Moving Mars (39 page)

Charles put his elbows on the table. Of course, he said. Stephen and I have been planning a number of demonstrations, with varying degrees of sophistication. Experts to yahoos. Bring them on.

He was being a shade too flippant, given the nature of our problem, but I had tired of bringing him up short. Im still not well versed on physics, I said.

You really should be, he chided. I dont use one, but I could recommend a good enhancement. Martian-made.

No thank you. Not right now. I made sure the others were still out of hearing. But Im curious. How did you manage all this?

Charles leaned forward, face as bright and eager as a childs, and placed his hands on the table. Ive always wrestled with stupid problemsthe really big problems. Its stupid to wrestle with them, because many of them circle back to the language used to state themand thats a fools chase.

But one problem seemed truly big and truly interesting fundamental. Mathematics is powerful. We can create equations to use as tools to describe nature. We can use them to predict what will happen. What gives mathematics such power? It took me years to come to a conclusion, and when I did, I told nobodybecause the conclusion was so simple, and I was too young, and there was no way to prove anything.

So I waited. I studied the Ice Pit, all I could find about William Pierce and his work, his fatal discovery. I knew that my simple solution fit into his theoriesexplained and supplemented them, in fact. I joined other people who seemed in tune with me, worked with them and prodded them My ideas became testable.

Mathematics is made of systems of rules. The universe seems to operate by a set of rules, as wellnot so precisely, but then, measurements arent ever precise in nature. That in itself should have given everybody a clue.

The rules of math give it the quality of a computational machine. We can design computers using mathematical concepts and rules, because math is a computational system. The computers operation is not so different from math itselfits math operating in light and matter. And math is useful in describing and predicting nature because nature itself uses a set of rules. Nature behaves as if it is a computational system.

When we do math in our heads, we store resultsand the rules themselvesin our heads or on paper, or in other kinds of memory. Our brains become the computer.

The universe stores the results of its operations as nature. I do not confuse nature with reality. At a fundamental level, reality is the set of rules the results of whose interactions are nature. Part of the problem of reconciling quantum mechanics with larger-scale phenomena comes from mistaking results for rules,a habit built into our brains, good for survival, but not for physics.

The results change if the rules change. Our universe evolved ages ago out of a chaos of possible rules An original foundation or ground that simply bubbled with possibilities. Sets of rules vanished in the chaos, because they were not consistentthey could not survive against more rigorous, meaningful sets. I dont mean survive in time, eitherthey simply canceled and negated in a time-free eternity. But sets of rules did come into existence which were not immediately contradictory, which could work as free-standing, computational matrixes.

Those which strongly contradictedwhose rules could not produce long-lived resultswere simply not recorded. They vanished. Those whose results could interact and not contradict, at least for a while, survived.

The universe we see uses an evolved, self-consistent set of rules, and the rules of mathematics can be made to more or less agree.

Mathematics is a computational matrix. Its power to describe and predict is no puzzle if the observed universe is the result of a computational matrix. No mysterya fundamental clue.

I listened to him carefully, trying to follow his reasoning. Some of it was clear enough, but I could not track his leaps of intuition.

Charles squinted up at the ceiling. Ive never told anybody that before, he said. Youre looking at my theoretical underwear, Casseia.

Im not embarrassed, I said. I hardly know what Im seeing.

Weve been around and around about responsibility for discovery, about the problems descriptor theory has caused you and everybody else. I thought Id tell you more about my excuses. God is not necessary in all thisbut that doesnt mean I havent been searching for God. I just havent found the key yet. Maybe there isnt any. But when I contemplate these things, when I work on these problems, that is the only time I feel worthy.

Ive lived my life well enough, and Im no monster, but I have sufficient emotional problems for any human. When I work, I transcend those problems. I am pure. Its like a drug. I cant stop thinking just to become responsible and put a halt to change. I need the purity of that kind of thought, that kind of discovery. I may never know a redemptive love, I may never have complete self-understanding, but I will have this, at the very least: the moments when Ive asked questions about reality and gotten meaningful answers.

When did you first think your theory was justified? I asked.

I put the Olympians together. Stephen was crucial with the politics, especially when we went to work for Cailetet. First, we duplicated William Pierces experiment. We redesigned his apparatus, improved field damping, used more efficient force disorder pumps. We used a smaller sample of atoms. And we brought the atoms down to absolute zero. At zero temperature, the Bell Continuum becomes coextensive with space-time. They merge. Descriptors within particles can be changed.

Thats all? I asked.

Thats something all by itself, Charles said. But youre right. It still wouldnt be enough Earth thinks descriptors are simple yes-no switches. But I decided they couldnt be simple. First, I tried to think of them as smoothly varying functions. That didnt work, either. They werent yes-no toggles, but they werent smooth waves, either. They were codependent. Each referred to the others. They networked. Every particle having mass contains the same number of descriptors. But that number is not an integer. It isnt even rational. Descriptors obey Quantum Logic from beginning to end. He looked at me with some concern. Am I boring you?

Not at all, I said. I found myself attracted by the sound of his voice, boyishly enthused and powerful at once. Children playing with matches. The fascination of fire.

If you want to tweak a descriptor, you must first persuade it to exist, Charles said. You have to separate it out from the cloud of potential descriptors, all of them codependent. And to do that, you need a QL thinker.

But how do you reach them? I asked.

Good question, Charles said. Youre thinking like a physicist.

More like mud pies to me, I said.

He smiled and tapped my hand with his finger. Dont underestimate yourself.

I withdrew my hand. How? I asked.

