Kellen Blair

Kellen Blair asked:

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Loraine This was the biggest question I had while reading this! The corridor was a lower-dimensional mental representation of a higher dimension space, allowing them access to other worlds. Once in that world, the box should not be there physically. It's not a TARDIS, just a portal of sorts. There is no reason why the box should have manifested and stayed manifested so convieniently in the new world. They would have been dropped into the alternate world and to exit, would've had to build a new box.

Jake Yeah, since the book deals with something as mind-boggling complex as infinity, you have to suspend disbelief to enjoy the story. The book was one of the most gripping, good stories I've ever read. But, in "reality," as soon as Jason2 stepped foot in the box and injected himself with the serum, an infinite number of choices could have been made that would have led to an infinite number of Jasons creating another infinite number of choices that would've lead to another infinite number of Jasons creating another infinite number of choices -- ad infinitum.

Every waking moment in a person's life is a constant series of choices; i.e., actions. Human action is purposeful behavior. We act by choosing one thing to do out of a series of possibilities. Right this moment, there is an endless number of choices I could make. I'm opting to sit here and type this response in this way. But I could:
a.) type this response another way
b.) put the computer down and go fold laundry
c.) scratch my face while typing this reponse
d.) scratch my leg while typing it
e.) take a random two second pause between typing words
and so on.
Those are all just a few of an infinite number of different things that could have happened in one moment a few moments ago. All would be different realities in the multiverse.

Even allowing everything play out the way it did in the plot until Jason showed back up in his original reality, there should have been an infinite number of Jasons showing up rather than the dozens/hundreds.

Julia

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Mike Rentas Presumably they would have been limited to the set of universes in which the box was created, but since Jason didn't build it in his own universe it doesn't seem like the author thought very much about that aspect of the story. Just one of many extremely convenient plot contrivances, like a drug that shuts down the observer effect without affecting cognition, or a world hopping mechanic that lets you navigate infinity by wishing.

Nitzan I was thinking the same things as I read. Those are the two biggest plot holes in the book, among others.

Arcael This is a plot hole, basically. The //ONLY// possible explanation is that Jason Two knew of this restriction and designed the experiment to work with something that has already existed for a long time. Like an abandoned bank with a vault or something. That way one could reasonably expect to travel to universes where it's still standing in its perfect form. That would imply that it's only the drug that does the hopping. The drug + the identical placement of the box (or vault) in different timelines. Or that vaults make perfect deprivation chambers. This is likely not the explanation that Crouch thought of. (I would like to be proven wrong). More likely is that he either didn't think of it, or thought enough readers wouldn't notice or care enough to let it ruin the rest of the book. I'll admit that the above conceit was the only way I could suspend my disbelief and enjoy myself while reading.

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AMY If one Jason invented the box, then an infinite number of other Jasons also created the box. If there was no box in the world he "travels" to, then that world would not be available to him. Because you cannot exit a box that is not there. Just a theory.

Arvind These are interesting questions. I answer these and others in detail here:
https://www.starvind.com/bookreviews/...

One 1. yes, it is somewhat contrived but the box travels with the traveler but only across worlds and not across time-space. So its physical coordinates are the same in every world. So possible that In some of these worlds the box might land up in the middle of someone's bedroom!
2. Yes, there's near infinite splits occurring on both sides but it is possible for there to be some matches overlaps. Analogy: near equal no. of single men and women but some women/men have more suitors. ha ha.

Shane That was my biggest problem with the book initially. The other Jasons did not invent the box and so the boxes should not have existed in those other dimensions. But I manage to 'reason' my way out of that 'glaring plot hole'.

As explained in the book, the corridors and the doors inside the original box are not physical constructs but mental representations of the portals to other dimensions. So I extrapolated that to 'deduce' that the boxes in the other dimensions are also mental representations and not physical constructs. As for how they can exist in those dimensions, I imagine the original box as the source/center of a inter-dimensional web. Imagine the original box reaching out and bleeding into other dimensions.* Basically only one original box is needed and a human being existing in a quantum state (due to the drugs) can access those portals to other dimensions. And those portals remain (as subsidiary boxes linking to the original box) even after he had exited into the new dimension as long as the drugs are still in effect.

*Initially, the original box did not actively make new portals to other dimensions but merely unveiled the possibilities/connections that already existed. But of course, every time Jason makes a choice, new Jasons and new dimensions are created along with new portals.

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Kellen: I know this is a super old thread but I found it because I just read the book and it very much bothered me. Thank you for raising it!! I would love to hear the author's defense/explanation on this point, but it ruined the book for me, which is otherwise well written and very suspenseful.
Crouch credits scientists at the end as if he has read their work or even spoken with them, but he completely ignores this basic point that his method of travel both violates fundamental physical law even in quantum theory (preservation of mass/energy) AND he does not even attempt a hand-waiving explanation. Nothing.
The issue of the magically appearing box is never even puzzled over by the protagonist or Amanda. Which means the author did not notice a problem?
The mechanism of "steering" in the multiverse is also magical, but at least there is an attempt at explanation, although in an essentially paranormal way.
Most multiverse travel stories have logical problem like this. Even the great Iain M Banks make an error in his Transition multiverse novel. In that story the consciousness travels between universes to other bodies in the target universe. But somehow his travelers are visiting a planet that had no human life whatsoever before Transition was discovered, therefore no bodies to transition into. So far as I could tell, that was never explained.
A much more modest "box" concept could have avoided this pitfall. For example, the traveler could move to other universes branching off from when the user enters the box (not ones that branched before) -- which would make a lot more sense from a physics and logic perspective. In that sense, the traveler is not moving but choosing which future they want to live in. How they "choose" is still left to magic.
Ultimately, I think multiverse fiction does not work, in part, because I the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is wrong. OR if it is right it leads to a dramatically meaningless world where there is no such thing as choice. If everything that can happen will happen, then who gives a F... what the character does or the consequences? (And if it all happens anyway, why should we care what we do in real life by the way?) It seems to me just another form of determinism, which ruins all fiction.
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Brandon-Tandra Whaley The answer is in chapter 8, quite a few pages in. I can say I honestly didn't quite get the "reasoning" but that is when it is discussed.

Sarah Does the box really matter? It's the drug that makes them unaware, or whatever. The box could have been replaced in each world with a dark closet or an empty room; something with little stimulation.... Maybe!

xac white Little late to the party here but... I think the box itself is in a super position and therefore its in all of the "worlds" I also think it's in all of them because it's not actually multiple worlds but one world with I suppose multiple dimensions. The box exists in the world, just like how Jason exists in the world. There's a Jason in every dimension in this world, even the ones that don't have people. He existed in those too but something happened and he's and the other people are gone now.

Nadine As for your question 2: Considering how difficult it was to get to one version of his world, I think the odds aren't in his favor of finding another version quickly.

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