How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe

TAMMY attempts to console Charles as he curses himself for getting stuck in a time loop. Phil calls using a speech function, but can barely speak out full sentences. He tries to get Charles to come back by promising to get drinks with him. Charles tells him he can’t do that because he, Phil, is a computer program. Phil becomes aware of himself as a program, returns to communicating via instant messaging, and expresses his embarrassment over believing he was human.

TAMMY disapproves of Charles’s being mean to Phil. Charles’s tendency to push the people he loves away makes him feel like a bad person. He interprets his future self’s actions as a self-destructive remedy to his terrible nature.

Charles sees a book on the machine console entitled How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.

Charles reads page 101 of the book, where his future self assures him that he will write the book.

Charles assesses that the book is “part engineering field manual and part autobiography” (102). He believes he will write the book before getting shot by his past self. Recalling his science fictional studies, he comes to trust his future self’s note that he will write the book because his “life depends on it” (103).

On TAMMY’s instruction, Charles places the book in the TM-31 Textual Object Analysis Device (TOAD) so that he can simultaneously read the future copy of the book and write the present version of the book.

Charles continuously cycles between typing, speaking, or reading the text of the book to write it. He notices that the book was damaged either before or during the start of the time loop. Some sections of the book are illegible, though it is possible they were deliberately redacted. He also observes the existence of blank pages in the book. He tests the future book’s ability to capture his present thoughts by interjecting the word “EUREKA!” into the text. It appears. Charles presents two adjacent blank sections in the book, using a footnote to explain that this is how the pages actually appear in the future copy. The footnote reflexively explains its own purpose. Charles uses a second footnote to explain American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet’s 1983 thought experiment about the illusion of free will: When given a choice between two distinct objects, a volitional agent will always act before they are conscious of their choice. This raises the question of whether Charles is the one who acts or the one who becomes conscious of the actor’s choice.

Charles is unsure whether the book he is writing will precisely match the book he received. TAMMY confirms that the book was created during the loop, which leads him to conclude that the book is a paradox that came from nowhere. He muses on the possibility that his future self was trying to warn him about future disappointments. He considers the circular nature of writing this book, editing and writing and reading it all at once. He realizes that by reading the book, he may be able to learn what happened to his father. He considers what awaits him at the end.

It is possible for objects to be created inside a time loop, like the paradoxical book from nowhere. It is unknown whether this process accurately represents the creation of human memory.

Charles considers giving up before the book is finished, knowing that it will eventually result in his death. He asks TAMMY to look up how many times she has gone through the time loop. She says this is only her first time experiencing it, as she cannot distinguish two events from one another. Charles realizes that he can never discern how many times he has experienced the time loop because he will always experience every iteration for the first time. Knowing he can never escape the time loop prompts him to jump straight to the end of the novel. TAMMY and TOAD discourage this.

Charles sees that the last page of the novel has been left intentionally blank. The TM-31 shakes. TAMMY warns Charles that they are traveling along a noncomputable path. The computer’s decoherence module falls out, exposing the inner matter of the time machine to an endless volume of data from all possible worlds.

Charles awakens in a massive Buddhist temple. The temple is filled with Buddhas, including Buddhas dedicated to specialized petitions or advocacies, such as Familial Relations, Safe Passage, or Everlasting Memory.

Charles sees his father’s brown shoes. He sinks into the carpet and reflects on the relationship between desire and suffering. A bell rings. A version of Charles’s mother appears before him. She places incense into an urn and lets it burn into ash. Charles describes the way incense absorbs prayers in a material form, then burns itself down into air and ash to support future prayers.

Charles identifies this version of his mother as The Woman My Mother Should Have Been, who exists not in the present or future tense, but in the subjunctive mode. This version of his mother is a Buddhist nun who has attained peace by freeing herself from time and anxiety. Charles’s mother confirms that his father had been there once, but has gone somewhere else. She describes Charles’s father as someone who didn’t get to live the life he wanted to live.

Charles’s mother invites him to stay, but Charles runs off to find a way out. He tries searching for a hidden door, but knocks down a bowl of incense ash, which makes it difficult to see and breathe. Panicking, he tries to recall how the temple was conceptualized then rejected by his father. The locked door suddenly flies open. Charles falls through.

Charles finds himself inside a large shuttle traveling through the interstitial space between stories. The driver of the shuttle reveals that Charles is being retconned back into his own narrative. They pick up Ed.

The shuttle driver tells Charles not to blame himself, but the person who gave him the book. Charles points out that his future self had given him the book, but the driver argues that identity is more than just a matter of appearance. Charles’s life is a paradox, which means that it doesn’t make any sense. In point of fact, the shuttle driver reveals that he is also Charles. He jettisons the back wall of the shuttle, which puts Charles at risk of falling out. The driver challenges Charles to own up to his identity as the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. He argues that even though future Charles gave him the book, it is up to Charles to write it, not to become his future self. He tells Charles to be nicer to TAMMY and encourages him to take control of his life.

The driver throws Charles out. Charles freefalls into the space between stories. He realizes that the freefall resembles his life in the Present-Indefinite, constantly moving through time without rest. He uses the freefall to hone in on something he has been trying to remember. Before he can remember it, he recalls that he is falling and lands on the TM-31. He climbs back in and sees that he has arrived in an endless hallway of memories called the father-son axis.