78 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: The Quantum Series
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categories: ["books"]
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---
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A summary of the books and analysis of some of the plot points in the Quantum trilogy by the American author Douglas Phillips.
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--------
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The first few sections are spoiler free, and there is a warning before you read any spoilers.
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## Quantum Incident
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The prologue introduces us briefly to a couple of main characters in the subsequent books. Daniel Rice is a science investigator and Nala Pasquier is a scientist in a private organisation working on a government project. We are introduced to a demonstration of interaction between the 4th dimension of space with the real world.
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## Quantum Space
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The 4th dimension of space and its relation with the 3rd dimension is explained in detail. The fiction is well within the imagination of the reader. The premise is that of a Spacecraft accidentally vanishing upon re-entry into orbit. The treatment is an extension of the book *[Flatlands](https://blog.neophyte.me/books/2020/12/17/flatlands/)* and is similar to my previous article *[Science in Fiction](https://blog.neophyte.me/ideas/2022/01/26/sciencefiction/)*. The book mainly deals with 3 characters - Daniel, Nala and Marie, and how they investigate and retrieve the spacecraft.
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## Quantum Void
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This book tries to provide explanations around where the 4th dimension of space exists and what is present around it. I couldn’t wrap my head around this concept and couldn’t make any logical conclusions further down the story based on what was explained previously. There are definitely a few logical inconsistencies over the course of the book. Often the science part is ignored and we are left with plain magic. Some of the scientific explanations did go over my head and sounded like something that the author concocted in an attempt to provide a logical explanation for an extraordinary event.
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The probabilities of quantum particles - quantum particles do not have a specific position, but a probability graph on where they could be - applied to the macro world was an amusing part of the story.
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There is also an exploration of life on other parts of the Universe that I thoroughly enjoyed reading - especially one from a certain planet. We are also presented with a social hierarchy in that planet and probably a political statement on how the workers are treated in that planet.
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We are also made more sensitive to the following two facts.
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1. Human cultures, rituals are arbitrary - life everywhere is bound to come up with their own set of eccentric practises.
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2. Scientific method of investigation and research is the way to progress for a society. Scientific discoveries can have major economic impacts and one must not neglect science even in the face of other pressing issues to solve.
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(*Going on a tangent here! Skip if you are busy*)
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This reminded me of the scientific discovery of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - the fact that the nuclei of different atoms resonate differently to magnetic fields. This was made by a Physicist with no background in medicine. However, the MRI scan is now the most potent medical device to look into a human body without cutting one open. A politician talking about how useless scientific investment is, when we could invest on solving poverty (for instance) fails to understand that this particular discovery would save millions of lives in the future.
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> Books 1 and 2 introduce a lot of scientific concepts to the reader.
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## Quantum Time
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My personal favourite of the three, even though I felt this movie to be the most close to magic in a science fiction setting as opposed to science fiction.
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As the name suggests, this deals with time travel and, apart from the host of paradoxes that comes with any time travel fiction, this was an entertaining read throughout. The book presents a dark future of totalitarianism in America controlled by a religiously dogmatic “party”. The entire plot with the overlapping events was definitely gripping and stimulating even with a lot of causal paradoxes. The description of the state also gave off similar vibes as the book 1984 by George Orwell.
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## Summary
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Even though there are plot holes, the main characters temporarily going out of character, and logical inconsistencies, I enjoyed reading this trilogy for the most part. I’ve come to understand that writing Science fiction is definitely hard.
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> This particular article, with the spoiler heavy analysis below, is in no way intended to discourage the reader to pick up this book or belittle this book. I strongly believe this book is going to influence a lot of new science fiction stories and movies and TV shows.
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In my opinion, this trilogy is going to stick out for a long time in its treatment of space time. I would definitely recommend reading this. If you are short on time, I would at least encourage you to pick up Quantum Time (you would have to ignore parts that reference the relationship of the characters from the previous books).
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## Discussion of the plot
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The below section is spoiler heavy. Stop reading if you are intent on reading the books. If you are not going to read the books, the below section won’t make any sense to you. If you have already read the books, proceed!
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1. In _Incident_, we are shown an experiment demonstrating that light from the 4th dimension reaching into the 3rd. However, in Void, Nala is not able to interact much with the 3rd dimension from the 4th.
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2. In _Space_, Marie, who is shown to be an intelligent woman, however, on the topic of suspecting Nala for lying, Marie suspends logic and immediately takes her side, even uttering something to the effect of “Women are never wrong”.
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3. In _Void_, the smoke from the factories are supposed to get into the 4th dimension. However, it is not shown what technology is being used to make that movement. If smoke can continuously go out of the 3rd dimension into the 4th, why can’t any human just walk into the device and get out into the 4th?
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4. In both _Space_ and _Void_, the expansion of space in the 4th dimension is shown to be accompanied by a corresponding contraction in the 3rd dimension (at least that is how I understood it even after a couple of reads). However, we are never shown a contraction and its effect in the 3d world.
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5. In _Void_, Marie being allowed to get close to and jump into singularity was a bit unconvincing. Having identified a singularity, one would expect strong protection around it.
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6. In _Time_, the FBI plays an important role. But why were they not present in Void when the singularity was causing problems?
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7. The law of probabilities are shown to affect the 4th dimensional space. However, it shouldn't have affected Marie even before she jumped into the singularity. In reality, she places the headband down and jumps in. She should not be having the headband in _Void_
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8. In _Time_, the Prime minister, President and the German chancellor discuss time travel with Daniel directly, instead of leaving the experts in the field to do the talking.
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9. In _Time_, the Goldilocks zone is described as though it is a zone from the perspective of the center of the galaxy, as opposed to the center of a star system. But then, the book goes on to explain that the planets such as Jupiter and Mercury cannot have life because of this. From the center of the galaxy., I would assume that the distances between the planets within the solar system is so small, that all the planets of the solar system would be in the Goldilocks zone.
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10. In _Time_, Daniel acknowledges that science was too far removed from the life of the average man. However, in Void, the discussions gave me a vibe such a view being illogical (as I’ve explained above). Such a statement from the protagonist felt unnecessary to me and caused confusion as to what his actual stance is on the subject.
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11. In _Time_, Daniel disproves multiverse theory by a watch - stating that by finding the watch in the same configuration, Daniel has reached the future of the same past that he started from. While this observation is correct, the conclusion is not. Daniel simply might have reached the same future this time. Maybe the device that he uses to travel can only travel within the same universe it started from. The Multiverse theory posits that there are multiple universes far out of reach of one other. This particular conclusion gave me an impression that Daniel wasn’t as scientific literate or logical as he is shown to be so far.
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12. There is a lot of informational inconsistency in _Time_. It is acknowledged that changing the past changes the future. But often, changing the past is made possible only because the future is not yet changed. An explanation given is that all time exists all the time and the change in the events is like a wave from the past to the future. In the first wave events could have turned out one way. In the second wave, new set of events could take place in the same palace based on differences in decisions made by the characters - which would eventually change the future. But it is not made clear where the wave starts and where it ends.
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This section was aimed at only to spark off discussion or thoughts in the reader on these parts. In all fairness, this is a fantastic book that has led me to investigate deeply into some of these scientific concepts and some thought provoking discussions with friends on these plot devices.
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