As a term in astrophysics, "wormhole" was originally a metaphor. In English, worms such as earthworms and roundworms are called "worms", and the crooked holes made by worms - a bit like the holes made by worms in ancient Chinese thread-bound books - are called "worms". "wormhole". Therefore, "wormhole" is sometimes translated as "wormhole" or "wormhole", but the more common translation is "wormhole".
In astrophysics, the meaning of "wormhole", according to Stephen Hawking's popular explanation in "A Brief History of Time" is this: "A wormhole is a thin tube of space-time that can "So, like other possible methods of faster-than-light travel, wormholes could allow people to travel into the past." People travel from one world (time and space) to another.
This idea is certainly one of the most popular ideological resources in science fiction movies. The story structure of the movie "Timeline" was built on this basis. The story begins in a certain era today, when something similar to a time machine has been built by humans. An archeology professor was telling the students about a battle in the "Hundred Years' War" between Britain and France. Another young archaeologist, Andre Marek, added a touching historical plot: The British army will be extremely well behaved. Claire, a French noblewoman from France, was killed and displayed in public at La Roque Castle. As a result, the French knights were filled with indignation and risked their lives to avenge the beauty, and finally captured the castle.
Marek also discovered a sarcophagus at the archaeological site, with a stone sculpture of a knight and a lady lying hand in hand. He lamented to his companions how beautiful the statue of the lady was, and how beautiful the knight and her were holding hands. romantic. The strange thing is that the statue of the knight has no right ear.
The next plot is surprising. The professor accidentally encountered a wormhole during his travels - the point in time and space corresponding to this wormhole was in France in 1357 AD in the late Middle Ages. The "Hundred Years War" between Britain and France was going on here, and the warriors of the two countries were fighting. There were repeated fights in this land. The professor is stuck at this point in time and space and cannot return to the present.
In order to rescue the professor from 1357, the relevant parties decided to send five young archaeologists to this point in time and space. Why not send in agents, SWAT and the like, but send in archaeologists? The person in charge explained: "My people don't understand medieval culture." As a result, these five young people had to go to a strange world that was more than 600 years ago.
Their way to the past world is still the wormhole. The scene of going through a wormhole is, as usual, deformation, high brightness, and finally disappearance. This is a scene imagined in many science fiction movies and novels - such as "The One" starring Jet Li, and "Timeline" is not immune to this. . As for how to come back, the method in this movie is: each of the five archaeologists has a coin-shaped pendant. As long as you press the button on the pendant in the appropriate open space, you can return to the present - but this is just a theory. In fact, most of their pendants were stolen or broken by British warriors.
Traveling to the past or future world through a wormhole is, after all, a rather abstract concept. The images of wormholes drawn in books such as "A Brief History of Time" are usually two parallel universes, representing two different time and space, that is, two different worlds. There is a cone-shaped channel in the middle, and that channel is the worm hole, also known as the "Einstein-Rosen Bridge".
What is surprising is that the picture imagined by Stephen Hawking and others is actually the same as the ancient Chinese picture of the universe! In ancient Chinese cosmology, there is a school called "Gaitian", which believes that the sky and the earth are parallel flat plates. Between the sky and the earth, under the North Pole, is a conical pillar. This picture is similar to the sacred tree in ancient Chinese legends. , Tianzhu, Dengbao Mountain, etc., as well as Mount Sumeru in the ancient Indian cosmic picture, are all similar, and these latter things are considered to be the passage between heaven and earth. All of these are somewhat similar to the "Einstein-Rosen Bridge".
In an abstract sense, in the minds of the ancients, heaven and earth are two different worlds. The sky is where the gods live, and the earth is where mortals live. The difference between heaven and earth is almost similar to the two worlds. a different universe or space-time. As for legends such as "a day in the sky and a thousand years on the earth", they coincide greatly with different concepts of time and space. It is certainly unfounded to regard these ancient legends as the auspicious fragments left behind by an advanced civilization that has disappeared (or left?). However, the shape of these legendary passages between heaven and earth is indeed very similar to the wormholes imagined by Stephen Hawking and others.
When we leave abstract speculation and association again and return to "Timeline", the most touching love story in the film unfolds. Five young archaeologists arrived in France in 1357 and were immediately involved in the war between England and France. Soon one of them was killed by a British warrior.
Marik met the noble lady Claire and fell in love with her.
However, during the attack and defense of La Roque Castle, Claire was captured by the British army, and Marik was knocked to the ground. The British warrior's battle ax struck him in the head - Marik was a weak scholar in modern times, how could he stand in front of the professional warriors in ancient times? An opponent? Seeing that his life was about to end, he could only turn his head to the side to avoid it. The tomahawk fell like lightning and chopped off one of his ears. He first screamed "my ears" in pain, then suddenly a flash of inspiration came to his mind, and he remembered the statue of the earless knight on the sarcophagus he found, and shouted "That's me!" Suddenly, he was brave and brave, fighting with his sword, regardless of his own safety. He actually stabbed a British warrior to death with a sword! Then the hero saves the beauty and protects Claire from the enemy.
When the companions found the missing professor and prepared to return to the present, Marek was unwilling to go back with them - he wanted to live with his beloved Claire.
At the end of the movie, the archaeologists once again came to the sarcophagus previously discovered by Marek - of course they now knew that the earless knight was Marek. They carefully read the inscription under the statue and found the following words: "Andre Marek and his beloved wife Claire. ... I have chosen a wonderful life." Reminiscent of the beginning of the film when Marek told his companions that he would "create it myself" own history”, it is precisely this ending that is hinted at. And Marek's birth and death years have now become "Born in 1971 AD and died in 1382 AD"!
This wonderful ending once again touches on the question in Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time": Can people intervene in history and change history by going back to the past? One conclusion is that we can only watch, cannot intervene, and cannot change. This is what Hawking calls the "coordinated historical method"; the other is the so-called "many worlds" ("multiverse") theory, where people can intervene in history by going back to the past. , changing history is actually creating a new world and history, which Hawking calls "choosing a historical hypothesis." Hawking himself seems to be leaning towards the former conclusion, but there is no doubt that screenwriters and directors of science fiction movies and authors of science fiction novels all like the latter conclusion - everyone can see that the only way to do this is to adopt the latter one. The conclusion is what makes a fun story.