For Equestrian science! [Spoilers]

[Mana Hooves 16]

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MANY REFERENCES TO EVENTS SHOWN IN S2E20 "IT'S ABOUT TIME". IN OTHER WORDS, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

 

If I ever needed something to point to in order to prove MLP:FiM is far more than just a children's show, this would be it.

 

S2E20 "It's About Time" is easily my favorite episode so far, for multiple reasons. The first is that it's a Twilight episode. I like Twilight.

 

The second is that it uses, letter for letter, one of the many structure-of-time theories and sticks to it. Namely, it uses what I call the "destiny" theory (I'm not actually sure of its formal name). If you've ever seen Back to the Future, forget everything about it. That movie does NOT use destiny theory, rather, it uses what I call "malleability" theory.

 

The destiny theory essentially states that everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, has already been scripted. It states that there is one destiny (hence my dubbed name) that cannot possibly be deviated from. In layman's terms, it states that the future is, in fact, set in stone (its just, we humans ponies aren't the ones doing the setting in stone). What makes this theory debatable is the fact that this theory runs in direct opposition to free will, something people have historically fought brutal wars over.

 

Malleability theory is the theory most people have been familiarized with via science fiction. It states that there are essentially an infinite number of possible destinies, and different events cause time to follow different corresponding destinies. This allows people to change the present and the future by going to the past and causing something different to occur, letting cause-and-effect do the rest. What makes this theory debatable (and frankly, downright scary) is the numerous ways one could cause a time paradox, causing "time to be annihilated". The easiest example is if someone were to go back in time and kill their past self. The cause-and-effect of this is that you no longer exist, you can no longer go back in time, and you can no longer kill your past self. But if you can no longer kill your past self, how did you in the first place? Cue paradox. (If your brain is hurting right now, that's normal.)

 

One could argue that it's impossible to say Equestria uses destiny time over malleable time based on this alone. However, I would counter-argue that the evidence is simply too perfect. The scene of past-Twilight being visited by future-Twilight is exactly the same as future-Twilight visiting past-Twilight (or in internet terms, one is copypasta). Had it deviated in even the slightest way, then yes, destiny theory would have been disproven in Equestria. But it doesn't. The pieces simply fit too perfectly.

 

What makes this episode truly fascinating is that Twilight doesn't realize that Equestria uses destiny theory. Twilight seems to believe in the malleability theory. She attempts to do everything she can to change the future, indicating she either doesn't know about or doesn't believe in destiny theory (and the episode ending would suggest the former). In fact, her last actions in the episode seem to stem from assuming malleability theory being true.

 

That being said, it would also make sense if, after realizing no disaster was going to occur, she gave in to destiny theory. She would realize that not following the pre-scripted destiny could have dire, world-ending consequences, so she went back in time and followed the script.

 

Anyway, I've nerd-rambled long enough. Lets wrap this up; what does this all mean? Well, in a nutshell, it means you can assume that Equestria canonically uses some form of destiny-time. What does THAT mean? Well, frankly, unless we see another episode involving time travel...very little.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

Just an aside: I actually don't believe you need to worry about spoilers, Mana. "It's About Time" has long since been released, so a regular follower of the show will have more than likely watched the episode.

 

It may be helpful to remove spoilers so that members are not afraid they might stumble upon more sensitive spoilers, e.g., season three spoilers. If you prefer, you can keep the spoiler tags; just know you are not obliged to do so.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Thereisnospoon303

[OptimisticNeighsayer 478]

May I ask you if your love of this episode because of the use of destiny theory implies that other children's cartoons don't use destiny theory? Certainly you've shown that many works of science fiction apply malleability theory, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if a good deal of children's shows also use destiny theory.

[Rainycakes 30]

Quite a detailed view of Equestrian theory on time. I'm not much for delving too deeply into the science aspect of the show, but that made for an interesting read. If there's another time travel episode (which I hope there is, so Twilight can finally meet Starswirl the Bearded), then we might just find out more.

 

Y'know who I bet could make your destiny-theory irrelevant? Pinkie. She does whatever she wants and believes whatever she wants, logical, illogical, or whathaveyou.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Rainycakes

[Mana Hooves 16]

May I ask you if your love of this episode because of the use of destiny theory implies that other children's cartoons don't use destiny theory? Certainly you've shown that many works of science fiction apply malleability theory, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if a good deal of children's shows also use destiny theory.

 

I may be totally misinterpreting the question, but this seems a rather weird one.

 

The thing about time-structure theories and why none of them have been proven or disproven is that they only matter in the event of time travel. Last I checked, top scientists still haven't quite figured out how to make time travel work*. In any region of time that isn't "time-machine'd" to, there is no difference between current time-structure theories.

 

Add to this that the very concept of time travel is extremely complicated, and the fact that children's shows are generally designed to be simple enough for their audience. As a result, few children's shows even feature time travel, and so determining the time-structure of their settings is impossible.

 

*Actually, we have, but only partially. Time travel to the future is actually a rather simple concept, but it's near-impossible financially. It requires reaching speeds close to the speed of light for an extended period of time, which requires insane levels of energy, which requires gargantuan levels of fuel, which requires more money than I think even exists. Also, it's a one-way street; if you don't like the future, the only thing you can do about it is go even further into the future. Which, again, is a lot of money. Lastly, I'm not even sure a human pony can survive such speeds.

 

Y'know who I bet could make your destiny-theory irrelevant? Pinkie. She does whatever she wants and believes whatever she wants, logical, illogical, or whathaveyou.

 

Surprisingly enough, she doesn't. As random as she is, she's scripted to be random in the precise ways that she is random.

 

Now please, don't get me started on the concept of randomness. Otherwise, I'll be here all day. (Long story short: "Random" means being arbitrary enough to be completely unpredictable.)

[SonOfTheNorthe 412]

Destined future makes sense. Everything in the universe is just chemicals interacting in predetermined ways with other chemicals, set by the laws of physics.