by Mark Goll
Newtonian physics. It ruled our lives for hundreds of years. Before, there was superstition and mystery, then Newton gave us enlightenment. But Newton avoided light, he chose not to venture into that realm of physics that approaches the speed of light. The mathematics were too difficult and for most human experiences it did not matter. Today we still use Newtonian physics for most of our view of the world.
Then came Einstein and light. Einsteinian physics viewed the universe as light itself. It opened a strange new dimension of time dilation and energy as matter. But Einstein avoided the dark. The black hole emerged from Einsteinian physics to challenge human creativity. Our universe stopped at the event horizon.
Then came Milton Friston.
There is a tale of three blind men who describe an elephant. Each touches a different part and "sees" a different animal. Twentieth century physics only saw the universe close to planet Earth, and got the picture wrong. It was Friston that saw our universe as the inside of a black hole, that the edge of the universe was an event horizon, that there was no big bang but a big suck! Then Friston opened doors through the event horizons into new universes.
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How many times had I ridden the Circulator from Earth past Venus and Mercury to the projector site. I can't remember. The trip takes time and gives you a chance to stop and think, a sort of enforced vacation, but it also keeps you from working. You float, isolated in Space. At perihelion we transfer to the hot ship, designed to take the energy of our approach to the projector's orbit, close to the Sun, close to the energy needed to open the door to another universe. We slip in behind the umbrella and dock with the station port.
The projector is laid out on tethers, like a string of beads pointing at the Sun. Sunward is the big umbrella and just behind it the transfer point where the capsule sits ready to make the trip to a new universe. Then there is the physics section, the energy control section, and finally the station which also functions as our escape pod. Releasing the tethers would throw the big umbrella and the transfer capsule into the atmosphere of the Sun, but the station would rise to a higher and safer orbit.
The projector project had been running now for several years. Constructed in Space near Mercury, it was slowly brought to it's present close sun orbit. The first probe was sent through two years ago, and the first return probe came back just last year. We had opened the door. Probe data revealed a universe with entirely different physics, yet not hostile to our own. Chimps had made the trip through and back with no signs of harm. Now it was time for the first crew to make the trip.
The crew would board the capsule. The panels of the big umbrella would rotate outward to focus energy at the transfer point. The matrix ring would be launched to the transfer point followed by the capsule moving faster, all timed to arrive at that point in space simultaneously.
We knew that our universe would last hundreds of billions of years more, yet we also knew that it was doomed. Short as human life span is, that knowledge cast a malaise over our existence, if our universe was doomed, so were we. Now the doors were opening to new universes, the same quest to guarantee the survival of humanity that had pushed us into Space was now to push us into what,? It was to be a leap of faith.