this fictional future history, see the texts to the right.…TOP

A Theory of Everything

An inevitable major coming paradigm shift in cosmology is described in John T. Cullen's scientific conjecture in Crisis Among The Stars: Coming Shift in Cosmology. In this thought experiment (as Albert Einstein called such speculations), the author begins with a simple but stunning premise.…TOP

What if the recently discovered acceleration in the expansion of the universe is not driven by some wildly speculative, unproven, unevidenced, and baseless 'dark energy' that pushes outward (creating energy ex nihilo, contrary to fundamental science)—but is caused by our old cosmic friend, gravity?…TOP

Three Notes. For those who fear to tread:

1. as with religious fundamentalism, to try and understand a new conjecture is not the same as rejecting or abandoning one's existing notions. One does not burn in hell, unless it be due to Byzantine academic plots. We should have no fear of challenging or enhancing the Standard Model;
2. we should take this in the same spirit in which some mathematical number theorists build upon an unknown—e.g., is the Riemann Hypothesis true or false? from such a premise, some have built an entire subset of mathematical number theory upon the lemma 'what if it's true, then what?" In the same manner, we begin with the fundamental premise (unproven as yet) that the as yet utterly unexplained acceleration in the cosmic expansion is caused by the ambient gravity of a larger structure (the Motherverse, or universe of universes). We proceed from there on the lemma 'what if it's true? where does that take us?' Taken one step at a time, as in the author's paper, the results are logical. They are as fundamenal and enormous as the implications of the observed acceleration, and may well help bring about that overdue paradigm shift in cosmology.
3. Nothing here is radically new; all is based on existing science, particularly gravity—much more approachable than any unproven, baseless, and scientifically suspect notions involving so-called 'dark energy'*—a supposed push-force or energy created ex nihilo, having no comprehensible or plausible origin otherwise. Such ideas are final, desperate, phantasmagoric symptoms of a world view in need of drastic revision, because observed data show no direct correlation with existing theory.

Until Hubble's astronomical and cosmological demonstrations in the 1920s, astronomy and cosmology were still anchored in an essentially Copernican world view—that the entire universe consists of nothing more than our galaxy, and we are at or near the center.…TOP

The Copernican view that the sun (not the earth) is the center of the universe, revolutionary half a millennium ago, had outgrown observational parameters. Something more was needed.…TOP

Hubble and others established that there are countless galaxies in an almost unimaginably large (but still finite and bounded) cosmos, and our galaxy is nowhere near any mythical center. For most of the 20th Century, science reveled in the freshness of such new worlds, including the quantum model of the atom, and the discovery of ever newer subatomic particles, until the quark was reached—and yet the fundamental unit of existence, a pure gravity particle, had not been found.…TOP

A leading cosmologist, reviewing the author's paper, hesitantly described the author's overall theory as 'compelling.' That expert, who would probably prefer not to be named, described the author's conjectured gravitational particle, the go-dot, as resembling the conjectured Higgs boson. Thus, the bridge to this new world-view already exists; the author has simply taken a huge piece of evidence to its ultimate, logical conclusion. While imaginary forces like 'dark energy' and 'dark matter' are nothing more than idle speculation without any basis in science, a theory anchored on gravity itself is far more substantial and investigable.…TOP

Today, as in the early 20th Century, new observational discoveries once again demand that the envelope be shredded and replaced with something bigger in scope, newer, and more fitting. When models age, experts tend to buttress them by elaborating the old theory (as they did with Ptolemy's cycles and epicycles), until the apparatus becomes so convoluted that it no longer conforms to observed reality.…TOP

A complete paradigm shift happened in the 1920s. We are once again on the verge of a new paradigm shift. A century ago, the shift was to a concept of larger structure called galaxies—in virtually limitless numbers.…TOP

