Page 12 - Unlikely Stories 1

Perils of Scanference

can establish an unbroken chain of custody from Gibbons’s rented
house from the day he left it locked to the court-mandated clearance
of his property from it. Until he came up with the idea to participate
in the paranormal test, no one took him seriously enough even to
look at his work. He was thoroughly discredited academically.

Gen. Esel: All right. Carry on. Doctor Lovenitz: are you feeling ill?
Dr. Lovenitz: It just seems a bit warm in here. I’ll have some water.

Dr. Silberfisch: Nevertheless, if Doctor Lovenitz is right, our ability
to restrict access to knowledge about the quantum reticulator has a
very special limitation. To continue: the speculation about the
multiverse now raging in scientific circles is about to be resolved by
implementation of quantum computers. Gibbons was way ahead of
that.

Gen. Esel: Yes, I have been briefed about it, and I know we have
allocated funds for research in that area for several years.

Dr. Silberfisch: Good. But again I digress: computation is not at issue
here. Gibbons was the first to attempt the seemingly impossible feat
of accessing other quantum zones of possibility. His grasp of certain
fundamentals was correct, but he performed an uncontrolled
experiment with himself as subject in order to gain a hearing. Doctor
Lovenitz, with a better understanding of the physics involved, and
the cautionary example of Gibbons before him, developed a more
complete theory of the interconnectivity of simultaneous multiverse
events and a potential means of employing it to our advantage. He
calls it Scanference.
Gen. Esel: I assume you have reviewed his work, and found it worthy
of consideration. But I need more than abstractions to take to the
appropriations review board. Do you have a prototype, some kind of
a working model?

Dr. Silberfisch: No. That is why we’re here. And Doctor Lovenitz
hopes that you will expedite approval for some rather costly
hardware. Gibbons, with financing from unknown sources—but not

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