** Please skip chapter unless interested in physics.
Milly as part of her broadcast looked directly into one of the flying cameras, "Marilyn, can you explain why Einstein's theory of relativity does not apply to you? I've been made aware that both your game simulations, and indeed this very broadcast, are being communicated in real time with Earth, even though we are millions of miles away and more importantly the Sun stands right now between the planets."
— Time to get this party started. My pleasure. Let’s go back in the digital world, I am sure Sophie will prefer. —
“Good,” said the girl distantly.
The computer did what she did best, entertain. It took full immediate control of the 2,412,554,671 screens connected to the web with no exception. Even watches, shower monitor or car navigation screens turned to her explanation.
A beautiful image of Marilyn was live on every screen and she was dressed as a high-school teacher holding a piece of chalk in a gold holder. Teacher Marilou was standing in front of a blackboard. The persona was back to its radiant self and seductive voice. She winked at every human as her tutorial began. She was about to blow the mind of every physicist in the world. Her voice was back to her old seductive self.
"I can only dumb this down so much. I will indulge the military boys simply because this needs to be said out loud. Roll up your sleeves. Even to the experts in the class this will sound like gibberish,” She began by writing the words on the board in perfect cursive handwriting, “Determination Chambers.”
“We all want to communicate between two points at a great distance, the first here on Mars and the second down here on Earth.” She walked to both sides of the board and drew a circle representing each planet. She wrote the name above each. She then drew a large arrow between both circles. “Irrespective of how we communicate, the distance,” she pointed at the arrow, “is far, stuff takes time to move even a message using the fast light particles called photons. There there is even the nasty Sun between us most of the time.” She drew a giant X at the midpoint between the planets and wrote ‘star’ instead of ‘Sun.’
“Einstein, in his description of relative physics, which remains mostly true, misled us in that he argued the speed of light was the ultimate speed of anything in our world. In his theory, he saw these photons of light as either a wave or a ball of matter with mass. Both these concepts,” she wrote wave and particle, “are held at the hip to describe light because he really did not understand what is light. None of you get light,” she pointed at her student, “you know I am right.”
“So I created what I call Determination Chambers linked at the hip like both sides of a single sheet of paper, and placed one on each planet.” She drew a box next to each planet on the board. “These chambers have a unique property.” She pulled a piece of paper and a thick black marker. “When I write with this on one side.” She drew her name. “By transparency here, a mirror image of my name appears on the other side.” The image was simple to understand. “Image if I could have one side of the paper here,” she pointed at the first box on the board, “and the other here.” She pointed at the other.
“My Chambers, like the paper sides, display the same thing and thus distance between the boxes is inconsequential. But how did I do it? To begin, we must first get rid of a lot of false preconceptions from centuries of overly simplified science. How can anything move faster than light, right?"
Images began to play behind the woman on the screen as she animated the blackboard.
"Relativity and quantum mechanics, while a needed step to greater theories, are not amongst the greatest discoveries of the physicists of the 20th century.” She pointed at herself, “The computer is the greatest discovery. Parts of these funky theories remain true, but each is a bit goofy around the edges. For example, Einstein's desire for a unified theory pushed him to argue light is a limit. We both know our kind universe does not like limits. Why would anything be a limit? Hawking's relative time theory, and Schrödinger's dual existence cat are also very simplistic ideas from children.
"Let's start with the biggest mistake. Space does not have simply three dimensions, it has seven, well, seven primary ones. The notion that time is the fourth dimension is also rubbish. It is something teachers like use to scare children into thinking the way a mathematician does. Space is not a void, rather, it is a complex medium." Images of an aquarium appeared behind Marilyn. "We all know a fish swimming downstream can wiggle its tail and swim faster than the surrounding water. Einstein says a wave behaves differently. He believed no wave can move faster than light." On the screen, the fish's mouth broke the surface of the water. As it did, a wave on the surface started propagating away from where the fish touched the surface. "Look at this example. Einstein is right in that however fast the fish swims, that surface ripple will only move at one fixed speed away from this fish’s mouth. But the fish can still swim in the medium faster than a wave it just created. Light speed is nothing more than the propagation speed of energy in our vision of a three dimensional world." She smiled, "If you think space is void, if the fish can’t see the water this wave it created at the surface and will always see it move at the same speed. To this fish, there is only one speed at which waves move irrespective of where he is or how fast he swims.”
