Post by Rematog on Jan 25, 2016 19:13:00 GMT
The purpose of this is to point out that we are, for the most part, assuming that "LF" and "AF" are near 1 in value. I.E. if the Titanic missed the Iceberg, we assume that the affects are predictable and linear.
IMHO these are two "technical" factors that are assumed when an Alternate History (AH) is created with a defined Point of Departure (POD). How (LF) and How much (AF) the Alternate Timeline (ATL) is different from our history, Our Timeline (OTL) is can be summarized by the formula:
ATL = LF * AF * POD(OTL)
LF = Linearity Factor: Has a value from 1 to infinity. For value of 1, there is a direct, cause-effect straight line change caused by the POD. I.E. If person A dies, things he did don't happen, and the effects down time are a 45 degree straight line on a time vs change graph.
Most people writing and discussing AH generally assume things that would correspond to a LF of very close to 1. If the LF was very high (no, we can't put real numbers on this, no experimental data has come in from time travelers yet), the high LF would mean the changes were random and unpredictable. With a high LF factor you might for example with a POD of Lincoln not being killed by John Booth (he missed) result in an Alternate Timeline almost the same as OTL but with the British Invasion being led by the Grasshoppers and the Curbstones instead of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. I'd refer to this as the Quirk world branch of AH. Useful for humor more that anything else.
AF = Amplification Factor: Has a value from 0 to infinity. For a value of 1, you again get delta (change) in the timeline directly proportional to the magnitude of the POD. For a value of AF near one, for example, Winston Churchhill being killed by a car accident in the 1930's has a very large effect on the history of WW2, which proceeds down the timeline with the changes growing with time. But, for an AF of 1, if an American hobo with no family who in OTL who would have died of exposure, childless, a year later dies in a traffic accident in the 1930's, almost no change to OTL. Again, a 45 degree straight line on a time vs change graph.
But for an AF that is very, very large, the death of the American hobo in 1933 could result in Germany winning WW2. This would be similar to Ray Bradbury's classic story, "A Sound of Thunder" in which a dinosaur hunting time traveler kills a butterfly, and returns to a world very, very different.
Alternately, For a AF of near zero, history is elastic and returns quickly to OTL. In this same example, Winston Churchill's death has very little effect on WW2 and by April, 1945, all as is as it would have been, i.e. ATL become OTL again. These are the "You can kill Hitler, but it will all happen that same way anyway" type stories. I.E. "You can't fool with Father Time".
