New Eden
Page 1
New Eden
Kishore Tipirneni
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Dear Old Albert
2. Time, Space, and Kashmir
3. Red Rover, Red Rover
4. Your Not-So-Average Scientific American
5. The Donut
6. Heavy Metal
7. Billions and Billions
8. Handle with Care
9. The Bat Cave
10. The Universal Language
11. In the Beginning
12. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
13. Vinod’s Theorem
14. Cairns
15. Fat Pipe
16. Live Stream
17. Oh, What a Night
18. No More Words
19. Black SUVs
20. Deep Pockets
21. The Other Red Planet
22. Session 103
23. Ambassador Andrews
24. Breaking News
25. The Sixty-Million-Dollar Man
26. The 103 Club
27. Habitats
28. Bonding
29. Snake Eyes
30. The Body Electric
31. Request
32. Gita
33. Alive
34. Just Like Heaven
35. Dome
36. Sacrifice and Empathy
About the Author
Copyright © 2019 Kishore Tipirneni
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-578-53451-0
Dedication
For my wife Hiral and our three beautiful children Mira, Anjali, and Jalan.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to William Hammett whose help was invaluable.
The cover illustrations for the book were created by Guillermo Herrera.
Introduction
For me, truly compelling science fiction must be based on actual science. As much as possible I have tried to be true to sound scientific principles throughout this novel. This introduction is a brief history of the scientific premise on which NEW EDEN is based. It is by no means necessary to read the introduction to understand the plot, and those not interested can skip to the first chapter.
In 1935, Albert Einstein, along with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, wrote a paper describing an apparent paradox in quantum mechanics. In this paper, later to be called the EPR paradox, they described how if Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics were to be believed, then there can exist quantumly entangled particles that can transmit information between each other faster than the speed of light which violated Einstein’s own theory of relativity. In fact, quantumly entangled particles seemed to have the ability to transmit information instantaneously even if they were on opposite sides of the universe. Einstein found this absurd and hence wrote the paper describing this paradox.
The following is a simplified explanation of the EPR paradox. The uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics dictates that the physical properties of some elementary particles can become entangled at a quantum level. For example, two particles could be created that are entangled for the property of spin. When two particles are entangled for spin, the first particle must have the opposite spin of the other particle, hence if one is spinning left to right, the other must spin right to left. However, immediately after the particles are created and before their spin is actually measured, the uncertainty principle dictates that the spin of each particle is indeterminate. In this state, called a superposition, each particle is actually spinning in both directions at the same time. This indeterminate state of these particles, no matter how strange it may seem, is a hallmark of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. If these entangled particles are then separated by any distance and then one of the particle’s spin is measured, its state is no longer indeterminate, and this particle chooses a definite direction of spin. But this act of measuring the direction of spin of the first particle automatically and instantaneously must cause its entangled twin to also go out of superposition and choose the opposite spin no matter how far away it is—even if it’s at the opposite side of the universe. The paradox here is that the information that the first particle’s spin has been measured and which direction it is spinning has to be transmitted to the other particle for it to be able to pick the opposite spin, but this information must be transmitted instantaneously which means that it travels faster than light which violates Einstein’s theory of relativity which states that nothing can travel faster than light, not even information, hence the paradox.
Einstein did not believe that these particles were actually sending information faster than light. In fact, he called this interaction “spooky action at a distance.” He instead believed that each particle, when it was created, contained pre-determined and unmeasurable information all along about which direction it would spin when measured, and that measuring a particle’s spin simply presented to us this unknown information. In this way, no actual information was being transferred between these particles. For many years, this was the state of physics with some physicists believing that entangled particles are transmitting information instantaneously and some believing Einstein that the particles already contained this information from the beginning.
In 1964, nine years after Einstein’s death, John Stewart Bell, a physicist from Northern Ireland, wrote a paper in which he outlined a method that uses mathematics and probability that could be used to settle this debate. The method outlined in this paper, later refined into a theorem called Bell’s theorem, could be used to devise experiments that could unequivocally settle whether entangled particles contain hidden information or instantaneously transmit information.
At present, using Bell’s theorem, many physicists have performed these experiments and the results are unequivocal. Einstein was wrong. Entangled particles do not contain hidden information and actually are able to transmit information instantaneously no matter how far apart they are. So, it has been proven that a single bit of information can be transmitted instantaneously at any distance by entangled particles, but this bit of information is not presently useful for meaningful communication since this single bit of information is random, and after transmission of this information, the entanglement of these particles becomes broken.
