A lifetime ago…
'With enough energy, you could rip a hole in the fabric of reality.'
A simple enough idea and an equally simple phrase, yet it rang aloud in my head. I'm a man who believes anything is possible. Anything at all. The laws of physics be damned, they were written by people, by humans. Imperfect beings who could not possibly see the whole picture. Theories, very good and very accurate, supported by good evidence, but theories nonetheless. An educated guess, effectively.
As I sat there, staring blankly at my computer screen, the idea snowballed inside my young and thoughtful mind. More ideas were tacked onto it, sucked into it, rolled up all into one giant idea. And question after question popped up, too. Eventually half of my brain started playing the pessimist. All the laws of physics would say 'no,' Einstein would say 'no,' we don't even know if the multiverse theory is correct, and even if it was and we could, we would need an impossible amount of energy to do it.
After who knows how long of both sides of me fighting with each other tooth and nail, the pessimist had beaten the optimist to a bloody pulp. But then, in his darkest moment, when things looked the most grim, came a tiny ray of light. A beacon of hope. A new weapon that the optimist could wield in his defense of the terrible pessimist.
A simple memory, obscured by only a few years' time. A bit of actual knowledge, a rarity from my brief tenure in college. Something my chemistry professor once said.
"What's wrong with this reaction class? Hmm? That's right, it defies a law of physics."
At the time, my mind was blown. I don't remember what reaction it was, or what law it was. But what I thought was an infallible law, and unbreakable wall, was, well, broken. Proven by experimentation. So I thought, the 'laws' were actually just our best guesses, not stone, but fluid. Constantly being altered and added to. But if even one could be broken, who says the others couldn't at least be bent?! And so the optimist stood tall with renewed vigor, and cut down his opponent with every weapon he had at hand.
"Laws of physics…"
"Imperfect!"
"Other dimensions cannot exist…"
"Unknown!"
"Not enough energy…"
"We'll engineer a way around it!"
After all, why couldn't we do it? Humanity has had a long and winding history of performing the impossible, and we do it almost on a daily basis.
We built monumental pyramids without iron tools.
We built ships and sailed across vast oceans.
We built aircrafts and conquered the sky.
We have weapons that can wipe an entire city off the map.
We construct buildings so tall they touch the sky.
We can travel the circumference of the Earth in less than a day.
We have perfected nuclear fission to the point of being able to reactivate dead radioactive cores, providing nearly unlimited energy recycling.
We can use light, fucking light, to send information anywhere we want instantaneously with the lightest of touches on a pane of glass.
We defied the restricting forces of our own planet and sent astronauts all the way to the moon.
We built a thinking machine, then sent it into outer space to tell us about another planet... twice.
We have gazed upon the structures of other galaxies around us.
We have looked straight into the black hole in the middle of our galaxy.
WE CAN CREATE LIFE!
Where there's a will, there's a way. That's the genius of the human mind. We don't limit ourselves to what we have. When we want something more, we reach out and take it.
So I reached out, and grabbed my cell phone.
"Hey Bob, it's Dane."
"Argh… It's two in the fucking morning!"
I glanced at the wall clock. "Oh shit, I'm sorry man!" I really lost track of time while I was thinking."
"Yeah, yeah, fuck you." He yawned. "Whatcha need?" He said in a tired and gravelly voice.
"Hey, uh, don't you know a physicist?"
"…Yeah."
"Can I have his number?"
"It's a 'she' actually, her name's Julie."
"Is she hot?"
"…"
"You know what, never mind."
"She's married anyway, hang on, I'll get you her number. Ok, it's 555-555-5555, ya got that?"
"Wait, 55…55?"
"Yeah, please tell me you're not gonna call her at this time of night…"
"No, of course not! Don't be ridiculous. Thanks buddy!"
"Go fuck yourself with the pointy end of a rake, Dane."
"Will do, toodle-oo!"
I hung up and immediately dialed Julie's number. It went straight to her voice mail, so I decided to call her in the morning.
There I was, sat at a table with Julie the physicist. I was all jittered-up on coffee because I hadn't slept at all the previous night. She agreed to talk to me over lunch, but only after I made a few exaggerated claims about a new age of physics and the like. I had been losing her ever since she found out I had more questions for her than she did for me.
"...well that's because Einstein's theories are supported by a ton of physical evidence, you know," she said with a snarky tone, as she took a bite of her tuna sandwich on whole grain bread.
"They're called theories for a reason, why would you automatically accept them as fact?"
"Yeah, ‘theory,’ not ‘hypothesis.’ The difference is that one is supported by evidence. You know, by actual science?"
