The Big Idea

Alara's Call is a fantasy novel whose cover I've included at the top of this post. I must say that I didn't think when I first saw this cover that it was the best one possible, because to my eye it does not suggest the story is set in a fantasy world. It appears, rather, to be a cover of some form of historical romance. However, the world of Alara's Call does have romance elements and parts of the story resonate with the historical past. So the cover isn't as out of genre as it appears at first glance. (Though please note, there really ARE fantasy elements to this story--more on that in a bit.) By saying the story resonates with the historical past, I mean a lot of story elements have a very familiar ring to them. You will hear characters talk of trade agreements; there's a mention of a clearly Trinitarian religion with some kind of church structure; you will find written scriptures, familiar prayers, professors of theology, recognizable kings (but not w...

The cartoon I included to start off this post comes from "The Universes of Max Tegmark" and has the purpose here of illustrating the "Many Worlds Interpretation" of quantum mechanics, or MWI. It shows that because of a single decision, in one universe a couple is married with two stick-figure kids, while on the other they live on opposite sides of the globe. In short, like the cartoon, MWI says some of the weird things found in quantum mechanics like an electron interfering with itself (apparently by being in multiple different places at the same time) happen because there are multiple worlds, multiple universes, laid on top of one another accounting for an electron or other quantum appearing to be in multiple places at once. Once something happens that forces a decision (like a measurement), then all the possibilities remain true--but do so by universes splitting off in different directions.  We then live in a universe where only one possibility took place--all...