Schrodinger's Gat (28 page)

Authors: Robert Kroese

Acknowledgments

Writing a book like this is impossible without a lot of help.

I’m indebted to Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner for their description of the “box pairs” experiment in
Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
, which I adapted for use in Dr. Heller’s book,
Fate and Consciousness
, and for allowing me to use an excerpt from the book in the afterword.
Quantum Enigma
also includes the most straightforward explanation of the weirdness of quantum mechanics and quantum theory that I’ve encountered. I highly recommend it as an introduction to quantum mechanics and its implications.

Ransom Stephens helped me work through a lot of the quantum physics stuff and made numerous helpful suggestions to improve
Schrödinger’s Gat
. If you managed to get through this book, you will totally dig his novel
The God Patent
.

Chris Lubbers
did his best to make sure I didn’t completely mangle any philosophical concepts or play too fast and loose with Heller’s thoughts about free will and determinism.

Other valuable feedback was provided by Robb Bajema, Jeff Kirvin, Joel Bezaire, Calli Shell, Jeff Ellis,
Nicklaus Louis, Alice Stuart, Kristin Crocker, Mark Fitzgerald and Colleen Diamond.

The Philip K. Dick story about time travel that Heller mentions is “The Skull.” It’s a good illustration of the idea that spacetime rejects paradoxes.

Much of Heller’s philosophy of the will coheres to some extent with the writings of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. I had never read Schopenhauer and noticed the similarity only after writing most of it. I have read Nietzsche, though, and may have been unconsciously influenced by Schopenhauer through him.

Thanks also to everybody who supported the
Schrödinger’s Gat
Kickstarter, particularly Christopher Turner, Shannon Cogan, Jeremy Kerr, Agnes Kroe
se (AKA “Mom”), Brian and Donna Hekman, Scott Semester, Elisa Lorello, Sheila Redling, Suzy Cilbrith, Sean Simpson, Daniel McCann, Neva Cheatwood (AKA “Crazy Aunt Bea”), Tracey S. Bowen, W. Jason Duncan, Christopher Finlan, and Paul Reinhardt. I am humbled and gratified by your faith in me.

Bibliography

“
Ananke (mythology).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
“Arthur Schopenhauer.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Stanford University, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.

Capra, Frijof.
The Tao of Physics. HarperCollins. 1991.
Dick, Philip K. “The Skull.” N.p.: Public Domain, n.d. Kindle ed.
Feynman, Richard P. Six Easy Pieces: The Fundamentals of Physics Explained. London: Basic, 2011. Kindle ed.

“Free Will.”
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Stanford University, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
“Genius in the Twentieth Century.” JRank. Net Industries LLC, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.
“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.” Kant: Aesthetics. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
Johnson, George. A Shortcut through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print.
Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason. Public Domain. Kindle ed.
“Karma in Jainism.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
Mensky, Michael. Quantum Physics of Consciousness. N.p.: Cosmology Science, n.d. Kindle ed.

Rosenblum, Bruce; Kuttner, Fred.
Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness. Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd edition. Kindle ed. 01 July, 2011.
Ross, Nancy Wilson. The World of Zen. [S.l.]: Vintage., n.d. Print.
Satinover, Jeffrey. The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man. New York: J. Wiley, 2001. Print.

Stephens, Ransom.
The God Patent. Vox Novus. 2009. Kindle ed.
“Schrodinger’s Cat.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.
“Yin and Yang.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012.

Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics.
Fontana; 1st Edition. 1980.

About the Author

Robert Kroese
’s sense of irony was honed growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - home of the Amway Corporation and the Gerald R. Ford Museum, and the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water supply. In second grade, he wrote his first novel, the saga of Captain Bill and his spaceship
Thee Eagle
. This turned out to be the high point of his academic career. After barely graduating from Calvin College in 1992 with a philosophy degree, he was fired from a variety of jobs before moving to California, where he stumbled into software development. As this job required neither punctuality nor a sense of direction, he excelled at it. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel,
Mercury Falls
. Since then, he has written two sequels,
Mercury Rises
(2011) and
Mercury Rests
(2012), and a humorous epic fantasy,
Disenchanted
.
Schrödinger’s Gat
is the closest he’s come to writing a “serious novel.” Oh, and it’s pronounced
KROO-zee
. Seriously.