History Literature / ManifoldTime

Part of Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Manifold'' series.

* BrokenPedestal: Malenfant has a moment of this during the time portal sequence, where gets to witness the evolution of the Downstreamers' civilization. In the second to last jump, he is disappointed to see evidence of war (or at least conflict), and feels the Downstreamers are doing a "damned poor" job of surviving.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What the Downstreamers did to survive the heat death of the universe. However, this still isn't enough, as they face [[AndIMustScream a pointless existence as ghosts in an empty cosmos where nothing new will ever happen]] and decide to alter the unimaginably distant past. In ''Manifold: Origin'', they escape their inevitable fate by reaching an even higher level of existence.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Despite being descended from humans, the Downstreamers are described this way, the only real thing they have in common with modern humans being the instinct to survive. [[spoiler: And arguably not even that, as the Downstreamers end up sacrificing themselves and their entire universe to give birth to more interesting universes.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Despite being descended from humans, the Downstreamers are described this way, the only real thing they have in common with modern humans is the instinct to survive. [[spoiler: And arguably not even that, as the Downstreamers end up sacrificing themselves and their entire universe to give birth to more interesting universes.]]

* TimeAbyss: The Downstreamers are an extreme example, having lived for over 10[[superscript:117]] years (that's one billion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years).
* TimePassesMontage: The journey of one of Cornelius' firefly robots through the downstream wormholes on Cruithne shows the spread of humanity across the Galaxy and their subsequent adaptation and survival in an increasingly cold, vast and hostile universe, is all seen through the same point of view as the robot travels further and further in time through the portals.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What the Downstreamers did to escape the Heat Death. However, this still isn't enough as shown in Manifold: Origin, they escape their inevitable fate by reaching an even higher level of existence.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Despite being descended from humans, the Downstreamers are described this way, the only real thing they have in common with modern humans is the instinct to survive.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Despite Michael's claim that the Downstreamers are not gods, they certainly qualify for this. They can influence events in the past and have more energy at their disposal than entire galaxies, can travel to other universes, ''create'' other universes, and their plan is essentially [[spoiler: the gestation of a googolplex more, by sacrificing themselves and their history]]. Website/SpaceBattlesDotCom seems to think they're the UrExample of this trope, though they seem to have drawn considerable inspiration from late-nineties depictions of the [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lords]].

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What the Downstreamers did to escape the Heat Death. However, this still isn't enough as shown in Manifold: Origin, they escape their inevitable fate by reaching [[UpToEleven an even higher level of existence]].

* AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit: In the distant future, descendants of humanity maintain vast Dyson nets around the supermassive black hole remnants of galaxies until they evaporate via Hawking radiation, accessing the power equivalent of multiple galaxies. And in the present, once the Blue children start tapping into this knowledge, things get a little crazy.

* MadeOfIndestructium: The children's bubble as well as the Downstreamers' time portals. The former survives both a nuke and a barrage of lasers, while the latter are completely indestructible to brute force, and can transport anything that goes through them to any point in time or space, or even to other universes along the Manifold. The time portal still exist, completely undamaged or altered, 10[[superscript:117]] years in the future, when all the matter in the universe had decayed to nothingness and the heat death had used up all energy.

* TimePassesMontage: The journey of one of Cornelius' firefly robots through the downstream wormholes on Cruithne, each of which leads to the same point in space but further and further in time, and shows the spread of humanity across the Galaxy and their subsequent adaptation and survival in an increasingly cold, vast and hostile universe, is all seen through the same point of view as the robot travels further and further through the portals.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The 2010 Earth, which contains things such as commonly available self-driving cars, foldable, clothlike computers (softscreens) and AI therapists. Keep in mind this book was written in 1999.

* HumansAreCthulhu: Posthumans from the far future, that is.
* MadeOfIndestructium: The children's bubble as well as the ring portal.

