Introduction
Welcome back!
This week and next week’s blogpost will cover the science used in the series. Science fiction and science fact have always influenced each other. Things we take for granted today, like smartphones, tablets, and the internet were once only in the realm of fiction. In fact, science fiction and science often push each other to new limits.
Case in point, the concept of geostationary satellites, which scientists use to collect data on the earth’s atmosphere and telecoms use to transfer data, were popularized by sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke in his 1945 paper, Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?
Moreover, sci-fi author Jules Verne predicted humans would land on the moon decades before the Apollo Program succeeded in doing so. He also predicted submarines, the juke box and hologram, and the existence of giant squids. George Orwell also predicted facial recognition software, speech-to-text devices, and AI technology that could create books and music. In each case, what started as science fiction became reality.
In a similar way, I’ve tried to take existing science and technology and extrapolate how they could be used.
The Science of Palingenesis
Superstring and M-Theory
Superstring theory and M-Theory posit that instead of the four dimensions we learned in school (length, width, depth, and time) there are other dimensions parallel to ours. Specifically, superstring theory says that the smallest units of energy and matter are strings, one-dimensional objects, whose vibrations give rise to the graviton and other elementary particles. There were five theories of superstring theory, each with a different set of mathematical equations governing them, until 1995 when physicist Edward Witten unified them in M-theory. However, M-theory requires the existence of eleven dimensions.
How this applies to my series is M-theory leads to the existence of infinite dimensions, not just the eleven it predicts. This in turn leads to the existence of a multiverse in Palingenesis, one such dimension being Pandemonium, which Travis travels to at the end of the book.
Quantum Entanglement
Quantum Entanglement in simplest terms is the phenomenon wherein two particles on the quantum level, separated by a distance X influence each other. For example, if you change the position of momentum of one, it changes those of the other. How this applies to The Phoenix Diaries is that Travis and Prometheus can change into beings of pure energy, and thus the laws of quantum mechanics apply, and they are quantum entangled, allowing one to find the other no matter where in the universe they are.
Einstein’s Theories of Special and General Relativity
Most of us are familiar with E=mc2 and know it as Einstein’s theory of relativity. But this is in accurate. Einstein had two theories of relativity. His special theory of relativity is the one that uses his famous equation and deals with the behavior of physics in different reference frames, relativistic (traveling near the speed of light), and nonrelativistic (everyday speeds much less than the speed of light).
As a consequence of this theory time isn’t constant and you get time dilation where events appear to happen differently based on the reference frame you’re in.
The example Einstein gave was two bolts of lightning striking the ends of a train car. Do they strike at the same time? The answer depends on where in the train (your reference frame) you are. If you’re closer to one end you observe that end being struck first, followed by the other end being struck.
How this plays into The Phoenix Diaries is that time in other dimensions is different (time dilation) such that a day in one dimension could be a month or longer in another dimension. Something Travis must account for when dimension hopping.
Now Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity deals with space and time, uniting them in the famous space-time continuum. According to this theory space and time are like a fabric and it’s the warping of this fabric by mass that causes gravity and given a dense enough mass this fabric can be puncture. Such a puncture is called a black hole, which Einstein also predicted.
However, it’s the equation E=mc2 that we’re concerned with right now. Per this equation, half of all the food Travis and Prometheus eat gets converted directly to energy; it’s this energy which fuels all their abilities.
They are essentially walking nuclear fusion reactors, a plot point which comes up in later books.
Black Holes and Wormholes
As a mentioned above, black holes are created when a superdense mass rips a hole in the space-time continuum. This most often happens when stars exhaust their fuel and go supernova, or as a natural part of galaxy formation.
Scientists have found proof that a supermassive black hole is at the center of every large galaxy, including our own Milky Way.
The gravity created by black holes is so strong that even light can’t escape them, and anything that falls into a black hole will be crushed to a singularity (infinitely tiny particles) and the laws of time and space cease to exist.
However, all is not lost as some black holes have an exit.
These are called wormholes and their existence has been hypothesized due to a special solution of the Einstein field equation. Worm holes are basically tunnels linking one point in space-time with another, similar to the technology used in the movie Stargate. Travis and Prometheus use wormholes to teleport and dimension hop.
Teleportation
The science behind teleportation involves quantum mechanics. On the quantum level if you give a particle inside a box enough energy, it is able to “tunnel” through the box. This is known as quantum tunneling and scientists have used it to teleport information between photons, electrons, atoms, and superconductors. However, teleportation of larger objects like humans remains science fiction.
Teleportation in The Phoenix Diaries comes in three varieties: (1) through wormholes as I described above, (2) through advanced alien technology that coverts the user into pure energy that is then sent through an internet of teleportation pads, and (3) via magic. The second and third methods will be explored in the second book in the series.
Information Theory
Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of information. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. One of the issues with information theory is where it concerns black holes.
Mathematically, all data that enters a block hole should be lost, compressed to a singularity. This results in the Black Hole Information Paradox. One proposed solution to this paradox is that the information is retained on the outside of the black hole. It’s such a solution I take advantage of in my series. When Travis and Prometheus teleport, all their information remains on the outside of the wormhole, then travels along it, where it is then reassembled. And as nod to this, they gain the memories of the other whenever they merged.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, please tell your friends and share it on social media. For more information on the topics covered today, check out nasa.gov, popularmechanics.com, and mkaku.org (the homepage of theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku).
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