Wednesday Weirdness

Pardon me while I geek out a little.

I've probably mentioned my fondness for quantum mechanics at some time or another. For some reason this stuff fascinates the heck out of me. I don't come close to understanding it, of course--and I'm told that anyone who thinks s/he does is sorely mistaken--but just reading about it relaxes me.

I know. Weird, huh?

Or maybe not, when you really think about it. I write what I like to call "popcorn" fiction--light and a little salty. Funny stuff, for the most part, purely for entertainment value. Something you might like to escape into to get away from heavy thinking.

Since that's what I do...well, I was going to say "for a living," but that would be premature at this point. But I have high hopes. Anyway, since writing the light stuff is my work, when I need a mental break, I tend to go for nonfiction of a scientific nature.

Yes, I think it's fun. What can I say? Talk nerdy to me, baby. *waggles eyebrows*

Yesterday I bought a copy of Briane Greene's The Hidden Reality, which explores the subject of parallel universes.

Gawd. I just drool over the topic of parallel universes. See, from the time I was quite small, and first learned to read, I always imagined that somehow, somewhere, the stories I read were real.

And it turns out this may not be so very far-fetched. Here's a quote from the book:

"Quantum mechanics suggests that every possibility embodied in its probability waves is realized in one of a vast ensemble of parallel universes." (p. 309, hardcover)

Which means, to my way of thinking, even the remotely possible (i.e., anything you can think up), does exist somewhere. Which further means that somewhere out there, my characters are real.

It tickles me just to contemplate that.

Of course, it also means all of Stephen King's books are real out there somewhere, too. Which is rather more frightening.

So, if all this woo-woo...er, I mean scientific speculation turns out to be true*,  which book worlds would you like to visit?

*Though, technically, I suppose there must be a parallel universe in which it isn't true, but let's not confuse ourselves needlessly with paradoxes.