tidsstrømmen

Tidsströmmen, literally the time stream, is a conceptual term used primarily in Swedish-language science fiction and philosophy to describe a continuous, directional flow of temporal events through which past, present, and future are linked. The term functions as a narrative device and a metaphor for how moments unfold and how observers experience change. It derives from tids (time) and strömmen (the stream).

In mainstream physics and philosophy, there is no empirical evidence for a literal flowing time stream. Time is treated as a dimension within spacetime, and causality is described by physical laws rather than a moving conduit. The idea of a navigable stream is therefore largely a heuristic or speculative concept, employed to discuss subjects such as prediction, memory, and the perception of time's passage. Some speculative theories address time as emergent, directionally biased, or compatible with multiple possible histories, but they do not posit a tangible stream that can be traversed.

In fiction, tidsströmmen commonly serves as the mechanism for time travel, time loops, or the reshaping of events. Different works impose differing rules: some allow limited influence over the past with ripple effects, others preserve a fixed past while changing only the present or future. Variants include fixed timelines, mutable timelines with branching paths, or multiverse frameworks where deviations produce alternate streams of events.

Culturally, the concept appears in Swedish-language literature, film, and games as a convenient means to explore causality, fate, responsibility, and the ethics of altering history. See also time travel, causality, spacetime, branching timelines, and multiverse.