Today, we are due for a new paradigm shift. From the clear evidence of how this process works, science will once again kick up to a yet higher set of structures. In some limited sense, this has already happened, in that we observe structures (bubbles, walls) comprised of myriad galaxies. The new cosmological shift will extend to entire universes, and perhaps even structures beyond that, built of universes the way galaxies in our known cosmos are like grains of sand in a vast desert.…TOP

Before we become breathless, we should remember a fundamental premise: that the laws of science are the same everywhere. Experts will tend to fear that the Standard Model is in danger, along with their careers and all that they know. We can relax. This is not a radical new departure, but simply a building upon the foundation erected, along with the Standard Model, over centuries. This is genuine progress—building solidly on the past.…TOP

Ultimately, our momentum takes us toward infinitely large space, and eternal time, under the fundamental premise that the laws of science are the same everywhere. We know the foundation. It is gravity. Dark energy is nothing more than the ambient gravity of the surrounding Motherverse, the universe of universes, which pulls our universe apart in all directions equally, in the typical acceleration associated with gravitation.…TOP

Dark matter, a different issue, is another observed unknown. Fitting into the author's theory, it is the fundamental cosmic particle of pure gravity. For lack of a better term, and to avoid confusion with existing terms (e.g., Higgs boson), the author has called this the go-dot. It resembles the little rounded stones used in playing the traditional Japanese game of Go. It could be any rounded, flattish pebble lying on any beach in the cosmos, good for skipping across the sea. Conceptually, the go-dot (dark matter) is not a particle in the traditional sense, but more of a platelet at the most indivisible level—the true atoma of the ancient Greeks (from a-, not, and temenein, to cut).…TOP

Dark matter is the fundamental particle of the cosmos, a platelet of pure gravity whose only property is that it possesses a minuscule gravitational attraction for other go-dots. It is the glue of which universes are created. Dark energy is the ambient gravity of the surrounding Motherverse (the universe of universes, a super-Hubble), which is pulling our universe apart. The Big Bang and the Standard Model (in its final elaboration, yet to be perfected) are simply stepping stones in this larger picture. There is a cosmic life cycle, originating in dark matter (go-dots), which form standard accretion spheres until they reach critical mass and implode (Big Bang) fragmenting into three types of output: a dust of go-dots, plus fragments of still-compacted pre-Big Bang mass, plus the inbetween visible matter and light. The fundamental cycle goes from dust into compacted hyper-gravitational sphere, then into an explosion we call the universe (any universe), which gradually expands (both from the force of its initial explosion, as well as the ambient pull of motherverse gravity). Of the three ejecta, the clumped go-dots form the black holes at the centers of galaxies. The visible matter and light are the stars swirling around those black holes (of hyper-gravitation). And the missing matter are the clouds of formless go-dots that swarm around these galaxies—invisibly, because go-dots are too tiny to emit or store energy or matter; they do not 'possess' characteristics such as storing or processing energy; each go-dot platelet 'is' a unit of pure gravitation.…TOP

The author's theory, explained in Crisis Among The Stars: Coming Shift in Cosmology, is a serious scientific conjecture. It is also the speculative science fictional foundation for John T. Cullen's 1,000,000 A.D. SF Series.…TOP

Notes on Parallel Universes

The concept of parallel universes has been around for centuries, both in theology and philosophy, as well as modern science and the literary form of science fiction (SF).…TOP

In SF, the concept is one of several accepted subgenres, exemplified by the TV program Sliders at its conceptual best.…TOP

In a motherverse cosmology, the concept is of a quite different order. If there are infinitely many 'universes,' do they form an aggregation of all possible events?…TOP

By events we mean the addition of time to static notions of space (which seem inseparable from one another, intuitively). In a mathematical sense, in set theory, do we begin with a single universe of a single go-dot and build our infinitely populated set from there, unafraid of redundancy in a Cantorian framework of infinite and varying infinities?…TOP

