The Coming of the Quantum Cats
Encyclopedia
The Coming of the Quantum Cats is a 1986 science fiction
novel
by American writer Frederik Pohl
. It was originally serialized in Analog
science-fiction magazine, January–April 1986.
The book presents multiple versions of three characters—Dominic DeSota, Nyla Christophe, and Larry Douglas—and their interactions as different versions of the characters travel from one Earth to another. Dominic DeSota is the main character, with most of the book told from the divergent viewpoints of three of his avatars (see following), with brief glimpses of numerous additional Dominic DeSotas scattered throughout the novel as anything between a nuclear scientist and a hunter scrabbling for bare existence in the ruins left after a nuclear holocaust.
The book seems to argue in favor of the idea that social conditions rather than heredity are what shapes a person's character and behavior (the Nature versus nurture
debate). As depicted again and again in the course of the book, people born with precisely the same genetic heritage can - given different social conditions - develop completely different character traits (timid or assertive, benevolent or predatory, etc.) In that, it has a similarity of theme with the otherwise very different Cyteen
by C. J. Cherryh
, published two years later (1988).
" where the outcome of a real-world event depends on a quantum event. By some interpretations the real-world object, in this case a cat, must be in two states simultaneously until it is observed. However the story is more closely related to the many-worlds interpretation
of quantum mechanics
where all possible outcomes of an event occur, each in its own parallel universe. The same concept was treated, somewhat more pessimistically, in Larry Niven
's short story "All the Myriad Ways
".
The focus then shifts to another Dominic DeSota, a United States Senator having an affair with Nyla Christophe Bowquist, who in this world is a famous violinist. Contacted by the military, he travels to Sandia National Laboratories
, where he meets an identical version of himself—a "Cat" from an alternate universe. As Senator DeSota interviews his alternate-universe counterpart, the man vanishes after offering a cryptic warning. As the senator leaves the building, he and the base commander are captured by a detachment of troops led by Major Dominic P. DeSota, the commander of a military force from yet another universe.
Major DeSota's mission is revealed to be to secure the parallel-world research facilities of Senator DeSota's universe, which is the first step in a larger military operation. In Major DeSota's universe (which is subsequently designated Paratime Gamma) a militaristic United States is engaged in a tense standoff with the Soviet Union, and wants to use Senator DeSota's universe (Paratime Epsilon) to launch sneak attacks against them. After being transported to Paratime Gamma, Senator DeSota manages to escape by distracting his guard (Gamma's version of Nyla Christophe) and escaping through a portal with a scientist to Paratime Tau—the home universe of Nicky DeSota.
After being discovered in the desert, Senator DeSota and the scientist—who is Larry Douglas from another universe—are captured and interrogated by Agent Christophe. In an interrogation session involving the senator, the scientist, and their counterparts from Paratime Tau, Douglas reveals that he is from Paratime Alpha, and that he was forced by the military in Paratime Gamma to give them the ability to travel between universes. As Agent Christophe begins to pressure Douglas to give her government similar assistance, she and the other FBI agent with her are rendered unconscious by knockout darts fired by Dominic DeSota—the same Dominic DeSota who had escaped interrogation in Sandia.
DeSota brings the entire group back to his universe—Paratime Alpha—where he explains that since the senator's escape that Paratime Gamma has invaded the Epsilon's Washington D.C. in a failed bid to capture the president. He also reveals that travel between universes is creating a growing problem of "ballistic recoil," where the boundaries between the universes is growing weaker, causing matter and energy to cross unintentionally from one universe to the next (something depicted in interludes between the chapters). He brings the travelers to Washington D.C., where they cross over to Paratime Epsilon in an effort to help stop the invasion.
Before they can help, however, every "Cat" located in a different universe disappears, along with any scientists involved in paratime research. There they are informed that they have been transported by a group of more advanced alternate Earths in order to stop ballistic recoil before it escalates and the barriers between universes become irreparably permeable. The "Cats" are relocated to New York City on a new Earth, one being resettled after its inhabitants wiped themselves out. There the paratime transplants gradually settle into new lives.
