I find it highly ironic that had Hitler valued the Jewish people, rather than massacring them, he could well have won the war. Ironic, but not surprising, as further research shows that while Jews make up 0.2 percent of the world population, they make up 27 percent of Nobel physics laureates. (“The Tel Aviv Cluster,” by David Brooks, New York Times, January 11, 2010).
Outtakes
Writing a novel is an evolutionary process, and scenes are frequently added, deleted, or changed. I wanted to share just a few paragraphs that I cut from the novel, which I thought might be of interest to readers. I made many other changes that were far more extensive, but I won’t burden you with these.
The McEnroe Anecdote: (Knight remembering the past)
Cargill was largely a talentless hack, with only a rudimentary knowledge of science. His only skill was in recognizing the talents of others, assembling and fitting together the best people across a wide range of disciplines and inspiring them to work together, herding these cats to achieve his goals with carrots, sticks, and dreams of glory, and then largely getting out of the way.
He had lobbied hard to get Knight to run the technical side of the project, which, all by itself, was enough to ensure a win. The Cargill/Knight pairing was similar to the once-famous team of Peter Fleming and John McEnroe in tennis doubles. When Fleming was asked if he was proud to be part of the best doubles team in the world, he had humbly told the truth—that he had little to do with it. The best doubles team in the world, he had said, was John McEnroe—and anyone else.
In this case, the best team to exploit dark energy was Edgar Knight—and anyone else.
Tesla and dark energy: Thirty months earlier, Knight had discovered a way to tap into the mysterious dark energy that physicists had found made up more than fifty percent of all energy in the universe—as nearly all-pervasive and infinite as a human mind could comprehend. Remarkably, Nikola Tesla, genius that he was, had not only sensed the existence of this invisible, unknown energy source that permeated all of space, but that it would one day be harnessed. Tesla had written, “Throughout space there is energy. It is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheel work of Nature. Many generations may pass, but in time our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe.’”
As was often the case, Tesla’s intuition had been remarkable, no surprise since he was one of the most brilliant inventors of all time, second only to Michael Faraday and Edgar Knight.
Gravity and the 5th dimension: (Nathan Wexler speaking) “One last thought before I move on to another topic. I mentioned gravity is thought by some to be a higher dimensional phenomenon. I don’t want to get into the complexities of the arguments, but gravity is a trillion trillion times weaker than the other forces we know of. It seems strong because there is so much matter in the universe. The entire mass of the Earth is holding you down, but you can still slam dunk a basketball.”
“You can slam dunk a basketball?” said Jenna with a grin.
Wexler laughed. “Not even with a ladder,” he admitted. “I probably should have said, ‘but there are some people who can slam dunk a basketball.’”
“Probably,” agreed Blake. “But who does society value more, those who can defy gravity and slam dunk? Or those with a deep knowledge of the laws of nature who allow the slam dunkers to succeed?”
“Are you kidding?” said Wexler.
“Okay, yeah,” said Blake in amusement. “I see how this might be rubbing it in. But we all know who society should value more.”
“Nice try,” said Wexler wryly, “but that doesn’t make me feel any better about my one-inch vertical leap. Anyway,” he continued, “as I was saying, gravity is ridiculously weak. One theory to account for this weakness is that it’s as strong as the other forces, but its strength is focused in higher dimensions, and just a hint of its power touches ours. This is very controversial, as is much of physics, actually, but our tech should give us a way to prove or disprove it.”
The complexity of general relativity anecdote: (This was part of the scene in which it was revealed that only Tini and Wexler could reproduce Wexler’s work.)
According to an old anecdote, someone approached the great Arthur Eddington at a scientific meeting in 1919, asking him if it was true that he was one of only three scientists in the world who truly understood Einstein’s theory.
When Eddington didn’t confirm this right away, the questioner praised him for his humility.
“Not at all,” responded Eddington, “I’m just trying to think of who the third one might be.”
This made for a great anecdote, but was probably not true. In the case of Nathan’s theory, however, it was absolutely the truth.
Sperm is cheap
I find certain segments of our society to be more sensitive than ever about discussions that touch upon gender. I tried to present this theory as inoffensively as possible, making it clear that there are differing interpretations of the data—which, as always, I encourage you to read on your own so you can draw your own conclusions.
I chose to include this in the novel because I wanted to show that Jenna had become attracted to Blake, despite herself, and I felt that a biologist like her would be confused by how this might have happened and want to analyze it scientifically. I also find it fascinating to think about how our behaviors can be molded by our genes without our conscious permission, and I never cease to be amazed by the power that sex exerts on our species.
Not that this should be surprising. The power of sex is universal across all species. After all, no quality is more essential for life than the ability to reproduce.
How powerful are these gene-driven reproductive compulsions? Ask male Australian redback spiders, who offer themselves up as post-coital snacks for the lovely females with whom they mate. I suspect that if these male spiders had human intelligence, they would strongly resist this strategy for passing on their genes, embedded in their DNA. I also suspect they would insist that any suppressed desire on the part of their fellow males to be eaten alive after mating wasn’t a real thing.