The concept of infinity is beyond conceptual human grasp, but we can glimpse an idea of it if we think as follows. Imagine two universes side by side, which are identical in all but one detail. Let's say one of them possesses an extra hydrogen atom. Expanding on that, we must imagine a set of sets in which every possible variation is expressed. The next universe might have two extra H atoms. Another might have three. And so forth, for all elements, all molecules, in infinite number, all possible combinations. For the set to be truly infinite, it must express all possibilities, or it will be finite.…TOP

This leads to the question: is there a realm where all possibilities exist simultaneously (the numerical and perhaps physical expression of the foregoing concept), such that time and change cease to be meaningful? If the underlying reality of the superset includes all possible variations, then no further variation is possible. We cannot add the stipulation 'for a snapshot in time,' because all possible variations exist in the set simultaneously. That is, in one static set (universum), you take your next breath. That single inhalation defines an entire static universe. In the next universe in that superset, you exhale that breath. That is a metaphoric example, which would logically be broken down into myriad further sub-steps (each defining a universe). All these universes exist at the same 'time,' so that the concept of 'change' or 'evolution' or 'time' has no meaning. It is a cosmic conundrum, from which the only escape appears to be that we experience time and change at the subset level and below. That makes all experience, in itself, relativistic in the special sense of this context.…TOP

As in the dichotomy between so-called Newtonian and Relativistic (Einsteinian) mechanics, it would seem that change and time go awayat the truly infinite level; whereas, for minuscule creatures and lives such as ours, we experience locally the appearance of change. For all intents and purposes, that is our reality as we perceive it and ourselves.…TOP

At the infinite and ultimate superset, since all combinations and circumstances exist simultaneously, the ultimate model is a static one, a theoretical N (infinite and unreachable number). The ultimate extent of the motherverse, and all of its substructures—go-dots, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules…galaxies, walls and bubbles of galaxies, universes, motherverses, and all larger structures, is a reality that is an approach, a journey, without end or destination. It is the N and the capital Sigma, the infinity sign with arrow, of mathematicians.…TOP

The implications for individual human lives, both in reality and in fiction, are staggering, but real and observable. The poignancy of the 1,000,000 A.D. cosmos—and the great blessing of the poet, fiction writer, artist in general—is that we are privileged to create any number of fictional persons, along with the events binding them to each other, and the events binding each to his or her past and future. For all we know, if it is possible to devise a fictional character, this view of the universe totally demands that he or she exists, exactly as we depict them, in their framework of time and space.…TOP

Even as infinitesimally tiny as we are in the sea of stars and time—these human and humansh lives are comprehensible (to us, to alien observers) on a global human scale.…TOP

Furthermore, since the laws of science are the same everywhere, it must be assumed a priori that life is normal everywhere in the universe, wherever the appropriate ecospheres have evolved according to universal scientific laws.…TOP

Because of the vast reaches of time and space, we will probably first encounter the ruins of long-gone alien civilizations, as well as blank slates like the primordial Earth, where life has not yet reached the tool-making and self-conscious stage.…TOP

If we discover a method to overcome the limitations of time and space, perhaps by means of a system like the Temporale, it is inevitable that we will encounter more beings like ourselves. They will be different from us in superficial ways, but suprisingly and fundamentally the same as we are in the ways that really matter.…TOP

The notion that life exists only on Earth is infantile and utterly absurd. If we survive natural and human-made disasters long enough, it is both guaranteed and inevitable that we will encounter those Others. It is not a matter of If but of When and Where.…TOP

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Key Reference Points in Time

The following are but a few of the salient time periods in this sprawling universal history. The novels and shorter fictions of this series are each but glimpses into a sprawling reality beyond comprehension. As humans, we are interested primarily in the human and personal dramas occurring in future or past empires that have come and gone like droplet of rain, on distant pioneer worlds and primeval planets as scattered as grains of sand on the beaches of infinity. We want to know about the individuals we meet in fiction—how they grew up, how their surroundings shaped them, what they were eager to live and die for, and how ultimately each met his or her final moment of truth and departure. We see ourselves in them. We understand them as if we were those men and women out in infinite space. Each of us lives on a spot somewhere on Earth today, yet each of us dreams about what it might be like to live on some other spot, in some other culture. Most of us will never visit the places or meet the people of our imaginations and dreams. It is exactly the same with the grand universe of all science fiction. …TOP