Six months after his arrival, Nicky DeSota returns to New York to propose to Agent Christophe. Now working on a collective farm in Palm Springs, he has embraced the opportunity for a new life and developed into a much more confident man. After considering his proposal, the Nyla of his world accepts. On their trip back to California, however, Nicky reveals to her his expectation that their transplantation has not solved the problem of paratime travel—that with an infinite number of Earths, the number of them that will develop the ability to cross into alternate worlds will only increase, so many that the problem of ballistic recoil may prove to be unavoidable.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by American writer Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
. It was originally serialized in Analog
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
science-fiction magazine, January–April 1986.
Plot introduction
The novel hinges around invasions from alternate Earths in alternate universes. None of these universes are quite like our universe; however, they all have some element or other in common, many of which Pohl develops to satiric effect.- In one universe Nancy ReaganNancy ReaganNancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
is the President of the United StatesPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and her mostly-disregarded husband RonaldRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
is known as "The First Gentleman". John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
is a Senator from Massachusetts who is married to a woman called MarilynMarilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. - In another universe, AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's political spectrum has shifted far to the right, and Ronald Reagan is regarded as dangerously left-wing. - In the past of some of the worlds, the young revolutionary Joseph Dzhugashvili (not known in these worlds as Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
) had escaped from Russia to America in the 1900s, taking with him the proceeds of a robbery (the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery1907 Tiflis bank robberyThe 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Yerevan Square expropriation, was an armed robbery by Bolshevik revolutionaries of a bank cash shipment in the Georgian city of Tiflis . The robbery occurred on 26 June 1907 in Yerevan Square...
) conducted on behalf of the BolshevikBolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s and using the money to set himself up as a big American capitalist.
The book presents multiple versions of three characters—Dominic DeSota, Nyla Christophe, and Larry Douglas—and their interactions as different versions of the characters travel from one Earth to another. Dominic DeSota is the main character, with most of the book told from the divergent viewpoints of three of his avatars (see following), with brief glimpses of numerous additional Dominic DeSotas scattered throughout the novel as anything between a nuclear scientist and a hunter scrabbling for bare existence in the ruins left after a nuclear holocaust.
The book seems to argue in favor of the idea that social conditions rather than heredity are what shapes a person's character and behavior (the Nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture
The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
debate). As depicted again and again in the course of the book, people born with precisely the same genetic heritage can - given different social conditions - develop completely different character traits (timid or assertive, benevolent or predatory, etc.) In that, it has a similarity of theme with the otherwise very different Cyteen
Cyteen
Cyteen is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by C. J. Cherryh set in her Alliance-Union universe. The murder of a major Union politician and scientist has deep, long-lasting repercussions....
by C. J. Cherryh
C. J. Cherryh
Carolyn Janice Cherry , better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is a United States science fiction and fantasy author...
, published two years later (1988).
Origin of the title
The title refers to the famous thought-experiment known as "Schrödinger's CatSchrödinger's cat
Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a cat that might be...
" where the outcome of a real-world event depends on a quantum event. By some interpretations the real-world object, in this case a cat, must be in two states simultaneously until it is observed. However the story is more closely related to the many-worlds interpretation
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
where all possible outcomes of an event occur, each in its own parallel universe. The same concept was treated, somewhat more pessimistically, in Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
's short story "All the Myriad Ways
All the Myriad Ways
All the Myriad Ways is a collection of 14 short stories and essays by science fiction author Larry Niven, originally published in 1971.-Contents:* "All the Myriad Ways"* "Passerby"* "For a Foggy Night"* "Wait it Out"* "The Jigsaw Man"...
".
