A Distant Island

conclusion

by Omar E. Vega

“A Distant Island” began in issue 117.

George looked at the screen but could not grasp what it was all about. It showed just a chaotic 3-D map with the strangest curves he had ever seen. George was appalled. He had never felt so ignorant in his whole life, but he had the consolation that, perhaps, his friend was just really crazy, after all.

“Do you see these two lines?” said Bob, pointing at the monitor. “Both show the timing since the start of the experiment to the detection of the signal at the other end. They are shifted upwards from the axis because it takes a microsecond to detect them. As you see, light took more time to reach the detector than the quantum effect did. As a matter of fact, the quantum effect took no time at all. It was, by all measurements, instantaneous.”

“I see,” said Robert, not quite convinced by the experiment.

“And, what do you think now?”

“Well, I am convinced. But, to tell you the truth, my friend, I doubt that you could convince anyone else with this kind of experiment.”

“Why?”

“You need to make a more dramatic test. Something that leaves nothing to suspicion. You need to show that you can communicate to a quite distant place instantaneously in real time. Imagine you can send a message faster than light from Olympia to the post on the asteroid Germania. As everyone knows, if I use radio or laser, a contact with Germania takes twenty minutes for a signal travelling at the speed of light to go there and come back. If you can show us that you can contact Germania in seconds, everyone will believe you.”

“Yes. It is a good idea, George. But...”

“But what?”

“To do that, I would need ten billion of credits.”

“Ten billion! Break the bank, will you? How come it’s so expensive to mount the same kind of experiment you are doing here?”

“It’s the distance, George, of course. When distance increases, it is necessary to use more precise instruments to make sure the array of laser beams travel exactly parallel. If they cross, the effect is gone. It can be done, but I would need a heavy investment in machinery do it. And that is the reason I am talking to you. I need you to help me to get the cash.”

“I can’t do it myself. But I can arrange for you to have an audience in the Senate so you can explain the case. It won’t be easy. Politicians are hardheaded. Be ready for the worst-case scenario. Be prepared. I am sure you’ll do quite well. At least you have already convinced me.”

“I will get ready.”

“Be ready in two weeks. I’ll see you there. It will be tough, I know, they are very hard indeed. Be prepared.”

The weeks went by fast, and the day arrived when Bob was to present his thesis in public. He was to talk to the whole Senate, which allowed him twenty minutes for his presentation. They were interested not in the science but in the feasibility of the experiment and, above all, in the potential earnings the state could get from the commercialization of the invention. Bob knew that, and he made sure his speech emphasized the practical aspects of his idea.

He worked very hard in writing his speech, correcting every comma and making sure the rhythm and the impact were correct. He practiced his body language and the intonation of his voice, recording his performance on video, which he studied with great care allowing him to correct even the smallest detail. He selected very carefully the clothes he was going to wear in this very special and unique occasion. Everything was studied and practiced to reach the point where he could give his talk with amazing naturalness; a clear sign that he was well prepared.

But nothing prepared him for the luxurious place. The most amazing pomp that was the norm in the senate. Of course he, as anybody else in the colony, had seen the place at least once. The school teachers used to tour their small pupils around these same buildings, at least once. But now, being there as an adult, and as a responsible scientist, it made him feel quite uncomfortable.

What amazed visitors most was the huge scale of the buildings all covered by marble. The architecture resembled the Greek classic style, including Corinthian columns and statues of gods. Diana and Mercury were standing on guard at the main gate: a tall Roman style door which seemed designed for giants. The interior was even more impressive and resembled the palace of Versailles, furniture, mirrors, lamps, curtains and carpets included.

For an instant he thought about other pioneers who, like himself, have to ask their kings for help to make their projects come true. He imagined especially a Columbus begging his Catholic kings for permission and money to sail to Asia. In a way, this unconscious comparison was quite accurate, because he was also trying to open commerce to faraway places, the same as Columbus had.

Fortunately for him, the Senators were few. After all, compared with the societies on Earth, one hundred thousand people make nothing more than a small city. So, twenty senators were enough to govern the colony. To them it was necessary to add the judges, twenty in total; the army and navy directors; the council of ministers and thirty scientific advisors. There were also some special guests that had been carefully selected for the meeting. A total of 150 people crowded the conference room: a huge crowd for such an underpopulated and isolated colony.

