Wave Function
The story below was a flash piece (<1000 words) written for a contest at Astounding Tales. The contest subject was to explain why most suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge happen at light pole 69. Alas, Astounding Tales folded just as the contest winner should have been announced (!), but I do believe this story was in the running, along with a good collection of stories from several others, that I was proud to be listed with.
Below, please enjoy the 2006 submission of "Wave Function" by John Gilbert.
"How about something on free will? Do humans possess free will or are we just temporary groupings of elementary particles that are completely controlled by the laws of physics?" asked Doctor Karl Heyerthal, Dean of Philosophy at UC-Berkeley.
"Are you saying the particles are controlled by the laws of physics, or the people are?" asked his colleague, Doctor Joseph Matson, Dean of Physics.
"Well, one implies the other," suggested Karl.
"Is Philosophy anything except one big circular argument?" asked Joe.
"The same has been said about Physics."
"Except Physics is a big circular argument that can build lasers and atomic power!" retorted Joe.
"That is wonderful, I am sure. But our mission today is to write research proposals to use up our joint grant from the Wasserman foundation before they take their money back. They want, and I quote, "repeatable experiments that study the interface of Philosophy and Physics,"" said the Dean of Philosophy.
"I have plenty of physics that needs funding, solid work. Maybe you can put a philosophy spin on it. One experiment set is looking at how electrons are particles when we examine them closely, but act as waves if we aren't looking directly at them. If we put a bunch of electrons in a box, and look, each particle is always in just one location. But if we don't look in the box, each electron acts like it is spread like a wave throughout the interior of the box, and will even make diffraction effects with the other electrons in the box. Or if we shoot electrons through a long tube, they always travel in a straight line, until we stop looking. Then they travel like waves, and cover the entire width of the tube and even wash around the edges when they come out. Can you do something with that?" asked Joe.
"Maybe," began Karl, "we can look at people in a box, and see how they move around. We can study people, say, in a jail yard, we can compare their distribution to how your electrons act. Or we can track people as they walk across a bridge, and see how their pathways match up to your electrons going through a long tube. You use your half of the money on your current work, and I can use my half to keep a whole bunch of grad students employed for a couple of semesters. All we have to do is write a good summary making each part sound related."
The Dean of Physics slowly shook his head. "I doubt you will find anything seriously useful in your part. Probably prisoners stand in the sunny parts of the yard on cold days and in the shade on hot days. It should have nothing in common with how particles interact."
"That is fine, I will just conclude that the prisoners have free will and your electrons do not!"
"Let's just keep our collaboration as quiet as possible. I need the money, but I'd rather not have my peers knowing what I must do to find funding."
***
Karl obtained permission from several midwestern prisons for his students to access overhead webcam views of their prison yards. His researchers graphed the prisoner locations several times each day and made composite graphs combining several such graphs. Patterns began to emerge, symmetrical designs centered on each doorway into the yard.
Other students walked the Golden Gate Bridge every morning and afternoon, photographing each section of the pedestrian walkway.
***
Joe walked into Karl's office. "Here are our latest graphs, Karl, and I would appreciate your keeping them confidential." As he sat the stack on Karl's desk, he spoke again, "Son-of-a-bitch! Where did you get this?" Joe was looking at a paper already on Karl's desk.
"That's the results from one of our prison yard studies, with several weeks' data combined on one diagram," answered Karl.
"Damn," said Joe, "I thought you had one of my papers already. This diagram looks almost identical to my latest electron findings."
"Well, here Joe, look at some of the others. Here is the Golden Gate Bridge chart, but we had a bit of a problem with it. One of the pedestrians we photographed, didn't finish crossing the bridge. The guy was a jumper - committed suicide shortly after we photographed him. What are the odds?" asked Karl.
"Now you're scaring me. We get the same thing sometimes with electrons, we call it quantum tunneling. We shoot the electrons into the tube and sometimes they pop out the side. This guy, he didn't leak out exactly halfway or exactly a third of the way across did he?"
"Leak out?" questioned Karl.
"Sorry. I mean jump off. Do you know where he jumped at?" asked Joe.
"It was the dead center of the bridge. They call it light pole 69," answered Karl.
"The dead center is where we lose the most electrons too," agreed Joe. "But it only happens when we aren't looking."
***
Joe answered his ringing phone, "Hello."
"Christ, Joe, I've lost one of my students, on the bridge," blurted Karl. "They are calling it a suicide, but this kid, Mark, had everything going, and did not leave any note. His experiment partner, said everything was fine, and then he heard Mark cry out, he turned to look, and Mark was just gone."
"Where exactly did this happen?"
"Light pole 69, the dead center, just like your damn electrons," replied Karl.
"Christ."
***
"The Philosophy Club and the Physics Club are staging a wreath laying ceremony on the bridge, and we have been invited to attend," said Karl.
"Where is the ceremony?" quickly asked Joe.
"Light pole 69, the spot Mark, uh, fell in."
"Hell no. This sounds like an event for the assistant dean to cover," answered Joe.
"Did I just see a demonstration of free will?" asked Karl with a sardonic smile.
"Ask somebody in the Philosophy Department," answered Joe, "I don't know how to answer questions like that anymore."
|