Creating Reality in Quantum Physics

Anyone who studies modern physics and quantum mechanics begins to realize that what they thought about the universe was mostly or entirely wrong and that the universe we experience with our senses in a single human lifetime is sorely incomplete. While entire college courses can be given on this subject, this blog is going to narrow the focus to one fundamental point that may change how you see everything.

The Basics: Matter and Energy

Most people look around and can reasonably say that the universe is composed primarily of two things: matter and energy. Basically, “stuff” and forces that interact with the stuff. Modern physics tells us that this seemingly simple and obvious depiction of reality isn’t entirely accurate. Our understanding of quantum mechanics tells us that the universe is more precisely made of fields and that those fields fluctuate, giving rise to the various particles that govern our universe. We also know that fundamentally, and with the important exception of gravity, discovered particles often carry the forces that we often associate with energy. For example, electrons, a particle, carry electrical energy, or photons, another particle, carry light energy. Some of these particles have mass, such as quarks, and these particles often build what we call matter. Massless particles, like photons, tend to carry energy. All of these particles are fluctuations in the fields related to them. Of course, this is a gross simplification of something that is extremely complex and more than a little bewildering, but it’s accurate enough to get the point across.

This all seems straightforward and acceptable, but it gets more twisted. As modern experiments have now predicted, it is possible for these various particles to be created…from nothing. Well, okay, not quite from nothing, we know that energy is being consumed and converted into particles, but it’s not so far removed from what just a few decades ago we might have considered straight-up magic: the ability for matter to pop into being from nothingness simply by carefully applying energy to and manipulating various fields.

We are just now beginning to understand how all this works, and we have few practical applications for any of it, but it begins to explain how such wonders as replicators from Star Trek might actually work.

Fluctuations and What They Mean for Reality

The oddities and possibilities, however, do not end there. Once we accept that all reality is the product of vibrations and fluctuations in various quantum fields, physics tells us that it is possible for random fluctuations to give rise to entire organized systems such as stars, planets, galaxies, and even human beings, just from nothing, literally poofing into existence. This is, according to our current understanding, all random and governed by probabilities. The reason we have never and probably will never observe such phenomena happening naturally is because the probability of it is so low that it is functionally impossible. When the probability of something is one in 10 to the 5000th power, you could observe for many trillions of years, and it would never happen. But just the fact that physics tells us it is possible for these random fluctuations to give rise to particles begs the question: what would happen if we somehow had a way to control these “random” fluctuations? Any civilization that achieved this could potentially alter physical reality at will on a fundamental level, controlling matter and energy in ways we could only fantasize about.

Essence and Where Science Meets Fiction

When I originally developed the concept of Essence, in Darksea’s early drafts, I imagined a fundamental force controlled by thought that could manipulate reality. I didn’t give my idea much scientific credibility. It was fiction and I made up the power I needed for the story to be what I wanted, much like George Lucas gave Jedi and the Force and later invented midi-chlorians to make it happen. As sci-fi authors, we commonly fill in the gaps with forces and powers born of our own imagination.

But…what if we weren’t actually as fantastic as we thought we were? What if there really is a power that can cause fluctuations in the quantum field, not by random chance, but by conscious effort? I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was exactly what Darksea’s Essence was always intended to be. Essence is something that is all around us all the time, but we as humans have not yet learned to consciously control this power and use it to change physical reality. In Darksea, this ultimate power is given only to the Ascended beings and their creations, such as psions.

While the potential of Essence is essentially unlimited (remember, mere fluctuations in quantum fields can create a single proton or an entire galaxy), the use of Essence is not unlimited (except for Ascended beings themselves in the Ascended Realm).

This blog won’t spoil any important story elements, but it is here merely to point out that our modern understanding of physics is so weird and so amazing, that what might have previously been considered grossly fictitious is now becoming somewhat plausible, albeit far out of our current reach.

At least we can begin to see possibilities, and exploring possibilities is what sci-fi is all about.