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book report time!
Aug. 1st, 2008 02:09 pmNightmares & Daydreams
by Nelson Bond
Solid stories, many in a humorous sf vein, others more serious. I think "The Spinsters" is the best of the lot.
Because I'm an oddball, I couldn't help noticing that Bond got close to the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, though that kind of idea is probably not that original in time-travel-parallel-universe-type stories. From "'Down Will Come the Sky'":
"Time, I conceive, is such a treelike structure. It started from a common root and source; it has now branched and subdivided so often that in the infinite universe there exist as many possible worlds as there are leaflets on a tree. ... And from each dividing point sprang a separate history of mankind -- a new, unique, completely independent world."
He likens the branchings to 'decision points,' i.e. actual decisions made by humans (or the first lungfish to step onto land), rather than each and every quantum event, but still a pretty close parallel for 1953, anticipating Hugh Everett by four years.
by Nelson Bond
Solid stories, many in a humorous sf vein, others more serious. I think "The Spinsters" is the best of the lot.
Because I'm an oddball, I couldn't help noticing that Bond got close to the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, though that kind of idea is probably not that original in time-travel-parallel-universe-type stories. From "'Down Will Come the Sky'":
"Time, I conceive, is such a treelike structure. It started from a common root and source; it has now branched and subdivided so often that in the infinite universe there exist as many possible worlds as there are leaflets on a tree. ... And from each dividing point sprang a separate history of mankind -- a new, unique, completely independent world."
He likens the branchings to 'decision points,' i.e. actual decisions made by humans (or the first lungfish to step onto land), rather than each and every quantum event, but still a pretty close parallel for 1953, anticipating Hugh Everett by four years.
