Manse Everard tells Wanda Tamberly that, if a time traveler arrives as if from a potential future but then prevents that future, then she came:
"'From nowhere. From nothing. Cause-and-effect doesn't apply. It's sort of like quantum mechanics, scaled up from the subatomic to the human level.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 1987 A. D., p. 30.
Thus, in quantum mechanics, some subatomic events are uncaused.
If it were the case that every present event had been caused by a past event which in turn had been caused by a still earlier event and so on, thus that every cause of a later event was also an effect of an earlier event, then the sequence of effects and their earlier causes would recede indefinitely into a beginningless past with no event ever describable as a "first cause." However, if some events, namely subatomic quantum mecanical events, are uncaused, then there could have been a first cause, namely a quantum event that had not been an effect of any earlier event. However, that first cause would simply have been the earliest past event, not a still existent entity.
This contradicts the ancient Aristotelian/medieval Scholastic use of the term, "First Cause," reproduced by James Blish:
"'...that First Cause which we have the privilege of serving... in worship of the First Cause...'"
-James Blish, Mission To The Heart Stars (London, 1980), CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 126.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think I recall reading in one of the Time Patrol stories of Manse Everard being actually terrified by such ideas derived from quantum mechanics. I recall him thinking that he only worked in such an alarming universe, one he did not claim to understand.
I sure as heck don't claim myself that I understand quantum mechanics and alternate or parallel universes--never mind so often finding SF stories set in such places fascinating. I can think of examples like Poul Anderson's THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS or Stirling's THE PESHAWAR LANCERS (or CONQUISTADOR).
Ad astra! Sean
As I understand it, the Big Bang is attributed to a quantum fluctuation by many physicists.
Or a quantum fluctuation, then a rapid expansion of energy called "inflation," then (3rd stage), the Big Bang.
Or something.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the Big Bang hypothesis was worked out by a Catholic priest and astrophysicist, Fr. Georges Lemaitre. With due scientific caution, he tried not to attribute too much to his theory.
Ad astra! Sean
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