Talk:List of Known World Lines/@comment-88.246.207.183-20150714112303/@comment-7888499-20150804095056


 * "This can be backed up to an extent since the d-mail used to turn him into a girl serves the purpose the original d-mail did in the other timeline, the one that in this world never arrived to Okabe´s phone."

@Akiha Rumiho, while I agree with much of what you wrote in your last comment, the last half got confusing as to whether you were discussing the Alpha vs. Beta attractor fields still or the Alpha-Beta vs. the Gamma AF. The original D-mail was sent from Okabe's phone to Daru's phone, and Daru did receive it in the Alpha AF. What disappears when you send a D-mail is the "sent" record of it in the phone of the sender -since with the change they now have no reason to send it-, but it is always still received. Ruka's D-mail and then the D-mail that was meant to undo it only replace the first D-mail about Kurisu's death in the function of switching to a different AF when it comes to the Gamma AF. There the Ruka D-mails do catch SERN's interest, when Ruka's mother shows them to a SERN scientist. However, in the Alpha AF from 0.000000-0.999999%, the D-mail concerning Kurisu is always what SERN catches first in the causal ring and then they and Suzuha further change the past pre-2010 via time travel, like you said.

About "splitting", "switching", "restructuring", etc., even the characters themselves are only theorizing in the story, but this is one of the things that Suzuha mentions when she explains world lines and attractor fields to the LabMems in the visual novel,

"The world's structure is like twisted yarn. Several possible worlds are superposed, always branching out infinitely. The entirety looks like one piece, but at the micro level, the world is organized like thin intertwined threads. And at the end, those fine threads converge into one. The paths are different, but the ends are the same."

[...]

"Several attractor fields are superposed like this. In each attractor field, the converging result of events is different. They don't interfere. Each remains independent. There's only one if you trace it back to the origin. Attractor fields do converge at a very macro level, but that spans hundreds of years. It's best to think of them as large divergences."

[So theoretically, there was only one attractor field at the origin of time.]

I think that all of this does get confusing. I agree with the whole "re-writing/restructuring" of memories part. That clearly happens to the world when the active world line changes -It even seems to happen in the Steins Gate without changing active world lines when Okabe disappears in the movie, but that is a special case, probably, due to it being an unstable world line.- The visual aid model for talking about world lines and attractor fields that they used in the visual novel most prominently was a piece of yarn and in the anime a rope, so that makes one think that world lines and attractor fields don't merge into one and split -as in a whole splitting into two rather than two wholes splitting away from each other- even if they should "meet" at a convergence point. However, the visual model used for world lines made of cords in the Rebellion of the Missing Ring manga chap2 page 46-50 looks very much like the lines are merging and splitting. The attractor field model that they use looks different, though, more like connected but not one. The manga adaptation of the movie also uses a visual aid that represents merging and splitting world lines.

So, the world gets restructured according to the active world line, but all those infinite possibilities of (mostly inactive) world lines do seem to have points where they run common and then at a period of significant change go their separate ways from each other. Whether the term "split" or "restructuring" is best used, is a matter of what part of that complex set of processes one is focusing on in one's discussion, I think.

EDIT 2:

If you want to engage in what some might call "hair-splitting", you could argue that using the verb "split" might be too vague. The visual novel tends to use the term "diverge".

S: "…We're going to escape outside the scope of this Attractor Field α we're in."

O: "Outside the scope…?"

S: "Basically, we're going to leap to the β World Line in Attractor Field β."

K: "We won't get interfered with?"

S: "Attractor fields completely diverge. But if we go to the instant they diverge, then..."

K: "The instant they diverge... is that now?"

S: "I was taught that a large crossroads in Divergence exists in 2010. An earth-shattering divergence, on par with the ones in 2000 and 1991, occurs, causing a branching on the attractor field level."

So, using the original work's term "diverge", which might arguably be a better-fitting descriptor, the world lines of Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Omega might all be different but still run common to each other on a large scale until they reach a crossroad of events were they notably diverge from each other. Alpha and Beta diverge from each other in 2010 when SERN catches Okabe's D-mail about Kurisu dying. Gamma diverges from Alpha-Beta-Omega in 2000 when Y2k occurs, somehow triggered by the SERN scientist who developed its vaccine coming into greater prominence in SERN after discovering the D-mails sent to Ruka's mother.

EDIT 3: If you look at the Omega AF using both the original work's Faris ending and Mayuri's story in Phenogram, then it is very interesting because this is a rare case where the story creators have presented us with two D-mails that aim to change two very different past events sent from the future of one attractor field to the past of another. Of course, Mayuri's story in Phenogram is arguably a "what if" story and is not an example of the active world line changing from one attractor field to another, though it does bring an Okabe with memories of the Alpha AF to Omega. Since the Faris ending D-mail is able to reach the past of -0.275349%, then the Omega and Alpha-Beta AFs should not diverge before 2000 -There is plenty of differences to be spotted in their individual world lines' pasts, but the attractor fields have not diverged from each other yet, right?- In Mayuri's story, Mayuri sends a D-mail from Alpha 0.571046% which also reaches the Omega AF's past in 2004, so that should mean that Omega and Alpha-Beta still had not diverged before that time yet, right? In that case, the D-mails that bring us to Omega might indubitably effect their destination world lines' past but might not be what causes the Omega attractor field to diverge as a whole. Just a theory I am putting out there.

So far Okabe has only ended up in Omega on accident when sending the mysterious D-mail in the Faris ending or when Mayuri makes a choice that brings them there in Phenogram. I don't think that Omega is an AF that he could have known how to aim for in the main work, regardless of whether Omega has the potential for peace or (future) troubles.

Hmm, I kind of ended up rambling and being redundant. Don't know if I've made a helpful contribution to the discussion or not. Sorry, if I have just made things more confusing.