Timeline zero (iteration)

Timeline zero, also known as 'timeline one' or 'timeline prime' is the proposed timeline where the origin of the timeline splits into various iterations which resulted in the deja vus and fragments of memory in the first place.

In it, original version Josh conducts a time-travel experiment with electrical equipment based on electromagnetism in order to send thoughts 'back to the past'.

Naming convention
The variation of the naming convention depends on interpretation of events. Although it's where the time-travel experiment occurs and thus deemed the origin of the split, within it is a reference to a previous iteration (which might be considered the true timeline zero or timeline prime).

As a result, this timeline might be viewed as timeline one (instead of timeline zero). The actual details surrounding the timeline before timeline one is however unknown, and thus this often gets referred to as 'timeline zero' (because it's the earliest iteration fragment that can be successfully recalled).

Background
In timeline zero, Josh is a heavily skeptical individual who studies the implicit association between electromagnetism and time-space distortions, having a natural talent for electrical engineering. In timeline zero, he spents time discussing on the time-travel institute forums, eventually realising that although it was unlikely to get mass beyond the speed of light (the speed of instanteous in the revised theories), it was possible to accelerate pre-existing energy forms to near, if not beyond, speed of light properties (given light itself is an electromagnetic wave), and thus rather than trying to teleport or time-travel a large human, send the information or data instead.

In researching a transceiver/receiver/transmitter design and discovering the time-traveller's problem (or the time-traveller's paradox, not to be confused with the grandfather paradox), he eventually stumbles across the solution as troubling worldwide developments emerge. Although there's no electronic receiver, it was highly probable that a human brain or similar was available on all parallel worlds, and thus could be used as both a transmitter and receiver.

He then constructed a primitive 12 volt battery hooked up to a flat circular disc (potentially either a large piezoelectric transinducer or a copper disc) of which design sped up the current flow of the electromagnetic energy to near or beyond light-speed, with the theory of using the electrical discharge to 'jolt' the neuron synapses with the sped-up electricity and thus cause the electrical charges of the thoughts to displace and move at faster than or near to the speed of light, and thus go back in time.

Upon the immediate test, he felt disorientated and 'out of place', and found the recall of a deja vu or fragment of memory of a previous universe of which he had done a similar test resulting in the same outcome (except that variant was unaware it had any impact and wouldn't be obvious until the 'second loop', hence 'iteration ').

Conducting further research, he found negative thoughts and emotions had 'more staying power' per time-shift or time-split than positive ones (negative emotions seemed to stick better in the human mind and thus were more likely to be 'remembered' later on). Realising it was only sufficient for one jolt to cause a schizm and merely a strong memory of the event, he realised the universe looped, eventually giving rise to an early variant of the infinite loop theory.

Unfortunately, events on timeline zero earth rapidly deterioriated, with vague reports of unusual seismic activity being presented in the news stream. Eventually it was revealed to be a black hole, of which a micro-singularity had reached the earth's core and resulted in severe disruption to the crustal plates. During the distortion and gravimetric well, and realising that universe's earth was lost, Josh made a future mental note to all versions of himself as to how to 1) how to replicate the time-travel experiment and 2) to warn of an impending black hole event for earth that required investigating and prevention prior to being sucked into a black hole.