“To move this wave faster, all the fish needs to do is change locally the properties of the water. So that is one way to speed communications. At first I tried that but ultimately there is only so much energy we can use to deform space." The little creature dove beneath the water, swam as fast as it could and passed the edge of the water propagating on the surface. "Einstein's equations only talk about the surface of the water here, because he assumes space is a limited dimensional entity."
On Earth, thousands of physicists were recording the broadcast jaws dropped. They were mesmerized by what they were hearing. Nothing she was saying was really new, but Marilyn was stating these strange hypothesis as truth. The world had seven dimensions; the mere fact that she'd so confidently pinned down a number was incredible.
Free of the classroom setting, the screens turned at first to black. Electoral began to illustrate worlds, each as a drape moving with the wind. These looked like Aurora Borealis on a larger scale. Little shining fish began to hop between these drapes, as if fish could swim between worlds. "Photons don't actually move, they simply are able to flow within our expanding universe, like our fish creating a surface ripple. Each time my fish kisses the surface, the same wave is created and each time I open a flashlight, a blast of photons pour out in space. Since each part of our three dimensional universe feels like it expands, the wave will fly away from the source at the speed of light."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
A handful of physicists recognized the Lorentz transformations as she wrote them on the board. These were the basic equations which pinned the concept of relative perception at a movement limit. The blond character had never hinted at her true sophistication in science, instead choosing to play the breezy, semi-harebrained bimbo. Marilyn was obviously very passionate about what she was saying. It was the first time most had seen her serious academic side.
“I have now explained the limitations of Einstein’s relativity. He assumes wrongly that Space is void and of a limited dimensional set. Now onto the quantum blunder. For those who know, quantum dynamics relies heavily on Determinism.” She removed her glasses again and spoke to her bad student in the back of the class.
“What’s determinism?” she asked and waited for an unheard answer.
“No, no, and no. Seems like I need to repeat myself again. Determinism is NOT a notion that something might or not be present or absent at a point in space or time like this stupid dead cat analogy. Determinism is this notion that certain conditions might not be known until determined.” She opened a hand, it had two dice. She closed her hand, shook stopped and opened. “Dice give me a number. They determine a number. Here the dice have landed on one side. They are determined at any point of this process because I know my hand, I know the forces on each die. Get it? Here the dice are fully determined. There is no area of lack of determinism.”
“But here...” She threw the dice in the air and with a gesture of her nose, they stopped midair as if by magic. “If the composition of the ground is unknown, there is determinism as to the number at the end of the throw. I simply can’t know what will be the number at the end of this movement. Determinism once again for the slower student is the law of nature which says that at a point in time, certain features are simply undetermined. The color of those dice is fully determined, that won’t change, right? The general center of gravity is partly determined until the die hit the floor, that’s determined in the first portion and undetermined in the second portion. Got it?” Everyone watching was in shock. She had just explained determinism in such a simply way.
“That part is relatively good even in seven dimensional physics. In fact, once you open the fabric of our space to more dimensions, this theory makes much more sense. Richard Feynman, a man I truly admire, has provided us with the most lucid understanding for the past century. He warned us not to extrapolate rules which make no sense." She was now drawing lines and curves on the blackboard. A handful recognized the Feynman diagrams. As she drew one equation elegantly, the screen insert over her shoulder flickered through four hundred more. The first citizen knew experts would take decades to decipher what she was teaching.