This last paragraph reminds me of a humorous segment from Futurama, one of my all-time favorite shows. One of the main characters, a human named Fry, is on the planet of his lobster-like alien friend Zoidberg, and comes to learn that members of Zoidberg’s species mate only once, and then die immediately thereafter.
FRY: So you have to choose between life without sex or a hideous, gruesome death?
ZOIDBERG: Yes.
FRY: Hmm—tough call.
With respect to the sperm is cheap theory, you can Google this and get many different viewpoints. One article I found of interest was written by John Tierney, and appeared in the August 20th, 2007 edition of the New York Times, entitled, “Is There Anything Good About Men? And Other Tricky Questions.”
But I will end this note with an excerpt from a 2012 article in Psychology Today, written by David J. Ley, entitled, “Why Men Gave Up Polygamy,” which presents some interesting conjectures that weren’t covered in the novel.
EXCERPT: A question I've pondered over recent years has been why men in so many cultures gave up the right and tradition to have multiple wives? Historically, polygamy has been one of the most common and prevalent forms of marriage, worldwide. But, in modern Western culture, men with multiple wives are seen as sinners and lawbreakers.
This flies in the face of increasing evidence that for many men (though not all), there are genetic, biological and psychological factors that dispose them to not be monogamous. As my colleague Eric Anderson argues in his new well-researched book, The Monogamy Gap , there is increasing evidence that monogamy is not a natural state for males, a dilemma which contributes to high rates of pornography use, infidelity, and marital difficulties.
So, as I’ve seen this rising evidence, I've wondered why and how it is that societies came to adopt monogamy. If Western culture and American society really have been dominated by patr
iarchal control, why would these men in charge give up the right to have multiple wives?
And now, here's the answer. In “The puzzle of monogamous marriage” by Henrich, Boyd and Richerson, the authors present evidence that monogamy actually has significant social benefits. In polygamy, powerful men gather the most desirable women for themselves. And less powerful men "go hungry," wifeless. In fact, throughout human history, while 80% of women have reproduced, only 40% of men have. Those men who couldn’t compete, didn't get to have even a single wife, and thus didn't have children. So, what did those men do with their time? According to Henrich, Boyd and Richerson, it appears they got into lots of trouble. Polygamous societies have higher rates of violent crime, poverty, and other types of crime such as fraud. Apparently, if you can't get a wife, what’s the point of following the rules?
So, through a (probably unconscious) social process, societies have gravitated towards emphasis and requirement of monogamous marriages, because it smooths out some significant social problems. By allowing all men a democratic chance to get married, men spend more time worrying about looking like good potential mates, and have less time and energy to break the rules and get in trouble.
The fifth dimension
Or the fourth spatial dimension—but who’s counting. : )
This isn’t a subject that the human brain can readily comprehend. I tried to get these concepts across as best I could, but I encourage you to do further research, since I’m sure I didn’t do it justice. This is a subject I think is very cool, so I wanted to include it, but I’m far from an expert. Thinking about it too hard hurts my head as much as anyone else’s.
I’ll end this note by providing an excerpt from an article written by the esteemed physicist and science popularizer, Michio Kaku. The article is entitled, “Hyperspace—A Scientific Odyssey: A Look At The Higher Dimensions,” and can be found on mkaku.org
EXCERPT: Do higher dimensions exist? Are there unseen worlds just beyond our reach, beyond the normal laws of physics? Although higher dimensions have historically been the exclusive realm of charlatans, mystics, and science fiction writers, many serious theoretical physicists now believe that higher dimensions not only exist, but may also explain some of the deepest secrets of nature. Although we stress that there is at present no experimental evidence for higher dimensions, in principle they may solve the ultimate problem in physics: the final unification of all physical knowledge at the fundamental level.
We live our lives blissfully ignorant of other worlds that might co-exist with us, laughing at any suggestion of parallel universes. All this has changed rather dramatically in the past few years. The theory of higher dimensional space may now become the central piece in unlocking the origin of the universe. At the center of this conceptual revolution is the idea that our familiar three dimensional universe is “too small” to describe the myriad forces governing our universe.
Although the theory of higher dimensional space has not been verified (and, we shall see, would be prohibitively expensive to prove experimentally), almost 5,000 papers, at last count, have been published in the physics literature concerning higher dimensional theories, beginning with the pioneering papers of Theodore Kaluza and Oskar Klein in the 1920's and 30s, to the supergravity theory of the 1970s, and finally to the superstring theory of the 1980s and 90s.
In fact, the superstring theory, which postulates that matter consists of tiny strings vibrating in hyperspace, predicts the precise number of dimensions of space and time: 10.
However, try as we may, it is impossible for our brains to visualize the fourth spatial dimension. Computers, of course, have no problem working in N dimensional space, but spatial dimensions beyond three simply cannot be conceptualized by our feeble brains.
