The Punch Escrow
Page 29
As The Punch Escrow is set in the mid-twenty-second century, I expect history will show I’ve gotten a lot of things wrong. I did my very best to avoid such missteps, but since I am only a fan of quantum physics and not a quantum physicist myself, I leaned on my friend Joe Santoro, a real-life medical physicist, to vet—and sometimes invent—the science necessary to make this world scientifically plausible. Joe is one of the nicest, smartest guys I know. He’s probably blushing, reading this. Still, without him, there never would have been a Punch Escrow.
In April of 2016, after I was sure this book would be published, I conducted a short interview with Joe.
Tal: Let’s get the obligatories out of the way. Please state your name and what you do for a living.
Joe: My name is Joe Santoro, and I am a medical physicist. I work in a radiation oncology clinic at a hospital on Long Island. We’re the guys who make sure the medical linear accelerator is delivering the correct radiation dose to patients undergoing radiation therapy. We also come up with the treatment plans for patients that dictate where the radiation will get delivered. We’re responsible for routine quality assurance of most of the various components that comprise the radiation delivery chain, i.e. the CT scanners, LINAC, on-treatment imaging, et cetera.
Tal: What made you want to get into physics?
Joe: Now you’re making me use my way-back machine. I guess I would have to narrow it down to three things at a really early age: astronomy (just looking up at the sky), magnets (which are cool at any age), and a fascination with things just crashing into one another. I subsequently became obsessed with meteorology to the point where I was making weather reports daily and posting them on the classroom door. Incidentally I didn’t end up “specializing” in either meteorology or astronomy, but these early interests were springboards into studying (particle) physics and mathematics later in life. To this day I still love a great meteor shower, looking up at the moon, or spending hours a day on Wunderground.com
Tal: In science fiction books, scientists are often presented as characters with no sense of humor. I think that’s why Andy Weir’s The Martian was so beloved by the scientific community, because it presented hard science side by side with toilet humor. It was something I wanted to capture in Sylvia. She’s a quantum physicist, but one who’s also happy to drop a fart joke at any given moment. As a professional physicist, how much of a role does humor play into your daily work life? Can you cite any examples?
Joe: It’s funny you ask that. When I think back on the influences that shaped my personality as a scientist (and just a regular person), I think of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray’s character in Ghostbusters) and Chris Knight (Val Kilmer’s character in Real Genius). Perhaps it was just a function of watching and rewatching these movies at a really mentally malleable age, but both characters made the prospect of being a scientist seem like something really cool to aspire to.
I think having a good sense of humor allows you to deal with the absurdity, randomness, beauty, and cruelty of the universe in a way that complements science’s attempt to establish some sort of framework for all that. I think taking oneself too seriously is a hazard in both scientific pursuit and life’s pursuits. After all, what’s the point if you can’t have a good laugh every now and then?
It goes without saying that working in a radiation oncology department can be extremely stressful and tragic on an almost daily basis. I’ve been at places where joking around is discouraged, and I can tell you, people don’t last too long at those places. Without being able to joke around with the people I spend the better part of my day with, I think I would want to throw myself in front of train at the end of the day.
Tal: While writing the book, I’ve asked you to help me create a lot of absurd tech: convert mosquitoes to flying steam reformers, keep self-replicating nanos in check with ecophagy cages, build quantum switches for improbable bombs, and make human teleportation possible with density functional theory. Your one caveat to me was: beware of using too much deterministic language when describing how things work. Can you elaborate on why you said that?
Joe: Did I say that? It sounds quite serious. I guess what I meant is that when talking about things inherently “quantum,” it requires us to use the language of chance and probability instead of certainty. Quantum physics describes the world of the extremely small, and at these scales, familiar quantities like the position, velocity, momentum, and energy of an object become fuzzy and probabilistic. Instead of specifying these quantities as definite values like we’re used to for, say, a car traveling on a road, we have to instead speak of the expectation value of these quantities for an object like an electron. Quantum physics can say that the most probable location to find an electron orbiting a proton in a hydrogen atom is 1.5 times the Bohr radius but nothing more definite. This is in contrast to saying that our car is at position X, Y, Z, traveling at velocity V. It’s definitely a different way of thinking about reality, and I’m not sure anyone really ever gets used to it.
Tal: Okay, last question before I let you go back to saving the world one patient at a time: What one quantum physics breakthrough would you like to see happen within your lifetime?
Joe: That’s a doozy. If you’re going to make me pick just one, I would have to say commercially viable quantum computing coupled with photonic data storage and transfer. The exponential increase in the processing capability of a quantum computer will enable humanity to solve all sorts of currently intractable problems across dozens of disciplines. This also has to be accompanied by a completely new way to move and store such enormously large quantities of data, which means moving away from electronic data storage and buses to light-speed photonic data storage and busing. There are even some people using organic compounds like DNA as a means of storing extremely large quantities of data. The coupling of these nascent technologies can potentially change the course of humanity in unimaginably fantastic ways.
Tal: That’s it! I’ve had it with your shenanigans, Joe. Get the hell out of my book!
Seriously, though, I can never thank Joe enough for helping me build the world in which The Punch Escrow takes place. He’s an amazing guy and represents the ideal intersection of scientific curiosity and human empathy. We need more Joes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SINCE THIS BOOK has been over half a decade in the making, and I’ve only been allotted seven hundred words, I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss a lot of people. So: if I’ve missed you below, I am a terrible person, and I already feel guilty. You are remarkable.
Chronologically, I must acknowledge my mom (Yona) and dad (Avi), without whom—technically—I wouldn’t be here, so they’re first. My dad was among the archetypes I used to build Moti: a bad ass Semite with a heart of gold. My mom was a biology teacher and she’s now a science exhibit curator at the Madatech museum in Israel. Considering I almost failed biology in high school, I think she was pretty shocked to learn I’d written a hard science fiction book.
