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eBook Category: Science Fiction Aurealis Award Winner
eBook Description: Two scientists exchange email messages about a wild idea in quantum mechanics--and things get wilder by the minute. "Hard" SF at its best with mind-blowing ideas and a punch at the end, all in 3400 words. [NOTE: If you previously bought Eidolon Issue 29/30 here at Fictionwise then you already have this story, which was published in that magazine.]

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Eidolon, 2000
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2001

165 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [26 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [24 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [12 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [50 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [12 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [35 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [84 KB] , hiebook (KML) [59 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [43 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [11 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [13 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [41 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [24 KB]
Words: 3402
Reading time: 9-13 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

I admit it, I'm a sucker for quantum interpretation of reality stories. This one is short and sweet. It presents a plausible way that we could "cross over" and send messages to other realities, then hammers us with the likely consequences. The story is written entirely as a series of emails between two scientists. Their joking style is very funny, and the science parts are imparted painlessly along with the humor, making it a quick, fun read. If you like "semi-hard" science fiction and witty writing, you'll love this one as I did. -Steve Pendergrast, Staff Recommender

To: "Daniel C. Lewisham"
From: rreindeer@psisearch.com
Subject: re: monkeying around in superspace
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002

Gosh, Danny, I think we're on to something here. A quantum ouija board! I took Alice for a walk along the river and told her our idea. God, she's one smart grrl, that psigrrl. Not to mention her fabulous big--But I digress. (Hope she can't read my mind, she's dead set against sexism in the workplace.)

Anyway, Ally tells me that we're going at this all wrong. You don't set your quantum Shakespeare to churn out random *alphanumerics*--you use *words* as your units. All that kdmwic r7$nd. Pdustl crap is just time wasting. We've let ourselves get trapped by those damned monkeys and their one-stroke/one-key limitations. Nah, what we'd have is a program that runs a stochastic search, based on either a pseudo-random algorithm or better still a radioactive isotope source like a Schmidt random event generator so we get *true* randomness. First it selects some kind of sentence shape. Ally called it Chomsky tree d-structure or X-bar phrases or some damn thing. Like, you know, Adjective Noun Verb Noun, except these days apparently you call it Determiner and Noun Phrase and VP and SPEC-head or some damned gibberish. Anyway, you let the random numbers fill the sentence with words pulled from a standard word processing lexicon. The fat cat sat on the mat. Or much more likely, A colorless belch contorted the ocean. The direct mollusc enkindled a trembler. Erm, these are almost making sense. Anyway, you get the idea. Monkey quantum power!--Rudy