Quantum Mechanics
(i) In Anderson's Technic History, a spaceship under hyperdrive circumvents the relativistic light-speed limitation by rapidly making a very large number of quantum leaps between nearby points in space without traversing the spaces between the points.
(ii) In his Time Patrol series, a time traveller who appears as if from nowhere and prevents the events that would have led to his birth is compared to a quantum event on the macroscopic level. Manse Everard cites the quantum nature of the continuum when he explains to the Zorachs that, although he has travelled to 950 BC from the Patrol-guarded twentieth century, he might not return to it.
(iii) A new kind of quantum phenomenon occurs when not a time traveller but a random fluctuation in space-time-energy changes medieval history and this is described as a quantum leap.
2 comments:
Note that entanglement between quantum particles can produce phenomenon that travel faster than light -- if one such particle is measured, the quantum collapse occurs instantly in the other, regardless of distance.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I love that, I hope it might someday be possible to use that quantum collapse to make FTL an engineering practicality. It reminds me of what Tipler discussed in his book THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY.
Ad astra! Sean
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