the last page of henry lamberton’s journal
My experiment worked and I have my proof that Newton was wrong. I have been exploring ways to pass on my observations and I feel that, after going through this in my head, the following is the best way I can find.
Let us say that today, I walk across Dulwich Common. I pass a gentleman who I have never made the acquaintance of. Neither do we acknowledge each other as we pass.
When I retire that evening, I dream the event that took place on the common in the exact same way. From my observation point, the gentleman I passed now exists in two states.
The first, the past where I passed him.
The second, where I dreamt I passed him.
Now let us theorise a third party, an observer. In the context of the park this may be a nanny who is sitting on a bench whilst her care run around. She witnessed myself passing the gentleman and introduces a third state. It is the state, and the only state, where both I and the gentleman are observed to exist.
We can refer to both the first and third states as being part of the Real. I know it to be real for it is my observation, and because the nanny is the only witness to both me and the gentleman existing in the same space. If I know I exist, then for me to be real, so must too that third state be real. As the second state is a product of my observation in the first state, we can note that for the first and second states to exist, the third state must exist.
Now I will refer to the second state as the unknown state. As the nanny did not see my dream, she did not observe me passing the gentleman in my dream – there is no verifiable evidence, but both I and the nanny in the first and third states have observed the gentleman to exist in that space. We must then conclude, that the gentleman in the second state can both exist and not exist.
I trust you are still with me. These three states, the First Real, the Second Unknown, and the Third Real, comprise the very fabric of our Universe. But that is not to say there are not more states. Imagine that the nanny went home tonight and dreamt about the same event I did. From her point of view, she has the three states, but because I also dreamt it, I now have my 3 states, plus her 3 states. If you will now entertain that the gentleman also dreamt of the event, that becomes 3 plus 3 plus 3.
Each time there is a difference in the event (say I dreamt that the gentleman’s cravat was blue and not red) this causes what I refer to as a new plane of reality, and all the states from the previous plane are repeated. (3+3+3)+(3+3+3). Now think of all the people you may pass in a busy day in London and, as I’m sure you can imagine, the numbers get big very quick – everyone has that first state which is observed by many combinations of third states, which means an infinite number of second states, on an infinite number of planes.
There is an indescribable amount of energy holding this together. I would need a blackboard to run through my hypothesis here, but my final observation is there is no mass or force. Ha! I will have to be fair, however, and give Newton his ‘action’. My experiment has also, unexpectedly, proven that time is irrelevant, which I have yet to understand.
So you see, after I fired my machine up, the iron support I was forced to use (thanks to not getting the funding from the Academy) broke. As I went to stop the machine from falling over, the carrier tube shattered and I was covered in my Huygen fluid, which was the key to this whole experiment. Amusingly, you may say, I now have no mass, nor can I apply any force. My eye-line was fixed in that split-second before I was covered in the fluid. From this viewpoint, I have witnessed my experiment over and over again.
Sometimes the differences are slight; my hair is longer, the room a different colour. Other times it would cause Charles Darwin to spin in his grave. I am sure that by these laws, there eventually must come a state where the ‘me’ doing the experiment, will notice the ‘me’ watching, and act accordingly. Though I do worry about the problem of time.
I cannot see, but I feel as if the walls of my laboratory have long since gone. It was about observation 400 when I felt the wallpaper was getting mouldy. Around 800 to 900 I could have sworn I smelt fresh paint. Long after I stopped counting, I felt at one point there were children in the room with me. And then there was an entire period of cycles where I regularly imagined I could hear sirens, followed by large explosions, until that ended abruptly. Now there is the feeling that I am in an open space. Sometimes I feel as I can taste the dew in my mouth.
I feel quite content, for I am watching the mechanics of the universe. I never get tired or bored and each cycle teaches me something new. I am also happy to fulfil myself with the thought, that one day, I will get back to that Academy, face my critics and physically shove Newton’s Principia where it belongs.
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Tags: #fridayflash, 1890's, 1897, Academy, Brass, Dulwich, England, Entanglement, Europe, Experiment, Henry Lamberton, London, Machine, Newton, Quantum, Schrodinger, Scientist, Space, Time
Say who?
This must’ve taken quite the concentration to write, and what a fine read it is. I love it! Kind of reminds me of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine.
The following link, is a bit about writing this piece.
http://theworldofchance.blogsp.....urnal.html
Fun science story playing with quantum mechanics. Observing an experiment causes different outcome, particular trying to observe wave and particle properties of tiny things like electrons. Some Schrodinger cat-like here; dual states.
Poor Henry is now the experiment.
This was a nice romp through the many universes. Good luck, buddy. Even with proof, the Academy isn’t easy to convince.
Poor Henry. My head is spinning now. I wonder if that makes my head in a new state, as it wasn’t previously spinning before reading your story.
What a fun read!
Henry’s final observation is that there is no “mass or force”. Heh.
Oh what men do in the name of scientific discovery.
Ugh…I did a course a in quantum computing in university. I got a B+ and managed to learn absolutely nothing about quantum
But your story rings true because I’m just as confused as I was in class.
Slow reading for me, wanted to understand as best I could. You did a good job of making it readable.
I really like the story, and the idea of him stuck there observing (sort of) the world changing around him. It’s almost like he became the time machine – with no control though.
I don’t have a have much confidence that he’ll get back to the Academy to do any facing of critics or shoving of theories.
Schroedinger’s Nanny?
Nothing is real, all is quantum, either wave or particle or both. We cannot measure distances because matter will not stay ’still’ just as words cannot frame anything but a working model of physical reality. Imagine if we could aplly quantum ‘logic’ to write sentences; no more plodding Subject noun, verb, predicate noun… Let’s get non-linear in our syntax.
I’m next in the queue to bop Mr newton on the head after your venerable Henry Lamberton. Let’s go on to Lynne Truss’ house afterwards
This is really good! It clearly must have taken research, but if I hadn’t been pointed to your entry on researching it after reading the story, I never would have noticed it in the text. It reads like it comes straight from your character’s head, and thus, I was totally sucked into believing you just wrote this off the cuff! Well styled & a fantastic delivery of a difficult concept – I salute you, sir!
But, isn’t this assuming that a “dream state” is equal to reality? And for him to exist and not exist at the same time, you’d have to totally throw time out the window because with time involved, the nanny would have to answer whether he existed at the same time you were dreaming about him. Oh god..maybe I need a few glasses of wine before I hurt myself…lol.
In any case, I really, really enjoyed this as a big believer in the infinite multiverse theory.
“As I went to stop the machine from falling over, the carrier tube shattered and I was covered in my Huygen fluid…”
I hate it when that happens.
Wonderful, natural philosophy meets Steampunk feel. Newton was apparently a cad…
My eyes have gone cross-eyed! I simply don’t think like this. It was fun to read about someone who does, though. Excellent story!
To be or not to be is not the only question. Or is it? This was a lot of fun to read and made me think of college days … not the classroom part though.
Loved the voice here, and the meeting of the minds. Just a super story all around. Peace, Linda
Why, oh why, must you make my brain hurt? Who is he when he’s writing? And who’s he writing to? And (or) why should he any longer care about the Academy? Feel free to answer, but try not to make my brain explode.
Loved it. You have an incredible imagination, sirrah! There were lots of little pearls in this piece, but in my opinion this one really shone: “I trust you are still with me.” Because I was – just! Well done. A+++
Reading this with a hangover has twisted my brain, but I kinda feel like I’ve learned something. Educational and entertaining.
Great voice in this. I sort of feel like I need to be decompressed.