Chapter
34
Stan
Wukowski
[MWI is
the] only
completely coherent approach to explaining both the contents of quantum
mechanics and the appearance of the world.- Hugh
Everrett
The
universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any
latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part.
Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the
order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string
in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order
and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among
others. - Cormac McCarthy
Stan Wukowski’s dreams were coming true and
he could not fully believe it. The
reports of what the other Marie Brabants had achieved had left him feeling a
bit jealous to be honest. But now, he
had his own Marie Brabant, who was willingly going to help him. There was only one per universe, and his was
on board with the program. It was
probably the happiest day of his life.
He almost shook with excitement, as he typed the password to access the
Mawacky terminal.
Stan felt his destiny, the first time he
read Everett’s paper. The words and
formulae cried out to his young and eager mind: This was it! The answer to everything! The clear and most important work anyone had
done since Einstein or Bohr, except it was more important than their
contributions. It provided an
explanatory foundation for a true understanding of the universe or more
properly, the Multiverse. It was right
there, all of it, endless possibilities implicit in Everett’s paper. Even more clearly expressed in the notes by
Bryce DeWitt’s of the Symposium on the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics. In many ways they had had the
Unified Field Theorem since the fifties, but no one was comfortable with the
idea of parallel universes … it seemed to science-fictiony to most theoretical
physicists, so they paid it no attention, disregarded the evidence of their own
experiments and trudged on ignoring the very truths they sought simply because
they did not correspond to their preconceptions.
But Stan knew it even as a grad student,
all those years ago. He just knew
it. But, it wasn’t until 1985 that the
matter went further for him. That day
when he met Chandler. It had just been
an exciting intellectual exercise that gave Stan a feeling of superiority over
his colleagues who were stuck in Neils Bohr’s probability fields and the
impossible reconciliation with Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. Both Theories worked fine until things got
too big or too small. Then it all went
to hell, and there was only nonsense to parse over. But Augustus Jermaine Chandler changed all
that.
Stan met A.J. Chandler by accident in a
small café just outside of Princeton, or so he had thought it, at the
time. But, it was no accident. Chandler had been watching him, following his
career with great interest, had read his theoretical papers and proposed
experiments. Their meeting was all part
of Chandler’s plan, Stan realized years later.
“Hey,” Chandler had said as he passed
Stan’s table, “You’re Stan Wukowski, aren’t you?”
“Why, yes, that’s right. Have we met?”
“No, sir, we haven’t, though I am something
of a colleague of yours. My twin sister
and I attended Princeton before you got here.
The board rejected our doctoral papers as abject nonsense, though I
think you’re someone who might think otherwise,” A.J. Chandler said.
Those words were burned into Stan’s
head. Sometimes, they echoed there.
“May I join you, Dr. Wukowsi?”
“By all means, please do, you intrigue me,
Dr…?”
“Nah, just Mr., I’m afraid. A.J. Chandler, at your service, sir”
Stan magnanimously waved over the waitress
and insisted Chandler order something on him.
“Just a coffee. Thank would be super.”
Chandler pulled up a seat across the small
café table from Stan.
“So, Mr. Chandler, you’ve following my
work?”
“Well, sir, to be honest, we’re quite a bit
ahead of you in that regard. We’ve been
there.”
“Been where?”
“To another universe sir, like Biblo
Baggins, there and back again.”
Stan looked at him like he was completely
insane, staring blankly.
“I can prove it to you.” Chandler opened his brief case and removed
two items. One, a loose leaf folder
filled with equations and the other, a paperback book. “Here’s our formulae, and methods, all in
this journal” indicating the binder.
“And this book has crossed twenty different universes to get here.” He
held up a tattered paperback copy of Philip K. Dick’s VALIS. “This is the only inorganic thing we have
been able to bring back with us … but the others were very clear … we were to
give it to you. It’s important. “
The waitress returned with Chandler’s
coffee and refilled Stan’s cup at the same time. Chandler set both items down in front of
Stan. “Check them out. You’ll see.”
A.J. Chandler got up without drinking his
coffee. “We’ll be in touch.”
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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