Bob’s speech was smooth and well delivered; it captured the attention of those present. Nobody interrupted for the twenty minutes that Bob took to read it. Then the moment of truth arrived. The round of questions would now start and not stop until a decision was made. The first to talk was Ron Williams, a sceptical senator with a strong bias toward classic genius, especially Einstein.

“Well, gentlemen, we have heard the arguments of our fellow... Bob,” he said in an ironic tone. “His idea sounds great, if it were only true. Imagine a world were you and I could go anywhere in the universe instantaneously by just clicking a button. In ten years we could colonize not less than the whole galaxy! And in a hundred, the whole universe would be ours! Isn’t it a fantastic way to waste our money? Especially when the budget is as tight as is it right now. No, gentlemen! Let’s stop wasting our time in fantasies and get back to work, which is what our fellow citizens pay us for.”

“I protest, gentlemen,” said another senator. “The attitude of Mr. Williams is negative. However, that is exactly what I expected from him. But let us concentrate on this matter. First, as far as I understand, Robert Fuchs did not promise to build a transport but a communication system, which is a quite a different thing. With this system we will only transfer data, and all our cargo and passengers will have to travel by antimatter spaceships, as they have done for centuries.

“This means that all the colonization will continue to expand at its current rate: at just three percent of a light-year per year. One thousand years ago the pioneers left the Earth’s Solar System and started the colonization of Alpha Centauri. Today, humankind extends in a sphere of 200 light-years in diameter centred on Earth. What will change is not the speed of colonization but how fast we can communicate with our neighbours.”

“And that will make a lot of change,” said a Howard McCoy. “As you all know, the current commerce between colonies is done by data interchange. In Olympus, for example, we produce very good art design and mathematics, products we trade in exchange for dramas, machinery design, genetic design and all the goods we need. In the end, most of our imports and exports are just data. Very rarely do we buy physical goods from other colonies, because it takes too long for them to get here. Our closest neighbours are 5 light years from here, a distance that can be crossed in 25 years.

“Therefore, the only things we have ever imported are live materials and extraordinary antiques. In that scenario, with Mr. Fuchs’ invention we won’t have to wait for decades to finish our commercial transactions. Today, if I want to buy natural or historical movies from Earth it takes 50 years for the order to get there and another 50 for the shipment to get back here. Even with modern medicine, when the materials we asked for finally arrive, most people are already dead. Imagine if this same transaction could take only hours! That would prompt an extraordinary change in our society! Then, for the first time, the mankind will really conquer space! A really interstellar nation will be born!”

“That will destroy our culture!” screamed Allan Mora, a quite xenophobic individual. “Distance has given us the opportunity to create a new society in Olympus. Look at our community. People enjoy it, because it has one of the highest standards of living of the whole of humanity. We live happily, without crime and with all the possibilities to develop what we want in life. Why do we need other colonies to interfere in our way of life?

“Look what we know about Ambrosia, a place with plenty of prostitutes and degenerates. Observe what happens in Macedonia, with all those cruel fellows who enjoy murder. Everywhere we have looked at we found colonies immersed in misery, civil wars or mediocrity. Why we do we have to lose paradise? Remember what happened to all the native cultures of Earth when they broke their isolation. Most of them disappeared, absorbed by the most advanced culture of the invaders. That happened to Easter Island in the past, and it will happen to our own island, Olympia. Fellow senators, make the right decision: stop this madness now, before it is too late.”

“Don’t listen to Mora, fellow senators,” claimed an opponent. “Progress can’t be stopped. If we don’t develop this now, somebody else will. Another colony will take the lead and it will become quite rich in the process. We should not be blind and lose this opportunity to improve the life of our beloved nation.”

“Good point, fellow citizen,” claimed Mick Moore, the most respected physicist in the colony, but we have started from a very weak base. The theory of Mr. Fuchs is not grounded in sound science. First, he is rejecting the Einstein Dogma, which is the core of the most enduring tradition in physics and states that the speed of light is the fastest that anything can travel. The reason for this dogma to exist is very simple: if anything does travel faster than light it will go backwards in time. Now, it has been demonstrated to the last detail that travelling back in time is impossible. The structure of universe forbids it. Therefore, Mr. Fuchs is wrong.”