However, still the fact remains, physics has proven that the universe contains a mechanism that can transmit information instantaneously across any distance. The story of NEW EDEN is an example of the profound implications for humanity given this one single revelation in physics.
1
Dear Old Albert
“Einstein was wrong! Light is not the fastest thing in the universe—information is. And everything is information.”
The audience of Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley held its breath at the first words of the lecture delivered by Dr. Henry H. Bowman, professor of particle physics. Students and colleagues knew that he had a flare for the dramatic and that his research had been shrouded in secrecy for several years, but his opening statement seemed to be more than a little pretentious.
In his late sixties, Bowman was a man of average height with gray hair parted on the side and spilling over his ears and shirt collar. He wore a suit coat that was fashionably out of style thanks to velvet elbow patches, and his deck shoes were cracked and worn. He wandered around the stage, hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans, as he continued.
“Don’t get me wrong,” the professor proclaimed, stopping to face his audience with a grin. “He didn’t get everything wrong, of course, and he was dead right on one very important issue thanks to his famous thought experiment called the EPR Paradox. By the way, that’s E for Einstein, P for Boris Podolsky, and R for Nathan Rosen—just to be clear, mind you, about who was also in on this revolutionary lit
tle brain game being played in the field of quantum mechanics in 1935. So, what did Einstein get right?”
Bowman paused, staring at his audience, most of them in shadow, almost as if expecting an answer. He laughed softly and rubbed his chin. “I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me back up.”
The professor resumed his aimless walking, and though he was mic’d up, he seemed to be talking as much to himself at times as to his listeners.
“Einstein desired certainty. In the lab, he wanted the properties of subatomic particles to be measured accurately each and every time. He wanted reality to be . . . well, real!”
Laughter rippled across the audience as a few heads turned to the people sitting next to them as if to say We knew this was going to be weird, and we’re not disappointed.
“You see, Einstein wasn’t buying into quantum mechanics, at least not the vision of it advanced by the Copenhagen interpretation cooked up by Neils Bohr or Werner Heisenberg. Quantum mechanics and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle had the audacity to say that if you identified the location of an electron, you couldn’t simultaneously measure its momentum. If you measure its momentum, however, then poof—you couldn’t identify its location. Poor little guy. It was a wanderer, a hobo with no place to rest or call home.” Bowman paused for dramatic effect. “Bummer, right?” he said, raising his voice.
More laughter drifted over the audience.
“No, no, no, this was unacceptable to Albert, who said that God didn’t play dice with the universe. He wanted logic and what is known as scientific realism. To say that he was offended by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle regarding our aforementioned electron with an identity crisis would be an understatement. He wanted certainty, and don’t we all! When I was married, I always wanted to be able to predict what my wife was thinking, but my guesses were only accurate fifty percent of the time, like tossing a coin and calling heads or tails. Sooner or later you’re going to be right, but you’re still going to sleep on the couch fifty percent of the time. I’m divorced by the way.”
This time the laughter was much louder. Professor Bowman was winning his audience over by degrees without even having arrived at his main topic for the afternoon.
“Well, if you don’t buy what I’m selling today, I guess I can always do stand-up comedy. But pardon me. I digress. To point out an absurdity about quantum mechanics related to the Uncertainty Principle, Einstein conjured up his fabled EPR thought experiment. He imagined that two particles created at the same time and place are then moved far apart, even on opposite sides of the universe for the sake of argument. The pair is separated, like fighting spouses who have retreated to different rooms within their home. There is seemingly no communication, but there’s the rub! Quantum mechanics dictated that these particles had to be able to communicate instantaneously with each other. They had to be entangled at a quantum level. Long story short, quantum mechanics maintained that a measurement made of one particle’s spin would influence the other particle’s spin no matter the distance between them. And here’s the kicker, ladies and gentlemen. It would have to happen instantaneously.”
Bowman snapped his fingers and pounded his right fist into the palm of his left hand for emphasis, making a loud cracking sound. The professor, knowing that he had a captive audience hanging on his every word, walked to a table, drank from a glass of water, and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “Sure is hot under these lights,” he muttered.
The auditorium was all silence and expectation.
“But there was a problem. Instantaneous communication? This was heresy for Einstein who felt that nothing could travel faster than light. For Einstein, instantaneous communication was as unlikely as our feuding spouses reconciling their differences from two rooms that are so far apart that each can’t hear the other’s voice.”
