(urth) Short Story 71: Silhouette

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

"Do time quanta exist?"

Whether spacetime is quantified is a gritty problem. Superstring theory
seems to say yes, but superstring theory is, shall we say, far from proven.


On Tue, Jul 29, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes I realized grit went to bring the escape pod to the hydroponic module,
> but it isn't clear if she is in it at the end.
>
> Do time quanta exist?  Light certainly emits photons, and the history of
> black body radiation made me wonder if the shadow and Algol were being
> brought into this discussion of time and velocity thematically.  Perhaps in
> a pseudoscientific and impossible reversal, when the shadow is seen it must
> emit a wavelength at the speed of light, because the observer sees it.  At
> those speeds it cannot act inside time. when unseen, sublight speed
> quanta can be emitted in time to allow communication, but that's all
> pseudoscience trying to explain why they can't talk when seen, and assuming
> that observation actually prompts a waveform emission at the speed of light
> rather than simply existing In the first place (almost like the observer
> fixes them in place). The Gorgon's head of Algol might be just as useful an
> explanation.
>
>
> On Tuesday, July 29, 2014, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 29/07/2014 07:25, Marc Aramini wrote:
>>
>>> As I said, if there is any physicist who can help with the time quanta
>>> paragraph, that would be great.  It seems that the overmonitor is saying
>>> existence is dependent on the  emission of time quanta, and as such that
>>> discontinuous but "real" existence can spring up wherever the wave function
>>> of a body travels as long as a time quanta is emitted at that point.  Right?
>>>
>>
>> My impression is that Wolfe is just putting in a bit of sciency
>> justification for teleportation.
>>
>> > On looking at Grit's disappearance again, it seems that she actually
>> has gone
>> >  to get the escape tender and bring it to the hydroponic jungle for the
>> Captain
>> >  and Johann so that the overmonitor cannot stop their escape.  However,
>> >  there is no mention of her in the escape pod when they open it, and
>> this is a
>> >  bit disorienting.  Is she there at all when it is jettisoned?
>>
>> She teleported away (with the help of her shadow, obviously) as they were
>> walking to the escape pod.  Only Johann and Gerta noticed. They send the
>> Captain and Elis off to NeuerDraht; presumably Grit is somewhere on the
>> ship, or on the planet but with the ability to teleport back.
>>
>> - Gerry Quinn
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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