Here are some key milestones or reference points:

1. Not long after the start of our universe (more than ten billion years ago), a very advanced alien master race, having fled here from a dying universe, builds the first modules of the Temporale. The Temporale is a self-replicating star travel solution. Guided by a guardian Membrane, its semi-intelligent sheath, the Temporale forever proliferates around the universe. Countless stations serve the Time Trains network, a sort of hyper-metro that travels at hyperspeed among the cities and lands of the Temporale, as well as among the myriad spots where there is to be found a portal or doorway between our universe and the Temporale world outside our time and space.
2. The Holocene Epoch (10,000 YA to present) is the time span in which we live. The idea that the so-called 'ice ages' ended when mankind 'emerged from caves' is as absurd as it is obsolete, sectarian, racist, and utterly wrong. Most likely, the Holocene is yet another interlude of warming during the past 30,000,000+ years of increasing chill. A fascinating parallel between extreme chills (each lasting hundreds of thousands of years) is the tantalizing period 130,000-114,000 YA, when all glaciers melted, the earth was a tropical sauna, trees grew in the polar regions, and hippos bathed in the warm Thames and Rhine rivers. That period lasted 16,000 years within the Milankovic Cycles, and gave way to some of the coldest ages in Earth's history during the late Pleistocene Epoch. Are we living in another such interlude? The author has written about these topics at length; as well, there is much valuable expert literature available to the reader's contentment. For the series, we of course want to see the future or cosmic history from our own perspective. The fact that mankind evolved on Earth (which becomes the Lost Old Earth, LOE of all the future stories) and the fact that many of us alive today have lived through the transition from Earth-bound to space-bound) lends validation to the idea of treating our era as special.
3. Cosmopolis, city of the universe, fighting for survival at the end of time, sends rival agents back to tweak the past. Agents of the Postal Entity (Posent) and the Transportation Entity (Transent) represent rival bureaucracies in a bloated Mandarin government as much foundering on infighting as surviving through genius innovation and daring leaps of imagination. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Lords of each agency are spidered in a delicate and venomous network of rival bureaucratic empires. Those are of course only a few of the myriad officials and titles dotting the Cosmopolis universe at the end of time. The City of En (another of its many names, embodying the mathematical concept of N) has secret bureaus for observation and action in many time periods. Our own age is generally broken up into centuries. Each century has its own Time Town sheriff, for lack of a better description, to prevent time travelers from the past or future from interfering in the course of history. The danger is that a tweak too many could cause a rift in time-space, whereby an entirely new cosmos is spun off to absorb a change too many, or a contradiction like SF's traditional Grandparent Paradox (if you went back and killed either of your grandparents before your father or mother was conceived, you could not possibly exist; therefore you could not go back and kill that person). On the other hand, survival of the City of En demands that risks be taken in the past, minor tweaks that go just far enough in the right direction, and not an iota more or in the wrong direction. The agencies, like all humans, are however fallible—resulting in vast potential for rousing drama, intriguing conspiracies, and unexpected outcomes for our fictional heroes and heroines.

Time Trains

The Time Trains were devised by the long-forgotten alien super race, known variously as Laars (Long Ago Alien Race) and as Faraos (Future Alien Rulers And Oppressors) and other names, as encountered for example by Brother Farr in Mars the Divine.

