MERIDELLPHIA - The new world, Meridell, is really neat and very friendly. The
locals give you money for counting their potatoes and you can expect more activities
as well as pets and petpets to be coming soon. The other worlds are all doing
great plus the Stock Market has gone up a bit. Neopia couldn't be a better place
to inhabit.
But wait, wasn't Neopia in a similar situation when the Lost Desert was discovered?
Everything was fine and great until Sloth showed up and attempted to take over
Neopia... again. (This guy fails so much he must by now have some emotional
turmoil.) Meridell presents an even bigger threat than the Great Staff Sloth
used to wreck havoc on Sakhmet City.
If you think about how the discovery of Meridell started out, with Lisha finding
the painting of Jeran in the museum, the widely-disputed theory of time travel
was proved to exist... at least in Neopia. The fact that Jeran went back in
time and had a painting of himself done affected the future of Neopia by opening
the doorway to Meridell. This poses a huge threat to all of Neopia and the very
life that exists upon it. Confused? Don't be, I'm here to clarify!
Let's start off with the basics; Time travel and even time itself is a very
complicated subject. There are many ways to interpret time but my own interpretation
shall be discussed here as it's the only one I can thoroughly apply, question,
and understand.
My interpretation is very simple, based on my favourite sci-fi movie. Time
is just one straight line and time travel allows you to leave that line and
enter it whenever you like. Granted, this interpretation immediately poses many
doubts as to its validity but it's a movie and I'm not into quantum physics...
yet!
Now if we apply this interpretation to Meridell, Jeran left the timeline and
went back quite a bit. He had his portrait painted and killed some monsters.
Lisha, meanwhile, would only know that Jeran disappeared and unless Jeran tried
to come back, would never return for the rest of the timeline. As long as Jeran
never disturbed any events that would cause the timeline to 'change lanes',
creating an alternate future, the timeline that Lisha would be born into would
remain the same. Although how do we know that if Jeran were to change any events,
that that wasn't part of the timeline? That is the mystery and the danger of
time travel; the lack of knowledge as to how your actions will impact the future.
Now that I have you all confused, we shall further examine how Sloth could
abuse this lack of knowledge. He could go back in time and destroy a pivotal
leader or prevent such an event from happening. This could create unwanted effects
that could cause the timeline to 'change lanes', creating an alternate Neopia
which could be fairly similar to how Neopia was when Sloth actually lived there.
That is, granted, the worst case scenario. But as mentioned before, how do we
know that Sloth attempting to destroy Neopian life wasn't part of the timeline?
I'm sure even Sloth wouldn't know what to do if he got to Meridell.
However, another issue arises. This one is from the movie but it makes for
a great climax! Say Sloth were to go back in time and somehow disrupt the marriage
of his parents - if any. In the movie, this would cause Sloth to slowly disappear
until he ceased to exist. But say he were to get his parents back together again
before he disappeared, the timeline doesn't change except that Sloth hooked
up his parents, they didn't actually meet each other. Enter the twist; if Sloth
were to go back, again, to the time when he got his parents together and disrupt
the first him from accomplishing the task, then the parents never meet, he is
never born and therefore couldn't have gone back to get his parents together
or disrupt himself from doing so. The Sloths still back in time are not even
supposed to exist. A huge time paradox would ensue, leading to the destruction
of the space-time continuum and the universe itself. That is, granted, again
the worst case scenario. But both the Sloths could just disappear entirely,
leaving Neopia a better place for all.
Such a thing will hopefully never happen as the Neopian servers hopefully are
not powerful enough to actually calculate such a mind-boggling equation and
execute it. If they did though, simply, WOW. I don't want to be around for that.
This whole article may sound like a pessimistic doomsday prophecy but I am
really fairly optimistic. To prove that, I must propose all of the exciting
careers that could become of Meridell and time travel. We could figure out how
so many... unusual... species of pets and petpets evolved. Ha, my next article
could be "The Ixi: Ancestor of Cybunnies?".
Anyway, I feel all refreshed and enlightened! Ready for school! (Hmmm...) If
you would like to continue debating time travel with me, feel free to neomail
me. Free Non-Magical Blue Meerca Plushie to the first person who can guess what
subject I'm taking in September! Physics! | 
