branching timeline
Forking temporal paths
A branching timeline is a model of time where events split into multiple possible paths rather than following a single fixed sequence.
The concept appears in physics (many-worlds interpretation), fiction (alternate histories), and video games where player choices create divergent storylines: The game features a branching timeline based on your decisions.
Each branch represents a different version of how events unfold from a common point.
- divergenceSeparation from common origin
- parallelEquidistant at all points
- parallel universeHypothetical coexisting separate reality
- multiverseHypothetical set of universes
- forkTined eating tool
fork in the road · alternate · alternate history · split · quantum · choice · destiny · path · convergence · paradox · causality · possibility · dimension · reality · ripple · ripple effect · butterfly · consequence
- parallel worldsparallel worlds, alternate universe, alternate reality, parallel dimension, alternate world
- time traveltime machine, time loop, time jump, time slip, causal loop
- multiverse conceptsparallel universe, parallel worlds, alternate dimension, alternate realities, pocket universes
- hypotheticalshypothesis, hypothetical, what-if, what if, conjecture
branching timelinedeterminism
Doctrine of causal necessity
fatalism · predestination · inevitability · clockwork universe
branch, branches, branched, branching, timeline, timelines, timely, untimely, timers