“The one who is wrong is you, Mr. Moore,” said Fuchs, rising to his feet. “Quantum communication does not mean travelling back in time at all. If we send a signal from here to Earth, for example, it will take exactly zero time to arrive there. Given that on Earth there is a right receiver for the signal, of course. Now, on Earth they will have to prepare the answer and send it back to us. The answer will arrive several seconds afterwards. The delay is the time it took for Earth to prepare the answer. There is no time travel in this technology at all. It is just a misunderstanding of how instantaneous communication works. It looks like physicists have not done their homework for two thousand years. Science is based in experiments, not in dogma, Sir. As Galileo once did, we should perform the experiment.”

Those were just the starting arguments of a session that went continuously for more than 20 hours. At the end, everybody was tired, but they finally agree to fund a small-scale test to prove if Fuchs’ idea was correct. Fuchs had won the first round.

* * *

One year later, and four billion pounds less in the nation’s reserve, Bob’s idea was ready to be tested. People all over the colony were quite excited by the event, which was covered extensively on the news. Unfortunately, the only part of humanity that knew about Fuchs’ idea was the colony of Olympia. The rest of humanity had to wait for decades for the signals to arrive at their own stellar systems. Light is painfully slow compared to the huge scale of the universe.

The idea was to send a set of laser beams from Olympia to a quantum receiver in one starship of Olympia’s fleet, the OSF Fletcher, which was located at a distance of 90 million kilometres — five light minutes — from the colony. They would establish real-time video communication with the ship, which would be transmitted by both conventional waves and quantum communication.

The laser array was set at a transmitting antenna outside the space city and aimed in the direction of the starship. The laser took five minutes to reach it. When it was done, both extremes of the communication channel were entangled. Modulating one end would change the state of the other end, instantaneously, without the slightest delay. That was the idea behind the communications device Bob had created: to transmit signals through the universe at infinite speed.

As a matter of fact, with this technology, the messages were not transmitted; they did not travel through space. They just affected two particles in the same way, no matter they were located at the opposite extremes of the universe. Some speculated that there weren’t separated particles at all, but the same one that happens to be in two different locations at the same time. Anyway, if it works, who really care how it does it?

The place was crowded by authorities, famous people, newspaper reporters and a large number of onlookers. Then, Bob said the words that will stay in history:

“This is Olympia calling, is anybody there to listen?”

A fraction of a second afterwards, in the quantum channel screen, the image of a sailor appeared:

“We hear you loud and clear, Sir. Loud and clear.”

“It is nice to talk to you.”

“It is nice for us, too, Sir. It’s amazing that we can talk in real time.”

Just when the phrase was over, that is, ten seconds after the first message, the screen of the conventional signal showed the same image of the sailor saying the message “We hear you loud and clear...” once again, and too late.

The crowd exploded in cheers, applauded and screamed as never before in Olympia. Mankind was able, for the first time in history, to transmit messages faster than the speed of light. And all thanks to the creativity of just one man: Robert Fuchs.

Senator Lime, who was standing just some meters from him, felt very proud. The crowd was proud, also, as the whole colony, but the news would take quite a while to reach the rest of the humanity. Because they lacked the right quantum receptors, they’d have to be informed by the standard way, so there it would be decades before they knew about it.

Bob became famous overnight, but that did not mean that his project was a complete success right away. He still had to fight very hard to protect his patent, and to establish a communications company to exploit his invention. For more than ten years he developed a communication system to break the barriers between the local space cities of the Republic of Olympia, and then his idea spread to the whole stellar system of Gliese 59.

Ten years later the blueprints to build the quantum receivers were sent by conventional waves to every corner of the universe. One by one, each colony started to construct those receivers, and communications and progress began to accelerate. Two centuries later the whole civilization was able to communicate from one end to the other in seconds.

Meanwhile, a strange kind of commerce developed: tourism. Given that people could never be sent at a speed faster than light, the inventors developed telecommanded robots which allowed people to go to distant places by using advanced virtual reality techniques. Many ventured to Earth in this way, and other went to faraway colonies, including Olympia. Fuchs had made humanity in a single entity once again.

The colonization continued at the rate of one new stellar system a year. It took hundred of thousands of years to colonize the galaxy, but meanwhile all the colonies could keep in contact in real time. There would never be another colony isolated in an obscure corner of the universe. Never again would there be another distant island.