Chapter 19
The Freezer
All things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe…. Observer participancy gives rise to information; and information gives rise to physics-John Wheeler
“This
used to be the dungeon”, explained Barry as he led Marie down the inadequately
lit stone staircase that wound its way down, “But, we hardly ever got to put
anyone there, so we decided to use it for our super computer.”
That
was a joke, Marie guessed. She noticed
the temperature dropping the further down they went.
“It’s
chilly down here” she observed.
“Yeah,
sorry, I don’t really notice it very much anymore, next time we’ll make sure
you have a sweater on. We won’t be down
here long, but I wanted to show you where you’re going to be spending some of
your time helping us with our work.”
“I
still don’t see how I’m going to be able to help you guys with physics and
stuff.”
“You’ll
see … I promise. Within just a few
minutes more of your patience … you’ll have your answers.” He assured her. “Ah, here we are.”
The
old close stone walls around the stairwell suddenly opened into an immaculate,
white tile room filled with computer terminals, banks of what looked like
servers, and a large round white sphere about six feet in diameter in the
center. A young man and woman scurried
busily while three older gentlemen in turtleneck sweaters sat in chairs before
computer terminals. No one seemed to
notice them enter the room.
“This
is the Freezer, as we call it,” said Barry, as much to get the others to take
notice as to explain to Marie.
Everyone
in the room turned to her. The excited
smiles on their faces indicated how happy they were to see her, but they
quickly turned back to their work, except one of the older gentlemen who
stepped forward.
“Ms
Brabant, I presume,” he said, offering his hand enthusiastically, “How
exciting.”
“Marie,”
Barry nodding towards the approaching man, said, “This is Dr. Palmer, Luke, we
call him.”
She
took his hand, “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
“It’s
just wonderful to meet you. We’ve heard
so much about you,” he gushed.
“I
didn’t know there was that much to hear about me.”
“Of
course, of course,” he said. “Barry
here, hasn’t explained the situation to you then?”
She
looked with mild reproach at her guide and shook her head, “No, sir … I have no
idea what’s going on … except that he believes cats are out to take control of
humanity or something along those lines.”
It sounded funny to her just to say it.
“Cats?
Why no, that’s ridiculous nonsense, my dear,” he laughed, “Cats are simply
Their favorite hosts, our feline friends are as much victims of these parasites
as we are … they were simply the first species to become infected. Cats taking over the world? Ha!
That’s rich, my dear. Quite
rich.”
“So,
what exactly are you all doing here, what is this place really?” She asked.
Dr.
Palmer looked at Barry. It was Barry who
answered.
“This
is an advanced research facility for experiments in theoretical physics, as I
told you. The Freezer is the world’s
largest quantum computer. It was
designed by Dr. Renee Friese, over there”, he pointed to the older man with the
clean shaven head who waved absently and returned his attention to his computer
screen. “Do you know anything at all
about quantum computers?”
“I’ve
heard of them.”
“Good,
then you’re head won’t be filled with the incorrect nonsense that the
mainstream physics and computational communities spew. Well, as Dr. Friese’s more famous colleague,
David Deutsch says, ‘quantum computers are the first technology that allows
useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes. The
quantum computer’s processing power comes from a kind of outsourcing of work,
in which calculations literally take place in other universes. Entangled
particles would function as paths of communication among different universes,
sharing information and gathering the results.’
It’s pretty neat, actually, mind-blowing stuff.
“I’m
sorry, did you say something about parallel universes? Isn’t that just science fiction?” Marie’s fears that she was surrounded by
crazy people were starting to return.
“I’m
guessing you’re not familiar with Hugh Everett’s ground breaking work on the
Many World Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?”
“I’m
afraid not, no”
“No,
problem, Everett claimed that MWI or Many Worlds Interpretation is, and I
quote, ‘the only
completely coherent approach to explaining both the contents of quantum
mechanics and the appearance of the world.’”
“That’s not an explanation” interrupted
Barry.
“I was getting around to it.” Dr. Palmer
insisted in his defense.
“The principle problem in modern physics
that prevents the unification of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Special
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics is the problem of the collapse of the wave
function.”
“’The physical reality
is assumed to be the wave function of the whole universe itself’ Everett again.” Barry Allen
interrupted. “As is this: ‘As an analogy one
can imagine an intelligent amoeba with a good memory. As time progresses the
amoeba is constantly splitting, each time the resulting amoebas having the same
memories as the parent. Our amoeba hence does not have a life line, but a life
tree.’”
“What
does that even mean?” Marie asked, now more confused than she previously was.
“It
means,” said Dr. Palmer, “That every time an experiment is performed that can
have so called random outcomes, or any time any one or thing makes a decision
with various possible results … parallel universes split off where each outcome
or result actually occurs. This is now
no longer theory … it is scientific fact … as we’ve proven here.”
He
waved his hand across the room. The fact
that the Freezer works is complete proof.
The fact that Mawacky works is complete proof. “
“Mawacky?”
Barry
answered, “It’s an acronym pronounced poorly, Many Worlds Quantum Interface. Ma-Wa-Qu-ie, or Mawacky for short. I think Ricky started calling it that. You’ll meet Ricky soon enough. Anyway, it stuck. Mawacky.”
Palmer
continued, with a slight air of annoyance at his younger colleague. ”We, my dear, have been communicating with
parallel universes for three years here now.
That’s how we know how important you are to this work. Many of our trans-dimensional collaborators
have been using you, or more accurately their universes’ version of you for a
few months now. We just had to find you,
or, actually wait for you to find us. We
knew you would. That’s how it’s been
working in the nearby universes.”
They’re
all fucking nuts, Marie thought.
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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