Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Russell Nash on September 17, 2009, 07:10:55 AM
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EP009: Jack (http://escapepod.org/2005/07/07/ep009-jack/)
By Justin Stanchfield (http://www.sff.net/people/justinvs).
Read by Deborah Green.
“That truly is a fine heifer, and any man would be proud to own her.”
“Well…” said Jack, hope rising. “I suppose she might be for sale, if that is your meaning.”
“It is.” The stranger dug inside the pocket of his slick and shiny coat, and brought out a small lead case. The lid clicked open and he turned in over in his hand, three shimmering beads rolling in his palm. He offered them to Jack.
“What are those?” Jack frowned, suspicious once more.
“What are they? They might be beans.” The stranger laughed. “Then again, they might be more precious than rubies, mightn’t they? Truth of the matter, I’m not certain what they are, only that they are beyond any worth you can imagine.”
Rated G. Contains cattle theft, kidnapping, and crimes against fashion.
(http://escapepod.org/wp-images/podcast-mini4.gif)
Listen to this week’s Escape Pod! (http://media.rawvoice.com/escapepod/media.libsyn.com/media/escapepod/EP009_Jack.mp3)
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Interesting story, a new SF take on Jack and the Beanstalk. I saw the ending coming a mile away, though. And time travel loops like this bring up interesting paradoxes--The beans are in an eternal loop with no origin point, aging infinitely when nothing around them is changing from iteration to iteration. If the beans are capable of wearing out at some point, then the loop will break.
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Hello guys. Sorry for this late reply but I've just listened to this podcast. It was nice.
About that "bean in eternal loop" paradox: Yes, beans would wear out, but Jack simply "grabs a box" in his hurry (because he couldn't find something more valuable) ... It is not stated that the beans are the same ones used in the previous loop... What are the chances for them to be the same ones? Sorry if I'm wrong about this, but the loop wouldn't beak...
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Hello guys. Sorry for this late reply but I've just listened to this podcast. It was nice.
About that "bean in eternal loop" paradox: Yes, beans would wear out, but Jack simply "grabs a box" in his hurry (because he couldn't find something more valuable) ... It is not stated that the beans are the same ones used in the previous loop... What are the chances for them to be the same ones? Sorry if I'm wrong about this, but the loop wouldn't beak...
But they have to be the same beans because it's already happened once and it's going to happen the same way, if the time travel logic used in this story is consistent.
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Yeah, this is something that's been bugging me about time-loops in SF for a while:
Suppose you are given a gun by your future self that has six bullets in it. You use one bullet to shoot Hitler, and then travel back in time and give it to your past self.
How many bullets are left in the gun? After six iterations, can you still kill Hitler? Does the idea that the time loop is iterating even have any meaning?
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Yeah, this is something that's been bugging me about time-loops in SF for a while:
Suppose you are given a gun by your future self that has six bullets in it. You use one bullet to shoot Hitler, and then travel back in time and give it to your past self.
Presumably, your past self now has two guns. And assuming a time-loop, he will use the gun with 6 bullets to shoot Hitler - if he used the one with 5 bullets, he'd be breaking the loop.
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excellent sci-fi re-imagining of classic childrens tale. engrossing.