* OmniscientDatabase: Literally, in the case of the Downstreamers' computing substrate.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The motivation of the Downstreamers. [[spoiler:The Universe spawned no other intelligent life other than humanity itself, and the Downstreamers will have ''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers none]] [[ScrewTheRulesImakeThem of]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight it]]''. They reconfigure its vacuum state into one where black holes are much more frequently formed. Since every black hole singularity is a "cosmic egg" for a new Big Bang, they essentially germinate countless new universes by sacrificing one (along with themselves). They reason that intelligent life ''just has'' to evolve in these new circumstances]]. In addition, [[spoiler:Malenfant gives up his chance at a life in the far future to stop someone from ever going on the journey with him (during which she died)]].

* BizarreBabyBoom

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Despite Michael's claim that the Downstreamers are not gods, they certainly qualify for this.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The motivation of the Downstreamers. In addition, [[spoiler:Malenfant gives up his chance at a life in the far future to stop someone from ever going on the journey with him (during which she died)]].
** To elaborate: what "went wrong" is [[spoiler: the ''Universe itself''. It spawned no other intelligent life other than humanity itself, and the Downstreamers will have ''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers none]] [[ScrewTheRulesImakeThem of]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight it]]''. They reconfigure its vacuum state into one where black holes are much more frequently formed. Since every black hole singularity is a "cosmic egg" for a new Big Bang, they essentially germinate countless new universes by sacrificing one (along with themselves). They reason that intelligent life ''just has'' to evolve in these new circumstances]].

* {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s / HumansAreCthulhu: The Downstreamers are essentially ''gods''. End of story. They can influence events in the past and have more energy at their disposal than entire galaxies, can travel to other universes, ''create'' other universes, and their plan is essentially [[spoiler: the gestation of a googolplex more, by sacrificing themselves and their history]]. {{Spacebattles}} seems to think they're the UrExample of this trope, though they seem to have drawn considerable inspiration from late-nineties depictions of the [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lords]].

* TimeAbyss: The Downstreamers are an extreme example, having lived for over 10^117 years (that's one billion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years).

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The 2010 Earth, which contains things such as commonly available self-driving cars, foldable, clothlike computers (softscreens) and AI therapists. Keep in mind this book was written in 2000.
* Tykebomb: The Blue children.

* {{Xenofiction}}: A major subplot involves Malenfant using squid, modified to be more intelligent, as a space exploration force. This is told from the squids' perspective.

* ScienceMarchesOn: At one point, phenomenon known as Centauro events were mentioned, which in the book were suggested to be due to exploding chunks of quark matter in the atmosphere. They have since been proven to be simple misreadings of instruments.

* Precursors: The entire point of the book is how humans become this.

* {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s / HumansAreCthulhu: The Downstreamers are essentially ''gods''. End of story. They can influence events in the past and have more energy at their disposal than entire galaxies, can travel to other universes, ''create'' other universes, and their plan is essentially [[spoiler: the gestation of a googolplex more, by sacrificing themselves and their history]]. {{Spacebattles}} seems to think they're the UrExample of this trope, though they seem to have drawn considerable inspiration from late-nineties depictions of the [[DoctorWho Time Lords]].

Part of StephenBaxter's ''Manifold'' series.

* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: Discussed/averted. The Blue children construct their own language which specifically accounts for this.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The Downstreamers do, at least initially, until they realize their ultimate fate is to be locked in a sterile, never-changing cosmos. So they go back and fix things. Possibly subverted, as it's implied they survived in some form (expanded in Manifold: Origin).

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What the Downstreamers did to escape the Heat Death. However, this still isn't enough, and as shown in Manifold: Origin, they essentially managed to escape their inevitable fate by doing so [[BeyondTheImpossible again]].

* ZeroGSpot: It's mentioned that one spaceflight saw frequent zero-g orgies because the astronauts had no better way to pass their time.

* {{Xenofiction}}: A major subplot involves Malenfant using squid, modified to be more intelligent, as a space exploration force. This is told from the squids' perspective.