Bowman inhaled deeply and gazed down at his Top Siders as he paced. “Remember that nothing goes faster than the speed of light according to the theory of relativity. And yet something had to be communicated between the theoretical particles if quantum mechanics was going to be upheld and eventually proven. Otherwise, God was playing dice with the universe, and the cosmos wouldn’t make much sense—at least not to Albert. Einstein concluded that there had to be variables hidden somewhere in these particles if the quantum world could be regarded as . . . complete, to use his own word. He just didn’t believe in instantaneous communication, so he copped out, dear friends, and claimed that what was happening to these particles was something he termed—” Bowman made the air-quote gesture with his hands. “Spooky action at a distance.”
Bowman suddenly stopped pacing, faced the audience—legs spread—and held out his arms, fingers splayed. “Boo! Spooky action!”
There was no laughter this time, for everyone in Wheeler Auditorium knew that the next shoe was going to drop any minute now.
Bowman resumed pacing the stage yet again and waved his right arm dismissively in the air.
“He didn’t bother to tell us what that spooky action was for one simple reason: he had no flippin’ idea. After all, quantum mechanics was violating his own theory of relativity, and maybe he didn’t really want an answer even though he spent a good portion of his life trying to find one—bupkis, nada, zilch.” Bowman cupped his hands around his mouth as if telling a secret. “He couldn’t figure out his own riddle any more than he could find marital bliss. He was a womanizer, in case you didn’t know.”
Einstein’s famous equation appeared on the elevated screen at the rear of the stage.
E = mc2
Bowman stood still as he faced the audience, arms folded after motioning to the equation on the screen behind him.
“You’re all familiar with Einstein’s famous equation no doubt. It shows that matter and energy are different forms of the same thing and are interchangeable. Now I’ll grant you that anything made of matter or energy can’t travel faster than light, which is the cosmic speed limit according to the theory of relativity. I’ll give that much to Albert. But what about something that contains no matter or energy? Something like data, like information? Why does it have to obey this speed limit? Well, yours truly has a few tricks up his sleeve,” the professor announced, running fingers through his long, unkempt hair, “and at the risk of sounding immodest, information is something that can travel faster than the speed of light, and not just random information either. Real data can be transmitted instantaneously, and I have created something that can prove it.”
A collective gasp escaped the throats of the crowd.
“It’s called the . . . well, why don’t I just show it to you now, huh? Would you like to see it?”
Bowman received a round of loud applause and a standing ovation before he could utter another word and show the world his creation, something that would profoundly alter the course of human history.
2
Time, Space, and Kashmir
(one hour earlier)
Rachael Miller walked to the back of the line waiting to be admitted to Wheeler Auditorium to hear the brilliant, eccentric, and reclusive Dr. Henry Bowman hold forth on . . . well, she didn’t know what the professor was going to talk about, but she was getting extra credit from one of her professors for attending. Judging by the length of the lines waiting to get in—there were three for as many entrances—other students at UC Berkeley had been given the same offer.
Rachael was five six, a slim, attractive brunette with deep brown eyes, high cheekbones, and straight dark brown hair that fell below her shoulders. At twenty years of age, she carried herself with the poise and confidence of someone much older.
“Looks like a packed house,” she muttered while opening her shoulder bag to retrieve a mint.
Vinod Bhakti, a young man of Indian descent, early-twenties with brown eyes and close-cut hair, heard the remark and turned around to look at the woman directly behind him. He was six two, had a slim build, and wore a vintage Led Zeppelin tee shirt with white letters on a black background.<
br />
“Yeah, this line is ridiculous,” he commented idly. “Hope it’s worth the wait.”
“Mint?” Rachael said, holding out the roll to the young man.
“Sure. Thanks.”
“Do you know what Professor Bowman is speaking about?”
“Physics, I suppose,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, what else is the dude gonna ramble about? I hear he and a post doc research assistant have virtually locked themselves away at some particle physics lab in a sub-basement here on campus. A friend of mine thinks he’s discovered the nature of dark matter and energy, but I think he’s full of it. Nobody’s even close to figuring that out.”
Rachael raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. “Yeah, that’s a stretch alright. Bowman’s not even a cosmologist.”
“Are you a physics major?” Vinod inquired.
Rachael shook her head. “I’m still undeclared, but I’m mostly taking science courses and have a minor in journalism. An odd combination, I guess.”
“So you’re going to be a—”