Plot summary
The novel begins with Nicky DeSota, a timid mortgage broker in a fascist America who draws the unwelcome attention of Nyla Christophe, an FBI agent investigating a break-in at a government lab by what proves to be a Dominic DeSota from an alternate universe. Used as a pawn by Christophe's con-man boyfriend Larry Douglas to entrap an activist former actor (who turns out to be Ronald Reagan), he is later detained and brought to New Mexico to unravel a mystery.The focus then shifts to another Dominic DeSota, a United States Senator having an affair with Nyla Christophe Bowquist, who in this world is a famous violinist. Contacted by the military, he travels to Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories
The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation , are two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories....
, where he meets an identical version of himself—a "Cat" from an alternate universe. As Senator DeSota interviews his alternate-universe counterpart, the man vanishes after offering a cryptic warning. As the senator leaves the building, he and the base commander are captured by a detachment of troops led by Major Dominic P. DeSota, the commander of a military force from yet another universe.
Major DeSota's mission is revealed to be to secure the parallel-world research facilities of Senator DeSota's universe, which is the first step in a larger military operation. In Major DeSota's universe (which is subsequently designated Paratime Gamma) a militaristic United States is engaged in a tense standoff with the Soviet Union, and wants to use Senator DeSota's universe (Paratime Epsilon) to launch sneak attacks against them. After being transported to Paratime Gamma, Senator DeSota manages to escape by distracting his guard (Gamma's version of Nyla Christophe) and escaping through a portal with a scientist to Paratime Tau—the home universe of Nicky DeSota.
After being discovered in the desert, Senator DeSota and the scientist—who is Larry Douglas from another universe—are captured and interrogated by Agent Christophe. In an interrogation session involving the senator, the scientist, and their counterparts from Paratime Tau, Douglas reveals that he is from Paratime Alpha, and that he was forced by the military in Paratime Gamma to give them the ability to travel between universes. As Agent Christophe begins to pressure Douglas to give her government similar assistance, she and the other FBI agent with her are rendered unconscious by knockout darts fired by Dominic DeSota—the same Dominic DeSota who had escaped interrogation in Sandia.
DeSota brings the entire group back to his universe—Paratime Alpha—where he explains that since the senator's escape that Paratime Gamma has invaded the Epsilon's Washington D.C. in a failed bid to capture the president. He also reveals that travel between universes is creating a growing problem of "ballistic recoil," where the boundaries between the universes is growing weaker, causing matter and energy to cross unintentionally from one universe to the next (something depicted in interludes between the chapters). He brings the travelers to Washington D.C., where they cross over to Paratime Epsilon in an effort to help stop the invasion.
Before they can help, however, every "Cat" located in a different universe disappears, along with any scientists involved in paratime research. There they are informed that they have been transported by a group of more advanced alternate Earths in order to stop ballistic recoil before it escalates and the barriers between universes become irreparably permeable. The "Cats" are relocated to New York City on a new Earth, one being resettled after its inhabitants wiped themselves out. There the paratime transplants gradually settle into new lives.
Six months after his arrival, Nicky DeSota returns to New York to propose to Agent Christophe. Now working on a collective farm in Palm Springs, he has embraced the opportunity for a new life and developed into a much more confident man. After considering his proposal, the Nyla of his world accepts. On their trip back to California, however, Nicky reveals to her his expectation that their transplantation has not solved the problem of paratime travel—that with an infinite number of Earths, the number of them that will develop the ability to cross into alternate worlds will only increase, so many that the problem of ballistic recoil may prove to be unavoidable.
Characters
- Nicky DeSota, Senator DeSota, Major Dominic P. DeSota, Dominic DeSota-Arbenz - versions of Dominic DeSota, being respectively a mortgage broker, a US Senator, an Army officer and a traveller among the parallel worlds. The last of these belongs to an enlightened society where it is customary for a husband to add his wife's family name after his own.
- Nyla Christophe (3 versions) who are Nicky DeSota's FBI tormentor, Dominic DeSota's mistress, and Major DeSota's aide (who is in love with her boss).
- Larry Douglas a.k.a. Lavrenti Dzhugashvili, (3 versions), boyfriend of a Nyla, a friend of Senator DeSota (as Lavrenti), and a captive scientist. All are grandsons of alternate versions of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, known in our Universe as Stalin.