[Book Review] Schild's Ladder
Niche ideas of quantum mechanics manifested as an interesting science fiction book
Schild’s Ladder is a book Greg Egan that explores physics, philosiphy, and the inevitable results of too many scientists in the same room together. For those who wish to skip to the chase: very good science, but lacking some philisophical self-awareness.
There are a number of different types of science fiction. Some types that are designed to be nothing but a fun adventure through a possible (or sometimes impossible) future. Then there is science fiction that wishes to discuss particular philisophical ideas. Then there is science fiction where the author had one really interesting idea in the shower and wrote an entire book to come and say “hey, come and look what I’ve thought of,” to the reader.
Schild’s Ladder is the last of these types. It explores a new way of viewing physics against a backdrop where humanity has advanced past the need for violence, gender, or any of the other facets that provide meaning for many human lives. It is very much steeped in the neoliberal view that we will simply engineer people and society ‘to be better’ while some how magically preserving what it is to be human. Still, outside of that central failing: the unjustified view that neoliberalism will advance forever, Schild’s ladder is a particularly interesting and compelling book. Much like Ian Banks, the author fundamentally does not see not-neoliberalism to be a reasonable state of existence, and thus eschews it. Unlike Ian Banks, however, the central thrust of the story is not post-human hedonism, but rather an in depth view of ground breaking scientific ideas regarding physics and graph theory. While it does fall into quintessential neoliberal philisophical traps, such as the assumptions that all peoples are interchangeable, it merely uses that as a foundation to its story, rather than those failings being the story.
The story itself takes place against the backdrop of a vacuum decay occurring within a region of space that grows at half the speed of light. An experiment to observe the fundamental layer of physics went wrong, and now a group of scientists gather at the edge of the expanding sphere of vacuum decay to try and save our universe from this ever-looming threat. Post-humans are run on quantum cusps which are devices judged to be more truly conscious and capable of free will than the meat-brains we evolved with. While death has mostly become a relic of the past, as people have backups distributed across the galaxy, the dislocation resultant from the expanding vacuum has created uproar among thousands of peoples as they’re driven from their home. The author chooses to focus on a self-selected group of high scientists trying desperately to solve the vacuum catastrophe in a race against time, and a race against each other. Relations between quickly grow strained as the competition heats up in a bid to understand the nature of the disaster. When researchers begin finding highly ordered structures on the far side of the collapsing vacuum barrier, the factions only become more focused on victory.
The author is very skilled as far as understanding physics and quantum mechanics. Many of the ideas discussed in this book were formalized years later in a number of publications by Dr. Stephan Wolfram. Whose modern ideas using nodes, edges, and graph theory are absolutely ground-breaking in quantum mechanics. I am left wondering how many private conversations were had between Dr. Wolfram and Greg Egan given that the book predates many of Dr. Wolframs publications but seems to draw very heavily from his theories. For those of you inclined, reading Stephan Wolframs ideas might make a good introduction to the science fiction book.
If this book were to be summarized: it is a story about a group of brilliant researchers attempting to address existential cosmic realities they are not fully equipped to understand. Unlike the work of lovecraft, it portrays a strong faith in the human spirit to overcome its own limitations. Unfortunately one or two more chapters would be welcome, as this book feels like it ends just a little bit too early.