Then there’s my amazing wife, Rachel, the better author in the Klein family. I am incredibly grateful for her input and support, especially when I couldn’t quite get into Sylvia’s mind. Rachel, thank you for your guidance in shaping Sylvia’s voice and personality.
And of course, my wonderful, superbly creative, intelligent, and beautiful-in-every-way daughters, Iris and Violet. Daddy loves you.
My sister, Liat. It was awesome growing up with such a loving, confident, intelligent, and beautiful little sister. Everyone should have one.
My in-laws, Vonda and Ray, in whose house much of the first draft of this book was written while we relocated from the polythelia of Northern California to the thenar of Michigan.
The Klein, Berger, Peeri, Cohen, Schrieber, and Dvir families.
Adam Gomolin, you’re right up there with mishpocha. I’m sorry people keep urinating on your porch.
This book is an official selection of the Semiannual “Big” Brown Family Reunion Book Club: Brown, Bowen, Cummi
ngs, Hooker, Grossenbacher, McKinney, Mursten, Maxwell, Overmiller, and Carrizales clans, I love y’all. (And I’m sorry about all the f-bombs and S words.)
Oh, and this book is also a selection of the Birmingham Oenophile Literary Society. Thank you, ladies. For the record, I’d pair this book with a nice Savagnin served slightly below room temperature.
Next, I’d like to thank four friends I’ve known since high school. I’m telling you, make a lot of smart friends in high school, kids, because someday you might need to get a lot of free legal and/or physics advice. Joe Santoro (with whom you should now be familiar) helped me more than I care to admit with the science of The Punch Escrow. He puts the hard in hard science fiction if you get my drift. David Sontag and Jay Wolman helped me form the legal framework that informed the anthropology of Earth 2147. There was this great part of the book where I dug a lot deeper into the legality of how Joel got his comms back, but it got edited out. Sorry, guys! And, of course, John Hannon, who helped me think through a lot of the humor and Rube Goldberg–esque plot devices. John is a connoisseur of poop jokes. He has a son called Hunter who takes after his father in the poop joke department. Hi, Hunter!
My developmental editors, Robert Kroese and Matt Harry. You guys, I’m sorry I am a terrible author. Thanks for helping me write good.
My beta readers: Ian Ellison—the guy’s read every version of this book, like, a million times, so if it sucks, it’s his fault. Seriously, not my fault—Ian’s. And of course, you can also blame Dan Salinas, Russ Mitchell, David Siddal, Bradford Stephens, Ben Murphy, and Gabe Coelho-Kostolny.
Group hug: Ryan “Brian Porter” Potter and the family; Vaughn, AJ, and Renee; my Scottish family: Chief, Dog, G, Martinho, Ike of Spain; Wes Wasson; Richard Jefferies Woodruff and the Chardmo (two completely different people); Chris and Donna Rosa; “Fun” Bobby Brown; Anthony “Garlique” Mansfield; Simon Wardley; Simon Crosby; Craig “Makes Lovely Pictures” Allen; Tomer “Tomash” Schwartz; Chris “Beaker” Hoff; Meredith “Etoile” Peruzzi; Mel “Spunky” Stanley; Dan “Gilmore” Burford; Barbara “Eclipse” Reece; Wade “Pandaflip” Bell; Danny Ryan; “Not So Big” Ben Morris; “Acceptable Up” Shepdog; Sean “Chester” Manchester; Patricia “Margarita del Toro” Chavez; Hillary “Hillycake” Qualtieri; Lai Long; Mr. and Mrs. Goodgroove; Sean “Hardway” Johnston; Lisa Carlini; Mark Gebert; Sam Johnston; Heather Fitzsimmons; Mike Spinney; Kevin Kosh; Kristy “Shut Up” Cowart; Michael Kellerman; Carlos Estaban; Angela and Mark Broxterman; Julie and Tom Warmbrodt; Naddine and Mike Morgan; Matt “the Tax Ninja” Whatley; Greg Silverman; and Ben Luntz.
Oliver Evilord for pointing out that Talking Heads’s “Psycho Killer,” although classified as New Wave, was released in 1977 and thus would not have qualified for Joel’s 1980s New Wave mix.
The Inkshares crew: Thad, Avalon, Elena, Angela. Heart emojis, yay.
Scott Meyer: without Martin Banks, there would be no Joel Byram.
Legendary Entertainment and Geek & Sundry: Rachel Romero, Alex Hedlund, Rob Manuel, and of course, Felicia Day.
Howie Sanders and the UTA crew: thanks for putting your faith in me.
Ajar and everyone at Penguin Magic—you guys really helped make this happen.
Jean-Francois Dubeau, Jamison Stone, and Brian Guthrie—thanks for talking me off the ledge. Shouts to all other Inkshares and Quill authors.
Oh no, I’m out of words! To those I’ve missed: may I live a thousand years and never hunt again.
LIST OF PATRONS
Acar Altinsel
Adam Gomolin
Adam Helfgott
Avi Klein
Chris Coluzzi
Christopher L. Rosa
Danelle Au
Dov Calderon
Dylan F. Weiss
Galit Klein
Gregory P. Dolan
Gur Talpaz
Jeremy Steinman
John C. Bertrand
John.Fanelli
Joshua J. Gorciak
Kwang Kim
Mark R. Shuttleworth
Mike P. Wertz
Peter Birdsall
Peter J. Downing
Peter Lindstrom
Rachel Jane Perkins
Richard Woodruff
Robert A. Brown
Ryan Potter
Russell Mitchell
Sean Manchester
Steven Moody
Tom Howie
Todd D. Smith
Victor Y. Thu
Wes Wasson
Yona Klein
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