"But just because they hold true for some things, doesn't mean they will for everything. At the end of the day, a theory is just a theory. To accept it as 100% fact is just… ignorant, I'm sorry to say it that way, but it is."
She stopped mid-chew and glared at me for a few painful seconds, then swallowed and continued, "Well like I said, they hold up under any experiment." She finished by giving me the stink eye.
"But we aren't capable of pushing those experiments farther. We're limited by technology, aren't we? And what kind of scientist says to himself 'No, I can't push the boundaries of human knowledge because everybody tells me I can't.' Does that sound right to you?"
"Ugh…" She was thoroughly done with me right then. She even grabbed her purse in the motions of getting up and walking away.
"I-If you look into this and it leads to a discovery, you could be famous!" I desperately attempted to change her mind.
She took a final swig of her latté and slammed the paper cup down on the table in a manner of finality, she was done with it. And me.
"Aren't you even the least bit curious that any of the crap I've been talking about could be done?"
She pushed herself up out of her chair with a hand on the table.
"Don't you even want to know? Where's your scientific curiosity?"
I don’t know what happened. But right then, something I said struck a chord in her. She stood stock still, frozen in the motion of getting up to leave. Julie stared at the hand she had placed on the table, on her ring finger was a simple gold wedding band with three tiny diamonds set into it.
She sat back down and leaned her face into her palm, sitting like that for several seconds.
"I… guess I see your point about pushing the boundaries. I still don't think it's possible…" she looked me in the eye, "…but I suppose… that's the point of experimenting, isn't it?"
"THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" I clapped my hands together in excitement.
"I'm going to regret this, but what now?" She asked, looking utterly defeated.
"Ok, so, we need to rip a hole," I demonstrated with hand gestures, "in the wall separating our reality from other dimensions!"
She sighed dejectedly and put her face in the palm of her hand. "Jesus. You're insane."
Two years later…
"Why are you science-y types so adamant about your laws of physics anyway?" I asked Julie who was sat across the table from me.
"Um, maybe because it's all we know? They define our entire world and everything in it, everything we know is governed by those laws. Take them away and you destroy our notions of reality, all that's left is chaos." She smiled. "It's kind of a frightening concept, to be honest," she giggled at her response. She knew damn well that she had helped start the fire that would bring that frightening concept to life.
Bob said, "Chaos, huh? Well Newton can kiss Discord's ass!"
Everyone around the table laughed.
"You bronies, I swear," Julie shook her head, "you're all nuts."
"What do you mean, 'you bronies'? You watch it too!" I accused.
"Yeah, but just because you jerks got me addicted. I'm a victim of circumstance," she insisted, feigning innocence.
John, another physicist we found, leaned over the table, looking at Julie with a sly grin. "You know, you never did tell us who's your favorite…"
Everyone looked to her with bated breath. She rolled her eyes. "I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be Rarity…"
"Fluttershy is best pony," Bob quickly stated.
"Vinyl Scratch," Mick said.
"Gil~da," Eve sang.
"Spike!" John proclaimed.
"Come on guys. Everyone knows that one does not simply pick a favorite pony!" I stated with appropriate hand gesture, true to the meme.
"Oh please, Dane…" Eve protested. She was an enthusiastic physics student, at the time.
The waitress brought out our drinks.
"Guys, how 'bout a toast." I held up my bottle of Miller. "To the theory!"
"TO THE THEORY!" They all said together, raising their bottles and glasses up high, and clanging them together in a toast to our finished product.
It was little more than a pile of paper at the time. But we were all confident that it was a polished product. A theory with very few holes in it. Something that, although outlandish on the surface, could be taken seriously if it was read and understood. Not accepted – hah! – but taken seriously.
Julie sighed. "You do realize that it's not an actual 'theory' until there is factual evidence to support it. It's currently only a hypothesis and not even a particularly good one."
"Yeah, like I said, a theory," I answered.
"Why do I even bother… you know, I really liked working on this with you guys, but you do realize that this will never make it through peer review, right Dane?"
"Who the hell said anything about peer review? Hah! I'm not gonna let a bunch of real scientists walk all over our Theory."
"I hate you so much right now."
"Well," Mick spoke up. He was a quiet guy, but a damn genius. "If the Theory is ready, what do we do now?"
"Don't worry Mick, I know a few people."
"Well the 'Theory' is ready then. Looks like you got your wish, Dane," Julie said.
"Heh… not my whole wish…"
"Are you alright Dane?" Fluttershy asks me with the cutest, most adorable look of concern in her eyes, and a hoof gently placed upon my knee.
I sniffle a couple times and nod, smiling under bittersweet tears.
"Never better!"