Nonlinear Time Theory
Author: Arthaine Dasin
Well, here it is, my theory on non-linear perception of time, for those who want their brains tied in complicated knots. Note: This was not written to challenge or disparage anyone's beliefs. It is a purely theoretical fantasy-based idea I had, to try to explain some concepts. I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended by this.
Human beings, being mortal, have a tendency to see time linearly, with a beginning, an end, and some definite progression in between. We even divide time into portions: seconds, hours, days, years, millenia, etc. Given this, it is difficult to understand the mechanics of omniscence and omnipotence, and of beings able to see the past, the present, and especially the future before it happens. Actually, it should be noted here that humans can't really "see" the past, they can only remember it, and see the present.
Often, our perception of being able to "see" the future is the idea of getting a view of the future, a view which occurs in the present but immediately receeds to the past, where it too becomes just a memory. This form of omniscence is a very human but limited concept, which works well to explain mortal seers and prophets, but less so for actual omniscent beings.
However, since many different creatures think and perceive of things in different ways, why should an omniscent/omnipotent being (call it a "greater being") be bound to think like mortals: That time is a long progression, with a little moving pointer for the present postion? Maybe, for a greater being, all things occur at exactly the same moment. There is no before, during, and after, there's simply existence and occurence. All things are happening at once, and any part of that can be touched and affected directly, because the greater power is "in" it.
Unfortunately, this doesn't explain any mistakes or blindspots in the greater being. It must have some kind of limitation. So, what if there are boundaries on this instant of all time? Sort of an end to the segment of time the greater being can see? Across the boundary, there would be yet another "point" of condensed time, and then another, all these "points" strung together like beads on a necklace. The greater being then perceives each "point" one after another (doesn't matter if the perception of each "point" lasts hardly any time at all, since all possible actions can be taken in almost no time by an omnipotent being). However, we're back with a linear "string of points", with individual pieces of time simply condensed down to almost nothing. So what if all these "points" are actually overlapped, and all occur at the same time, too? We're back again to everything happening at exactly the same time, only now there are boundaries between different segments. These segments are like different states of mind for the greater being. In each one, the greater being can perceive everything inside but nothing outside, whether mortals would consider the outside parts "past" or "future". Hence, the greater being doesn't have a memory (either something is presently occurring for the being, or the being doesn't perceive it), which is good, because a memory requires brain cells to keep it in, which would saddle the greater being with a physical body.
How does this relate to RJ's WoT? Before I started reading the Guide to the WoT, I thought that perhaps the Dark One is one of these "greater beings", and that the Ages mark the different time segments he can see while in a given state of mind. This explains his persistence, despite the fact that each Age has already happened thousands, millions, even an infinite number of times, without him being able to win. He just couldn't remember what had happened in the mortals' past (his separated present). This also explained his (relative) forgiveness of the Forsaken, and especially his "fondness" for loyal Ishamael. Their memories are his only reliable connection with the Age of Legends, which provides a great wealth of extra information for him, and so he is dependent on the Forsaken.
However, this theory is somewhat countered by information in the Guide, which says that the Wheel of Time actually "wobbles" and is unstable, so that the Dark One could at some point knock it off course. This means he doesn't have to not be aware of past attempts in order to see a reason to keep trying. (On the other hand, if there are no beginnings or endings in the Wheel of Time, then the Dark One has already had an infinite number of attempts to try and take over the world. If an infinite number of tries were not enough, more tries, even infinitely more, won't be enough. (Two infinities just add up to infinity, for those who haven't studied calculus. You can't split infinity.)) So, I still don't understand what the Dark One thinks he's doing.
