Thursday, January 29, 2026

ultrashort SF: forbidden information


The laws of physics are entirely determined by what we call the Manifold.
It describes the precise way that space-time folds back on itself in many dimensions, at every point in the universe.
There are the normal directions we all know, and also many sub-microscopic or "tiny" directions, that together allow the various fields and forces to pass through each other.
You could think of it as the wadded tissue paper of reality. All space everywhere, or at least everywhere we can go, is folded the exact same way.

There's a bit of a problem: If we ever learn the exact form of the Manifold, our universe will be doomed.
Manifolds are unstable. There are simply too many ways to fold space. By adding enough energy at one precise point, you could always refold the manifold there.
Usually, it will bounce back to the way it was before. But sometimes, if you calculate your potentials just right, the rest of the universe will "bounce" to the new configuration.
Actually, the whole universe will become unravelled from that point outward. All matter will be completely destroyed in a vast spherical explosion-like shockwave. We might never even see it coming.

Right now, the shape of the Manifold remains unknown. String Theory couldn't calculate it, because there are too many possibilities. Our math wasn't advanced enough.
That means that all the ways that space-time might be locally twisted and tangled are equally true. We call this the Hyper-uncertainty Principle. It's what makes our universe relatively indestructible.

Until now. This new AI quantum computer concept of yours might just be powerful enough to calculate the Manifold. It's hard to see, but the possibilities are there. We calculate the odds at 0.24%. Unthinkably high . . .
And that is why you must die now.

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ultrashort SF: forbidden information

The laws of physics are entirely determined by what we call the Manifold. It describes the precise way that space-time folds back on itself ...