Page 16 - Unlikely Stories 1

Perils of Scanference

with C as well as A . Thus the world lines A B C , and A B C are
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just as possible as A B C ; further, all of them, as well as countless
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others, have the same quantum probability of occurring. Effectively,
they do all occur: that’s the multiverse, and quantum computing
exploits that multiplicity of world lines to speed up the execution of
complicated algorithms. Are you still with me?
Gen. Esel: I am not a specialist in these matters.
Dr. Silberfisch: Yes, I know that this will require a classified peer
review. What Gibbons did was force those other B possibilities,
things to which we do not physically have access, to become visible
to him at a common C point. That is, owing to the entanglement of
superposed possibilities, the set of alternative presents from a
common past returning to a common future can be experienced by
an observer at that point in C; the world lines for each would not be
aware of the others—at their mutually-exclusive presents in B.
Gibbons, using his quantum reticulator saw not just B at C , but a
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whole set of B possibilities. The experience overwhelmed him, but he
remained sane long enough to provide proof of concept.
Gen. Esel: And how does that relate to us? You said the alternatives
cannot, in essence, have any contact with our world.
Dr. Silberfisch: But Scanference makes it possible to get information
about those other very similar worlds—although that is not the best
word, as it implies completely isolated and different collections of
events. Doctor Lovenitz prefers to call our own perception of
causally sensible perceptions the endoverse, and all others exoverses.
My endoverse right now is minutely different than yours or his; and
the further away from our meeting here today in space and time, the
more divergent they would be. But our concern is with exoverses
immediately linked by a common A event in their past to a set of B
events in the present. Thus you may imagine an infinite number of
selves constantly resulting from yourself at any given moment, each
different in qualitatively minuscule ways. But, as Gibbons discovered,

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