29409


I watched the episode 9 of the Steins;Gate series and have been wondering how
Feyris sent her message in the past from her apartment if the phone microwave
was miles away in the laboratory. Until now, they had always sent the D-mails
from a phone which was very close to the phone microwave which (if I
understood it correctly) managed to open small Kerry blackholes, allowing the
electromagnetic signal from the `sending phone` to time-travel and reach the
`receiving phone` in the past.

In this episode, it seems that they can send the D-mails from any location and
if the phone microwave is running, the messages go to the past, which doesn't
make sense because these Kerry blackholes should extend far beyond the
laboratory and then any other (under 36 characters) message sent from a mobile
phone in the town (and beyond) would travel to the past and reach the targeted
phone back in time (if the number already existed), causing multiple time
changes and not just the one caused by Feyris' D-mail.

I really can't understand this plot hole and it ruins my enjoyment of this
series.

Could someone explain to me what I didn't get about the functioning of the
phone microwave that makes the episode 9 logically believable?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-30T11:18:41.020
29402
2016-01-30T19:36:08.040
2016-01-30T12:19:35.127
63
20797
question
steins-gate
How could Feyris send her message in the past if she was miles away from the phone microwave?


It **is** logically accurate. The necessary conditions for a D-Mail to work
are listed [on the Wikia](http://steins-gate.wikia.com/wiki/D-Mail) as:

  * > D-Mails are sent through the Phone Microwave and can only be sent from devices connected to the Phone Microwave, such as a phone or a pager.

  * > D-Mails can only be sent to someone with a phone (or a pager), so although they could hypothetically be sent back millions of years, they would not have any effect.

  * > The number of the target phone is also necessary to send the D-Mail, so they cannot be sent to individuals whose numbers the sender has not obtained.

Hence, it's not a plot-hole. Basically, it functions like a normal message
sent from a mobile to the Phone Microwave _(name subject to change)_ as
mentioned in the comments. The Phone Microwave _(name subject to change)_
doesn't pick-up any random message sent in a nearby zone, which, in size, is
shorter than or equal to 36 bytes but only the ones sent to it.

This also tells us that the device sending the message needs to be connected
to the Phone Microwave and not the one receiving it. As mentioned by
Builder_K, the Phone Microwave may be functioning as a relaying device, which
relays the message to the target phone as intended by the sender.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-30T13:12:10.750
29409
2016-01-30T19:36:08.040
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303
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answer