The Temporale is a world outside time and space, accessible by portals or doorways that are well hidden in most places. We encounter such portals in many places. For example, in Prison World (Book 1 of the Starways Derelict Trilogy) we encounter a Temporale portal, and there are rumors of more in the Manaul IV deserts. We encounter them either explicitly or implicitly in all of the author's 1,000,000 A.D. novels and stories.…TOP

The Time Trains are an organic part of the Temporale itself. When the Laars built the first module at the beginning of our cosmos, they created it with its space (land, like islands in nothingness outside and touching upon our cosmos; a Membrane, or semi-intelligent sheath, programmed to perform certain checks and routines; and a transportation network of infinite variety that is collective called the Time Trains). The Membrane's functions include holding in water and atmosphere, as well as endlessly replicating the initial module, so that today a fraction of 1% of the universe is networked, and growing every minute. Furthermore, the Membrane filters all incoming life forms to prevent spreading certain anomalies (diseases). For this reason, anyone entering the Temporale for the first time (e.g., Mack in The Long War, Brother Farr in Mars the Divine) is subjected to a surgical implantation operation by sophisticated robotic doctors uptime, associated in our region with Cosmopolis at the end of time.…TOP

Time Trains are fundamentally a metro system connecting the worlds of the Temporale.…TOP

They will take the appearance of whatever the Membrane's programas observe as the local norm.…TOP

If a Time Train arrives for you in 17th Century France, at the court of the Sun King, it will be in the form of a sumptuous horse-drawn coach.…TOP

If it arrives for you in 19th Century Vienna during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it will most likely be in the form of a quaint Victorian train.…TOP

If it comes to pick you up in the modern world, it may be a phantom, unmarked C-17A military plane, or a Boeing passenger liner, or a sleek, numberless and nameless submarine, or an ordinary city taxi indistinguishable from thousands of its type.…TOP

The variations are endless.…TOP

Picture it this way: you are a secret agent, watching a spy depart from a train station in Eric Ambler's nighttime German train stations in the 1930s. A properly colored and marked Reichsbahn train chuffs in amid coal-flavored steam clouds from the black Lok. As fog roils about in the chilly, damp station, your spy boards the train. It is too cold for the station official to step out of his well-lit office.…TOP

The train emits a long wailing steam whistle cry, and starts chuffing back to speed. Chuff. Pause Chuff. Chuff. it goes, gaining momentum on its drizzly, shiny rails.…TOP

Chuff…chuff-chuff, chuff-chuff…chuffa-chuffa-chuffa…chufchufchufchuf… it goes, accelerating.…TOP

Then the unimaginable happens, right out of other worlds. The wheels fold in. The train turns into a blur. The clattering track noises are swallowed by a mighty rush of wind as the train turns into a streak, rises off its tracks, and disappears into the Temporale like a phantom, leaving a silence as profound as that before it arrived.…TOP

The Time Trains are chameleons that come and go at secret portals, right under the noses of those who live in the surrounding limits of their time and destiny in life. The Membrane's self-replicating and endlessly recursive programs and sequences keep the Temporale functioning, safe, and separate from our ordinary universe. The Temporale itself is a world of its own—filled with mystery, danger, and adventure that can take you anywhere in the universe, or to adventures beyond time and space.…TOP

Note on recursive sequencing. A good example is in the peripheral novel Monopol City, which features so-called pocket universes created in the form of a board game similar to Monopoly and others of its type. Replication becomes feasible through the endless repetition of forms and rules. Thus, the heroine of Monopol City is Tedda, a brilliant mathematician and fugitive accused of treason against her nightmare state. She is sent to Military Hospital 325 in West Gotha, where she becomes a team member with high-end software engineers trying to use femto-databasing to tunnel into the data structures of their arch-rival East Gotha during an interminable and senseless war. On the side, these programmers play a living board game called Monopol. Stepping down into the miniature universe of Monopol City, Tedda encounters a man she starts to love. Edgardo, like all else in this pocket universe, is a Rule—a construct created from the internal logic of the game players. But is Tedda's own universe a construct in similar fashion? What are the answers? Better yet, what are the questions?…TOP