No one knows the true nature of matter. The fictional CEO of the Brookstone Heuristics Corporation, Allen Brookstone, learns this explanation of it from a friendly alien in The Chaos Machine:
Allen shook his head, "Why doesn't it ever
fill up?"
He was sitting in the console room with Minerva
who was trying to explain how the information was stored in the Chaos Machine.
Allen had mastered the basic interface and had satisfied himself that he
understood how most of it worked. But now he was trying to understand the
mechanics behind the system and had wandered into a wholly different world. In
front of them, about a half-meter above the console, floated a dully glinting
sphere. It was clearly opaque, but had a shimmering luster about it that made
it appear vaguely out-of-focus. Although they were only looking at a
projection, Allen was assured that the real quadro-trilithium crystal at the
heart of the machine looked no different.
"You indicated that you understood the
nature of the synchronized singularities when we initially studied this,"
said Minerva.
"Yes, I did. I understand that the
singularities in the crystal are attuned somehow to the ones making up the
Earth and everything on it. I also understand how the singularities in the
crystal can be read-out real-time to display the virtual mirrors of what the
Earth singularities are doing. But there's a finite number of singularities in
the crystal, right?"
"Well, yes," agreed Minerva,
"but only in a volumetric sense. Remember that there's only one singularity
to begin with."
"That's the part I'm struggling with, I
guess. How can there only be one of them and yet they make up the
crystal?"
"I think I see where you're going off
track. I don't think that I explained that the entire universe is made up of just
the one singularity. It is everywhere in everything, including the crystal,
because it literally is everything.
All matter, as we know it, is the result of the composite interactions of the
nodal manifestations of the singularity." She paused a moment before
continuing, "We live a very sheltered life here. I sometimes forget how
primitive the state of knowledge is in the outside world. I skimmed through
some of the current physics papers to get a feel for how little you know about
matter in general." She looked at Allen with sincerity, "You're just
going to have to trust me on this."
"I'm no physicist, but it was my minor in
college and I was able to work through the math in quantum physics. Of course,
the books I learned from have mostly been proven wrong or misguided, but I
think I can understand it if I keep at it. You're so patient with me,
Minerva!" Allen smiled and leaned back in the chair, clasping his hands
behind his neck, "Fire away."
"If I didn't think you could understand
it, I wouldn't waste your time." Minerva smiled back at Allen, "Hazel
wants to make sure that all your questions are answered completely. He said to
hold nothing back." She touched the controls on the console and brought up
one of the simulacrums from the manual, "What we loosely call a
singularity is conceptually what you might think of as a point or locus in
space. It has no length, width, or depth. No dimensionality whatever."
"Check."
"So how many singularities can fit in a
small volume, a pea perhaps?"
"How many angels can dance on the head of
a pin?"
Minerva frowned, "I don't think I
understand your question."
"Never mind," replied Allen. "An
infinite number can fit in a pea."
"And how many can fit in something much
smaller, like a grain of salt?"
"Still an infinite number." Allen
grinned impishly, "But they're much closer together."
Minerva ignored him and continued, "So how
many would fit in a singularity?"
Allen thought for a moment. For a brief instant
he felt he could see what she was driving at and then the thought eluded him.
"While the singularity has no volume, it can still contain an infinite
number of singularities within itself."
"Exactly, only now they are crowded in so
close together that they are indistinguishable from only one singularity."
"But if there's no volume, then they're
not really contained, are they?" Allen frowned and rubbed his temples,
"On the other hand, if they have no dimensionality, no volume is
required." He looked at Minerva, "And if they have no volume they have
no mass, either."
"Now you're getting it. If you can
conceive of an infinite number of singularities contained in a single
singularity, it becomes a little easier to understand the next part. While our
math works out for an infinite number, it also holds true for a finite number.
This suits our needs very well because there is a finite number of
singularities comprising all of space-time and the equations are readily
solvable for finite values."
"Okay, I think I'm with you so far, but
I'm not sure where this is going."
"Consider what is commonly called The Big
Bang. Just prior to that first moment, all the singularities in the universe
were contained within themselves. Itself. And then something happened. They
were suddenly allowed to spread outwards from the central locus. This spreading
out, if you will, is what we perceive as matter. The movement of the
singularities in relation to all the other singularities determines our
perception of them. Some of them are neutrons, protons, and electrons making up
atoms while others are photons, quarks, and dark matter and such. The
singularities themselves have no size or mass, but their interactions produce a
unified field that changes in quantum steps."
"I'm assuming this is not the same quantum
theory I learned?" Allen asked.
"No, but it's similar in the sense that a
singularity has one state at one moment and a different state in the next
moment." She anticipated Allen's question, "A moment is defined as a
very short period of time. Very, very
short in this case." She continued, "So, moment by moment, the
singularities throughout the universe change state in lock-step with each
other. They are able to do this because they are simply different states of one
singularity and merely appear as many."
"So the state of a particular singularity,
or the apparent manifestation of one, determines what it is?"
"In a nutshell, yes. The real key is in
understanding the relationships and how to manipulate them between moments. The
food processor, for example. You take a fresh cheeseburger and store the states
of its singularities in a template. Then you take a source volume of necessary
atoms and rearrange their states to match those of the template. Swapping
states between source and destination requires no energy. Moving them a short
distance requires only a little bit. However, changing their state from one to
another may require enormous amounts of energy or supply it in return.
State-wise, everything balances everywhere throughout the universe."
"I think I follow you, so far. But I'm not
sure what you meant by manipulating them between moments."
Minerva replied, "When the singularity
changes states, there is an instant where it's in no state at all. Without
outside influence, it will normally become the same state again the next
moment. It is during this instant that you can influence the state it next
assumes. Changing the state of the singularities in an aluminum atom so that it
becomes a gold atom is possible, but this requires an immense amount of energy
plus the addition of a lot more singularities. Changing the states of gold to
aluminum, however, yields up energy and provides a source of
singularities."
"So you make food and energy from raw
materials. And, if I understand you correctly, as long as your state
conversions run downhill, the energy output can be used to push some of them
uphill where necessary."
"If by uphill and downhill you are
referring to net energy input and output, then you are exactly correct."
"And the singularities in the
quadro-trilithium crystal are in lock-step with all the singularities in the
Earth?"
"Yes,” replied Minerva, “and don’t forget
that the spherical boundary extends somewhat beyond the asteroid belt as
well."
"But there's more singularities in our
solar system than could possibly be in that crystal!"
"They are the same in number, but as you
pointed out earlier, they are packed much closer together. After all, they have
no volume."
"Then why doesn't the crystal weigh as
much?"
"Due to the unique properties of the
crystal lattice, they interact in such a way as to cancel each other out. The
crystal has volume, but no mass, as we know it. It sits suspended in a force
field to keep it stabilized."
"But there's still a finite number of
singularities, yes?"
"Yes."
Allen shook his head, "Then, why doesn't it
ever fill up?"
