Dark Fiction - Quantum Suicide
By Casey Douglass
(This story is about suicide. If you are struggling with mental health in this way, it might be best that you don't read it.)
The multiverse had
finally been proven, a universe of universes, each with its
offshoots, variations and duplicates, placing humanity in a
kaleidoscope of possibility. It was early days with regards to what
humanity might do with this knowledge, but for Elliot, it all seemed
so bleak.
He tapped at his lab
machine, the deep vibrations of the facility humming beneath his
feet. It had been two months since a way to make contact with our
“other selves” had been established, rapidly increasing the rate
of research in a previously unheard of form of collaboration. Think
how things would be if Stephen Hawking had been able to work with
hundreds of other Stephen Hawkings on the same project. Sure, there
would be some blind-spots due to the same mind chewing over the same
problem, but heck, it was still a leap forward compared to working
with lesser intellects.
Message number
three-hundred arrived on Elliot’s screen. Another thumbs up.
People hearing about
how their other selves are doing is a mixed bag. Some, naturally,
will be having far better lives than the enquirer. Others will be
struggling. In Elliot’s case, they all seemed to be struggling, not
one in three hundred enquiries came back with a hint of promise. He’d
have loved to come across an Elliot that had made it, that was happy,
even simply content, but no. The Elliots of this existence seem
doomed to suffer misfortune, ill health and misadventure, no matter
how hard they try. He didn’t believe in God or a creator, but if he
did, it would have been hard for him not to have suspected some kind
of conspiracy against him. To what end, he had now idea. Maybe if
he’d been left to his own devices, he’d have become a giant
threat to the universe, a bit like a Bond villain having their teddy
taken away when they were seven. It didn’t matter, his mind was
made up, or rather, minds.
The multiverse is said
to have branching events. That apple you eat in this universe not
being eaten in another. Most people can understand this state of
affairs, and most would expect that life decisions and events playing
out in two directions, either happening or not, could lead to quite
different lives. Elliot found it beyond aggravating that his own
branched self just seemed to suffer wherever and however
circumstances allowed him to be born. He wondered if he was in a kind
of Hell, finding no peace or joy wherever he went.
Message number three
hundred and one flashed up, another thumbs up. He felt it was
pointless to delay any longer. He selected “Reply All” and
replied: Schrödinger Imminent. Nice knowing you all.
Elliot had been
collaborating too. A brilliant physicist and researcher, he’d
linked up with many of his other selves and discovered something that
nobody else had, so far at least. He had discovered the way that we
are connected to our counterparts. It was a small quantum chord,
maybe even the silver cord mentioned in those old books about astral
projection and etheric bodies. It snaked off into quanta a few feet
from the body, and this, it seemed, was our link. Not to anyone else,
just our namesakes in other verses. Elliot, well, the Elliots, had
decided that it might be time to stop their suffering, to use the
equivalent of quantum scissors, and to cut that chord.
Experiments had been
conducted on a variety of creatures, and across the board, severing
the thing had meant death. So far, so good, but what about the way
the universes work? If someone kills himself in one, another will
split off where he didn’t end things. It was a tricky problem, but
nanotechnology and its ultimate form, Schrödinger, saved the day on
this point.
Schrödinger’s Cat is
the thought experiment about putting a cat in a box with some poison
that will release at random, and then sealing the box so that no one
can see inside. While not knowing if the cat is alive or dead, it is
said to be both at the same time. Basically, Elliot’s Schrödinger
nanobot functioned by destroying the box, and subsequently taking the
cat, whether alive or dead, with it. Across the multiverse, this
seemed to halt the formation of a derivative universe, and promptly
removed the subject from the one in which Schrödinger was
administered. The nanobot would then travel along the quantum cord,
sever it, and move on to the next universe, repeating its kill
command over and over and over. It did this by phasing down, using
some kind gap in space-time to make itself insubstantial enough, and
small enough, to engage at a quantum level. Elliot wondered when this
kind of thing would be called a quantobot. That's what he'd call it anyway.
Elliot barely even
heard the hiss as the gas-powered injector shot Schrödinger into his
neck. He didn’t know if Schrödinger would eliminate him from every
universe, but with at least three hundred of his companions launching
it too, and with the way that it duplicates and spreads, it stood a
good chance of success, even if it took an infinity to do it.
They knew it was risky,
that it could malfunction or fall into the wrong hands, but there was
only so much you could do. Maybe he was a threat to the universe
after all. They had each agreed to wipe their research as a
precaution. It wouldn't disappear completely, as they could find no
way to Schrödinger non-living technology, but they tried to destroy
it as best they could.
Elliot felt a sharp
pain in his gut, an opening, a flare of peace, and then felt nothing
at all. Across the multiverse, Elliots dropped to the ground, like so
many flowers being dead-headed by the most efficient gardener in
history. Nothing new would be growing from these roots, and if the
multiverse cared, it showed no sign of it.
THE END(S)