(The reason for this unfortunate accident has to do with biology, rather than physics. Human evolution put a premium on being able to visualize objects moving in three dimensions. There was a selection pressure placed on humans who could dodge lunging saber tooth tigers or hurl a spear at a charging mammoth. Since tigers do not attack us in the fourth spatial dimension, there simply was no advantage in developing a brain with the ability to visualize objects moving in four dimensions.)
Sonic weapons and vomit-inducing smells
The military is working on scores of secret weapons, many of them more creative, or more bizarre, than can be readily imagined. The hidden weapons I had Hank Vargas bring to the table are all being worked on today. I will briefly present some information on both vomit-inducing and sonic weapons below.
Vomit-Inducing Weapons
Here is an excerpt from a March 2017 article in Wired, by Sharon Weinberger, entitled, “Son of Vomit Beam.”
EXCERPT: Yesterday’s post on the “vomit beam” drew some great comments from readers who noted that the idea of a nausea-inducing device is hardly new (although arguably Invocon’s method of achieving the desired vomit effect—through the equivalent of sea-sickness—is rather novel).
In science fiction, there’s the “vomit tube” (or puke grenade) used in the movie Minority Report, which induces people to vomit on demand. But what about real life?
I decided to take a look at weapons the Pentagon has explored that are intended to make you puke, pee, or otherwise lose control of bodily functions. I drew on some old ideas out in the literature, as well as my own past reporting that was just, well, a little too gross to put in any article. Here’s what I found
Stink Bombs: Sometimes grouped together with “gastrointestinal convulsives,” malodorants, as they are formally called, are basically things that smell really, really bad. Nausea can be one effect of malodorants, as anyone who has ever been sensitive to certain smells can attest. The wild and crazy folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency apparently continue to do research in this area, which has been around as an idea for several decades.
My reading suggests that the stink bombs being explored smell pretty much like decaying flesh combined with rotting garbage combined with concentrated skunk anus combined with vulture vomit.
Sounds delightful.
Sonic Weapons
With respect to sonic weapons, some experts believe these are in the works and making good progress, and others believe (based on their study of hearing and the ear) that these will never work. I’ll forgo this discussion for something more topical, at least as of this writing, namely, reports that some kind of sonic weapon was used on diplomats in Cuba. These reports came out after I had already decided to use such a weapon inTime Frame, once again turning something that was supposed to be science fiction into something more on the non-fiction side of the ledger.
Below is an excerpt from a September 2017 article in Business Insider (Science), by Kevin Loria, entitled, “The US is slashing its staff in Cuba after diplomats reported brain injuries and hearing loss, perhaps from mysterious sonic weapons.”
Excerpt: No one knows exactly what happened to the growing number of Americans and Canadians who returned from diplomatic missions in Cuba with mysterious and disturbing symptoms.
Some can no longer remember words, while others have hearing loss, speech problems, balance issues, nervous-system damage, headaches, ringing in the ears, and nausea. Some have shown signs of brain swelling or concussions.
Some of the victims remember strange occurrences before the symptoms appeared, though others didn’t hear or feel anything.
Almost a year after the reports began, the AP reported on Friday that the US State Department had determined that the incidents were “specific attacks” on diplomats and had moved to cut its Cuban embassy staff by 60%. The State Department is expected to warn Americans against visiting Cuba, noting that the attacks have occurred in hotels—even though no American tourists seem to have been affected.
The vibrations, piercing sounds, balance issues, and hearing loss have led some to surmise that some kind of never-before-seen acoustic or sonic weapon was used against the diplomats.
Supercoiled DNA and dead
space inside atoms
Our scientific achievements to date, as impressive as they are, pale in comparison to nature’s capabilities. Nature can create a human being from a single fertilized egg, including the human brain, the most complex structure we have ever encountered.
As part of this feat, nature had to find a way to embed the entire blueprint for a human being into every human cell. Since I once chose to devote my life to genetic engineering, I’m particularly fascinated by DNA and the genetic code, and well aware of the degree of DNA supercoiling inherent in the structure of our chromosomes. When I needed an example of how beings of a higher dimension could take dramatic shortcuts between two points in a lower dimension, DNA immediately came to mind.
Here is an excerpt from an article entitled, “How Long is Your DNA,” on a website called ScienceFocus.com.
EXCERPT: The DNA in your cells is packaged into 46 chromosomes in the nucleus. As well as being a naturally helical molecule, DNA is supercoiled using enzymes so that it takes up less space.
Try holding a piece of string at one end, and twisting the other. As you add twists, the string creates coils of coils; and eventually, coils of coils of coils. Your DNA is arranged as a coil of coils of coils of coils of coils! This allows the 3 billion base pairs in each cell to fit into a space just 6 microns across.
With respect to the dead space inside atoms, here is an excerpt from an article by Ali Sundermier that appeared in the science section of Business Insider in September of 2016, entitled, “99.9999999% of your body is empty space.”
EXCERPT: Some days, you might feel like a pretty substantial person. Maybe you have a lot of friends, or an important job, or a really big car. But it might humble you to know that all of those things—your friends, your office, your really big car, you yourself, and everything in this incredible, vast universe—are almost entirely, 99.9999999%, empty space.
Time Frame Page 41
