Time dilation in Silverlight

[maTheist]

If time flows more slowly in Silverlight compared to the rest of Cosmere (I don't know how much slower exactly), how can the city be an important mercantile hub? In trade time is quite essential, so I imagine it would be easier to go around Silverlight and not waste time on being caught in a time-slowing bubble. Another critical aspect is that Silverlight serves as a hub for science and innovation. Technology can evolve so fast (especially in the cyberpunk era) that even a few years might make a difference. How come Silverlight still counts on a global scale if they are slower than everyone else? Even if one year passes in Silverlight and two in other parts of Cosmere, it would still cause Silverlight to be left behind.

[Treamayne]

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10 hours ago, maTheist said:

If time flows more slowly in Silverlight compared to the rest of Cosmere (I don't know how much slower exactly), how can the city be an important mercantile hub? In trade time is quite essential, so I imagine it would be easier to go around Silverlight and not waste time on being caught in a time-slowing bubble. Another critical aspect is that Silverlight serves as a hub for science and innovation. Technology can evolve so fast (especially in the cyberpunk era) that even a few years might make a difference. How come Silverlight still counts on a global scale if they are slower than everyone else? Even if one year passes in Silverlight and two in other parts of Cosmere, it would still cause Silverlight to be left behind.

That will probably be a story point in Era 4 (possibly Era 3ish). But, for most of the Cosmere's history, Silverlight was the center of learning and scientific/cultural exchange. 

Spoilers (Warbreaker, White Sand)
 

Spoiler

For example, we know Vasher and the Five Scholoar had a significant impact there, and that much of Khriss' understanding of Realmatics comes from time in Silverlight, where one can study aspect of most/all major Shardworlds. We also know that Taldain, once one of the leaders in Cosmere Technology fell way behind when Autonomy became isolationist, and they were cut off from the flow of shared information in the wider Cosmere. So, my guess is that the time dilation allowing scholars to live longer and see new tech Eras in person (imagine Da Vinci or Edison, with an extra century or two to study and invent, for example) as well as share information from much broader exchanges meant that Silverlight was well ahead of Cosmmere standard tech levels for most of it's history; and it will only be post-industrial/Information age technology when the pace of change will make the Silverlight Dilation a negative rather than a positive. 

 

[Jult]

11 hours ago, maTheist said:

If time flows more slowly in Silverlight compared to the rest of Cosmere (I don't know how much slower exactly), how can the city be an important mercantile hub? In trade time is quite essential, so I imagine it would be easier to go around Silverlight and not waste time on being caught in a time-slowing bubble.

I've heard that Silverlight moves approximately 10 times slower than the rest of the Cosmere. But I can't find a source for that number. There could be advantages to that kind of slowdown though. Banking and lending come to mind. Imagine only aging 1 year but being able to collect 10 years-worth of loan payments and interest from someone on the outside. You could hoard wealth like a dragon.

You could also bring some items to Silverlight, sit on them for 10 years of Silverlight time, and then return to your homeworld with super "well-preserved" century-old antiques. Storage of perishable items would also probably make a good market. An outsider could drop off some fruit, travel for 10 weeks standard time and then return to his 1-week-old fruit afterwards. 

12 hours ago, maTheist said:

Another critical aspect is that Silverlight serves as a hub for science and innovation. Technology can evolve so fast (especially in the cyberpunk era) that even a few years might make a difference. How come Silverlight still counts on a global scale if they are slower than everyone else? Even if one year passes in Silverlight and two in other parts of Cosmere, it would still cause Silverlight to be left behind.

It sounds like Silverlight is a bit of a revolving door though. They get constant visitors from the outside, so I wouldn't really expect them to fall behind on tech. It's not like they only hear from the outside once per year and need to catch up a decade each time. If they get a new visitor/message every Silverlight minute or so, then that's not really much worse than missing 10 minutes of outside news.

It's also possible that they're just so much more technologically advanced that even with the time dilation they're more efficient than outsiders. If this post got written & uploaded at 1/10th the speed, I'd still be pretty confident that it was faster than writing you a letter by hand and mailing it.

[TacoBellChoutaMeal]

I feel like the primary reason Brandon wrote this aspect about Silverlight is so he could keep all his darlings from older books alive without atium compounding or amassing an obscenely large stock of Breath. 

[king of nowhere]

it is possible that silverlight started as a center of learning because people from 3 different planets could come trade, and then it remained a center of learning while each and every planet was sistematically held back by major catastrophes. because all major planets did.

so, maybe it's just that the time dilation problem was offset by the constant peace. in that case, silverlight should gradually fall behind the curve. at least unless all major civilizations wipe themselves out again.