Time and Reality: A sci-fi perspective

Over the last week, I've been re-watching a sci-fi anime called RahXephon that to this day stands out in my mind as one of the most interesting pieces of fiction I've ever encountered. Aside from a colorful art style and beautiful music befitting its musically-based motifs, its story is engaging on both emotional and intellectual levels. And though it is vastly confusing, I seem to glean something new from it each time I watch it. Since philosophy confuses me in much the same ways, I feel it's only appropriate that I blog about some of the ideas presented.

A brief overview of the story is as follows: The story begins in a setting in which Tokyo is supposedly the last stronghold of life left due to some unknown tragedy that wipes out the rest of the world. Ayato, the main character, is living a routine life going to high school until one day foreign high-tech planes begin attacking the defense forces. Amidst the turmoil, Ayato is kidnapped by a mysterious older woman named Haruka who promises to tell him "the truth about this world." But Haruka's plane is supernaturally forced into a strange chamber housing a giant robot, the RahXephon. Ayato is unconsciously drawn into the robot, and the two are transported into another dimension.

Ayato later learns that his world is a fabrication called "Tokyo Jupiter," which is an alternate dimension in which time flows at one-sixth the flow of time outside of the enclosure (it is so named because it is a giant sphere resembling Jupiter that surrounds Tokyo). Tokyo Jupiter as it turns out was created by the Mu, a race of blue-blooded humans who appeared out of nowhere about twelve years ago (so Ayato was in Tokyo Jupiter for only 2 years). Ayato also comes to learn that Tokyo Jupiter was created by his mother, the leader of the Mu, as a means to brainwash him, who though half-Mulian, half-human, is unique in his "qualifications" to pilot the RahXephon (though there are other characters within Tokyo Jupiter kept in this brainwashed state).

Though Ayato himself doesn't learn of it, there are side characters that flesh out the more complex parts of the story. To start from the very beginning, thousands of years ago there was a Mulian named Bahbem who invented the "RahXephon system," which was a machine whose purpose was to alter quantum theoretical probabilities using the RahXephon, a machine that produces waves to alter said probabilities. Some of the terms used are "instrumentalist" = pilot and "singing" = (waves the robots produce, usually to fight). But his first instrumentalist, Quon, made some mistake and as a result, the universe began to pluralize (multiply), and so the Mulians were forced to appear in the dimension of the humans. But with the universe's ever-increasing expansion, it would only be a matter of time before its mass would collapse on itself. And the only way to reverse the effect is for "Ollin" = (means "change"), the instrumentalist to find "Ixtli in Yollotl" = one with a divine heart who has found his/her true face (in this case one who can manifest himself in all things and in time itself). The instrumentalist would then be able to "tune the world" by "suffusing the world with sound". This would, in effect, return the multiple worlds to one.

Of course, the tension comes in because the Mu want the world to be tuned to become one for the Mulians, hence they try to brainwash Ayato. Naturally, the humans don't want their existence denied either, so they bring him out in order to show him both sides, enabling him with the choice to decide which world to create. Interestingly enough, though Quon also has a RahXephon supposedly equal to Ayato's and though they are both required to resonate with each other other in the tuning of the world, it is Ayato's choice to decide the nature of the new world (I wonder if it's gender related. "Man has dominion," mayhaps? Hm....)

This time after finishing the series, I was reading a commentary on the musical theme permeating the throughout the story. The premise is built upon the notion that if time could be considered a thing, then that would imply that its energy could be altered (the role of the RahXephon). The commentator noted that, unlike visual images, auditory signals rely heavily upon a proper chronological order. Pictures out of order can still make some sense, but imagine jumbled syllables or a song played in fragments-- it would make no sense at all. So to finish up, I'd like to relay a quote from the commentary that contains interesting thoughts to contemplate:

"The world is suffused with sound - fragmented sound at that... If it being fragmented is unpleasant, then it must be put in proper order. The RahXephon is a world-tuning machine that [the director] created to do just that.

A piano that is out of tune is a meaningless thing. If one is to just live, then that is no particular inconvenience. But when giving meaning to the world, no, seeking meaning in the world, the work of tuning, ordering events in chronological order, become necessary. Just as syllables must be in proper chronological order in order to correctly grasp the meaning of words.

The work of tuning the world and time is none other than ordering the chaotic events in the world in chronological order in order to glean meaning from them.

And whether that work is being done correctly or not should be determinable by whether the sound can be heard correctly and with meaning. That would be the easiest method of confirmation...

In other words, we could say that we are equipped with the functionality to tune time, but it makes you think that perhaps it is life itself that makes time flow." -- Chouhei Kanbayashi

There is also a movie version for anyone interested but pressed for time (also an anime), but with a 2-hour time constraint, some story elements were changed that I feel don't reflect the original intentions. So I highly recommend the TV series for anyone interested in checking it out.