When we bring a sample of atoms down to zero, the coextensive space around it takes on the characteristics of a single large particle, what we call a Pierce region, or a tweaker, he said. It has its own charge and spin and mass, e times the mass of the original sample of atoms. Its extra mass is pseudo, of course, and the traits are pseudo as well. We suspended the pseudo-particle, the tweaker, in a vacuum. We found that when we manipulated the tweaker, we were actually choosing a descriptor, pulling it from the cloud, and changing it directly. But nothing happened. The accident was stumbling upon the unique identity descriptor that keeps a particle separate from all others.

So?

Tweaking unique identity could convert our pseudo-particle into any particle, anywhere. The pseudo-particle itself doesnt actually exist in the matrixthe matrix doesnt recognize it. So another particle takes on the traits we assign. It can be a single particle far awayor all the particles within a well-defined volume.

It almost made sense. The tweaker, the coextensive space, becomes a surrogate for others. What you do to it, you do to them.

Right, Charles said. There are no particles, you understandno such thing as space or time. Those are just fragments of the old paradigm now. Were left with nothing but descriptors interacting within an undefined matrix. He looked over my shoulder at Casares and Zenger, visible as moving shapes behind the translucent curtain. Chinjia and Leander helped them. We can excite a distant particle in a way that can be interpreted as a signal.

How fast? I asked.

How fast can the signal travel? Instantaneously, he said. Remember. Distance doesnt exist.

Dont you violate a few important laws?

You bet, Charles said enthusiastically. Paradigm shift. And I dont say that lightly. Weve thrown causality right out the door. We replace it with an elegant balancing act in the Bell Continuum. Bookkeeping. He rounded his lips, sucked in a deep breath, folded his hands on the table and rapped the surface lightly with a knuckle. Thats the explanation. In a nutshell.

All of it? I asked. He was holding something back.

All of it thats relevant for nowand certainly as much as youd care to hear.

You mean, as much as Id understand. One more question. Whats the destiny tweak?

Charles lowered his eyes. Youve read the letter from Stanford, he said.

Yes.

Thats why you sent me that message a few years back.

Yes.

It was speculation. Pure and unfounded.

Nothing more?

He shook his head. Hows your husbands work going?

Very well, I said.

Youve a curious taste for scientists, Miz Majumdar, Charles said with an enigmatic smile.

Before I could respond, Leander and Casares pushed through the curtain. They sat in the booth and Casares said, Were finished. The inside of the container is scarredas if its been baked and etched. Im convinced energy was created by a mirror matter interaction in the sealed sample. Doctor Zenger is convinced, as well.

Zenger came forward and said, Ill go along for the time being.

We can send our report directly to the President, or

Ill take it to her, I said.

Have you made security arrangements yet? Leander asked. We need to know whom we can talk to.

Were still working out details.

Governments in the details, Charles said.

On the shuttle back from the lab, I looked at Charles and Chinjia, observing their postures, the play of their glances at each other and at me, Zenger, and Casares. Flying over Solis Dorsa, avoiding the edge of a thin but wide dust storm, I experienced a quick shiver of unease.

Something very important was being left unspoken, undescribed.

More than government lay in the details.

I fell into a darker mood. The less I understood, the less I could interpret what was being said, the weaker Ti Sandra and I would be. We could not afford weakness. We would have to understand more fullyand anticipate as much as we possibly could.

There was only one way for me to do that. I lacked Charless native ability. I could not track his leaps of intuition. I would have to take at least a step toward being more like Orianna. Charles had made the suggestion. It was obvious, it was necessary, but I still strongly resisted.

I would need an enhancement.

I would have to reach Charless level of comprehension, if not brilliance, and as soon as possible.

Part Four

2182-2183 (M.Y. 59)

Outwardly, the social structure of Marswhere people lived, whom they associated withchanged little. The greatest upheavals came for officials in the birthing government, who flocked over Mars like birds in search of a nest. The nest was found, selected without much ceremony by the interim President. Ti Sandra chose Schiaparelli Basin between Arabia Terra and Terra Meridiani, and the tiny station of Many Hills spilled over with activity. This would be the capital of Mars.

Such a grand denomination required more than a digging of tunnels and erection of domes; it required a new architectural renaissance, something that would impress the entire system and serve as symbol for the new Republic. All the families in the Republic wanted to contribute funds and expertise. The difficulty was selecting from a wealth of enthusiasm and advice.

The interim legislature created an agency called Point One, and assigned it twin tasks: security of the executive branch, and gathering of information for the government as a whole. Ti Sandra had mused that the tasks would have to be separated eventually, or a fifth branch of government would ariseThe branch of intrigue and back-stabbing. So far, however, things were working smoothly.

In the tiny headquarters at Many Hills, I spoke with Ti Sandra about the end of our government and the transition to the elected government. I hoped to continue working with the Olympians, at least until a fully capable Office of Scientific Research could be established; I mentioned acquiring an enhancement. Ti Sandra expressed interest in what sort of enhancement I would employI had not decided yetand then sprung her own surprise.

The President walked along the display that filled an entire wall of the Presidents Office. The media links had been established just the day before. On the new display, projected statistics for much of Mars could be called up instantly, as well as ports to all public ex nets. Dedicated thinkers performed image and concept searches on all LitVid communications, and constantly glossed the mood of the planet. We hoped to buy similar (though less comprehensive) services for other parts of the Triple, including Earth.

Our conversation turned to the coming election. Were not so bad, you know, she said. Have you seen the lists?

Many candidates had declared, but none seemed especially popular in the pre-campaign polling.

Ive seen them, I said.

If we declared, wed probably win, she said with a deep sigh.

I tensed. Youre serious?

Ti Sandra laughed and hugged me. What should we do, show honorable Martian reserve and retire to our farms, to advise the lesser politicians like elder statesfolk?

Sounds fine to me, I said.

Ti Sandra clucked disapprovingly. Youve mapped out your territory. You want to keep track of Charles Franklin.

I gave her a shocked look.