Research Foundations

The infinite worlds are fertile
ground
for
scientific
research.
Scientists can study totally unspoiled
biomes . . . or worlds that have been
utterly destroyed by dozens of differ-
ent disasters. Infinity permits almost
any kind of nondestructive research. It
would probably allow a little scientific
destructiveness, too, if an artfully writ-
ten proposal were to make the gains
seem great enough.
Most research, by far, has been his-
torical and social. The historical paral-
lels offer answers to countless intrigu-
ing “what if” questions, and the echoes
offer – or at least seem to offer – a win-
dow into Homeline’s own past! Many
expeditions are mounted to such
worlds, to observe and to learn. These
are bound by strict rules: they must
keep The Secret of parallel worlds hid-
den, and they cannot change the his-
tory of the echoes, lest they be “lost” to
a timeline shift (see Timeline Shifts,
p. 544).