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Computer scientists would probably be familiar with recursive vs iterative loops. For those who don't, here's an analogy; imagine you wish to read a book five times. There are two ways to accomplish this:

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Computer scientists would probably be familiar with recursive vs iterative loops. For those who don't, aren't, here's an analogy; imagine you wish to read a book five times. There are two ways to accomplish this:
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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup


ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory]] suggests that with a system as complex as Earth the characters doing things slightly differently, even if the overall action is the same, could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.

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ForWantOfANail then states that with With different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory]] suggests that with a system as complex as Earth the characters doing things slightly differently, even if the overall action is the same, could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.
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ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory]] suggests that with a system as complex as Earth even the characters doing things slightly differently could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.

to:

ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory]] suggests that with a system as complex as Earth even the characters doing things slightly differently differently, even if the overall action is the same, could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.
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ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory suggests that with a system as complex as Earth even the characters doing things slightly differently could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.

to:

ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory theory]] suggests that with a system as complex as Earth even the characters doing things slightly differently could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.
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To explain why, imagine you've spilled a glass of water in one loop. In the next loop, you find the water is actually [[BuffySpeak magic time-loop-independent]] water and remains spilled. But for it to ever be spilled, there must be some point in the past you spilled it in the first place. Ergo, the previous loop must have happened instead of being overriden by your current one. The ramification then is that actions ''do'' have consequences, so characters might find that their reckless abandonment causes them to end up DeaderThanDead, for real.

to:

To explain why, imagine you've spilled a glass of water in one loop. In the next loop, you find the water is actually [[BuffySpeak magic time-loop-independent]] water and remains spilled. But for it to ever be spilled, there must be some point in the past you spilled it in the first place. Ergo, the previous loop must have happened instead of being overriden by your current one. The ramification then is that actions ''do'' ''can'' have consequences, so characters might find that their reckless abandonment causes them to end up DeaderThanDead, for real.



ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.

to:

ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions and factors your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. (Admittedly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory chaos theory suggests that with a system as complex as Earth even the characters doing things slightly differently could end up with a completely different day.) With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.
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!!Why It's Important to Contemplate How the Time Loop Works

!!! Part One: Recursion vs. Iteration

Computer scientists would probably be familiar with recursive vs iterative loops. For those who don't, here's an analogy; imagine you wish to read a book five times. There are two ways to accomplish this:

# Have 1 copy of the book. Once you reach the end, flip the book back to page one and read the copy again. This is recursion.

# Have 5 copies of the book. Read all 5 copies. This is iteration.

Consider that in the second method, you're technically reading 5 books, they just all happen to have the same content. The same applies to time loops: if it's the iterative sort, then time is still going forward and days are still passing by, each day just happens to look identical to the last.

Why is this important, you ask? In most stories the loop rewinds time, making the loop the recursive type (and also TimeTravel), so it's not. But if the story explicitly defines what causes the loop, for certain causes it must logically extend that the loop is iterative - for example, if your {{justifi|edTrope}}cation for the RippleEffectProofMemory is a simple 'they're [[NoSell immune to]] the {{phlebotinum}}', this would make your time loop iterative by definition.

To explain why, imagine you've spilled a glass of water in one loop. In the next loop, you find the water is actually [[BuffySpeak magic time-loop-independent]] water and remains spilled. But for it to ever be spilled, there must be some point in the past you spilled it in the first place. Ergo, the previous loop must have happened instead of being overriden by your current one. The ramification then is that actions ''do'' have consequences, so characters might find that their reckless abandonment causes them to end up DeaderThanDead, for real.

!!! Part Two: What's the Range of the Time Loop?

Something else worth thinking about is the extent of the {{reset|Button}}. If the time loop is localized (for example, only the town is affected), then

A) there is a possibility someone from outside the time loop will walk in, and

B) given enough loops, the temperature and later the seasons will change as Earth continues its orbit around the sun.

ForWantOfANail then states that with different staring conditions your time loop will probably cease to be a time loop, although it might be a CloseEnoughTimeline. With A, how the outsider will be affected when the loop resets needs also to be thought about.

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