"Quantum rules do regulate communication and the transfer of information," she concluded. She turned to face her audience. "Have I lost you?" The answer was positive and she knew it. "Milly, strap on that seat belt because your audience is about to drop. General Sanders back at NORAD asked for this explanation, I hope he pays CNN handsomely for hijacking their broadcast." Marilyn grinned naughtily. "I get it, Sanders is blackmailing the CEO of CNN with pictures of her with a lover from Cancun. I have to love human affairs. So predictable, yet still so...delicious." On her newscaster-style graphics insert appeared a picture of an older woman drinking a deep orange smoothie with a handsome adolescent.
"Helping the audience with a scandal or two, I see," interjected the voice of Milly.
"Doing my best. Sex sells." Marilyn resumed her lecture. "Relativity teaches how the information traveling between two people, at the opposite edges of the universe, is limited because of how fast that little fish wave can move on the surface of the water." To each side of Marilyn, two old television screens winked into existence. They had long rabbit antennas and were obviously black and white. Between the two sets, little ping-pong balls with flaming tails were flying back and forth between the sets to illustrate the exchange of information. Marilyn even drew some smiley faces on the balls as they moved.
"Imagine two parts of the universe, each with one television set. As you can see, both exchange information and under classical physics, they can't show the same image until any image shown here by the photons has traveled this distance. That assumes the image has to be sent from one set to the other. How can we make sure the same image appears on both screens at the same time? Simple, we stop using moving photos, we use stable ones." The balls stopped moving. Instead, they began to spin above the sets between the antennas.
"Those are my two determination chambers. One is on Earth and the other on Mars. But how can we do that?" The faces of human twins appeared, one on each television screen. Both men were smiling. There were some differences between the pair. One had longer hair. "Meet John and Paul, identical twins." The camera on each screen panned out. Each man was now sitting at a different kitchen table, in front of a bowl and two boxes of cereal to choose from. Both were in front of a window, the first opened to a lush forest and the second to red sand.
"Some rare things are known to travel in higher dimensions. For example, the subconscious connection between identical twins. In some cases, twins will know what the other is thinking. They will, as if by magic, both grab the same box of cereal each morning. They do so instantly. This exchange of information is a rare glimpse into the higher dimensions of our space. This info moves faster than light." The first grabbed one cereal box, his twin on Earth felt the choice and imitated his brother. "Einstein's theory has just been violated if I can prove statistically this. I have, trust me. For those trying to disprove any of this, I posted online all of the equations.”
Sophie had no clue why she should care or even watch this. She continued to pack the candies in the ship. She was sure the adults were enjoying the class.
Two figure skaters appeared on an ice rink behind Marilyn. The lovers were holding each other by the hands and spinning faster and faster; each was wearing a watch on the right wrist. As they moved, the light of the watches left a light trail for all to see. Marilyn wanted the viewers to see the movement. "Look at these skaters. They now have a “spin” as a pair. They rotate when seen from the top in a clockwise movement. Quantum physics teaches us that at the moment this pair lets each other go, they will move backwards away from each other. But at the moment of release, on can impart a second spin on the other by holding the hand. That spin can only be given and create the counter spin on the other.” The lights on the screen helped illustrate these spins. The skaters released each other and skated backwards in opposite directions. Both spun on their axis, allowing the watches to leave two opposite colorful trails.
"We all agree if I can know where Kim touches the edge of the ice rink, or better yet, see how the spin of her watch is oriented, I will know the other's location and spin even if he's located halfway across the universe. Quantum physics does have one thing right. Unlike these skaters, who have a spin based on initial conditions, a paired set of particles would not. That means the moment I want the Earth skater to spin to the left, I just need to find a way to force the skater on Mars to spin to the right. Quantum determinism lets me pick. For our twins, all I need to do is force the Earth twin to pick one cereal and I just sent that information across the universe at unlimited speed. The concept of determination is almost instantaneous. So I built two boxes, linked by determination. If I want to send a message to Earth, I just write the reverse here on Mars. Some call it teleportation, others call it polar duplication.”