What if quantum mechanics could impact the macro-scale world, such as in Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment? And someone wrote a thriller about it?

Anyway, here's a brief non-spoiler review of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. A book popular enough to get a TV adaptation.

Dark Matter is a thriller about the many-worlds hypothesis, ie that the universe continually branches into a multiverse of all things that could happen, as they do indeed happen in different simultaneous timelines. In this case, technology allows a man to move across those timelines, with various ramifications that follow.

The writing/prose quality was great. No complaints. And it was a page-turner for sure, as any good thriller is supposed to be.

Characters were mostly solid. A handful of character decisions/arcs seemed wasted/unfulfilled (a therapist character in particular), but I have no major complaints.

In terms of plot, I liked the premise and the first two thirds. The final third kind of lost me. I won't go into spoilers but basically there's a twist that, while I like it on the surface, was handled in a way that came off as sillier than was probably intended. And a conflict that could have been tighter and more personal was expanded beyond what it needed to be.

Admittedly, pure thrillers generally aren't my favorite genre, since I like a bit more meat on the bones to think about afterward versus a book that optimizes for constant non-stop tension. I don't like ultra-long series that drag things out unnecessarily, but I do like sufficient length and thematic complexity beyond what most thrillers offer. A sci-fi thriller can potentially hit a sweet spot, but from reading two Crouch books so far, I generally deviate from his vision in the final third; not a big fan of how he's tended to land things in the end, and yet paradoxically I would be happy to give like 20% more page time as a reader if it would help flesh them out more (whereas publishers are generally like "no, gotta tighten that word count up for a thriller".

I did enjoy the reading experience, overall. I'd say it was a 4/5 in-the-moment experience for me, but drops to 3.5/5 in terms of long-term impact and thoughtfulness. If I was more a fan of the thriller genre I'd probably keep it in the 4+ range.

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Discussion

This sounds like the MBT theory of Consciousness, by Thomas Campbell former NASA - where Consciousness is fundamental, and we recognize we live in a virtual reality built on information, with all possibilities that could and might’ve happened. Sounds like you would enjoy His trilogy My Big TOE (theory of everything)

wow, just realized theory of everything turns into “TOE” as an acronym.

Yes. In physics, a big theory of everything, a big TOE - must explain All other Small theories. The MBT theory of Consciousness is a big toe.

I read all Monroe books and Campbell's TOE. I also did lucid dreaming myself. I share the view that the universe is informational, but I think his experiences and conclusions are deeply subjective. Also, he does not drill down to the elemental, but builds on the idea that our world is the derivative of higher planes of existence/beings. Much like Federico Faggin and all religions. This answer does not satisfy me. I am more in favor of Wolfram's Physics, that builds informational universe from ground up using strictly math.

“Read” is not proof of work. The MBT Theory of consciousness has one it’s pillars to be “love is the answer” - have you lived the theory? Or just read it and didn’t like how it sounded. Lucid dreaming is a tool. Being love in daily action is proof of work. Live his theory for a while and then tell me ur opinion of it. That’s like reading the book on Bitcoin and saying u read about a better idea.

Love is a highly evolved derivative concept, same as "God". It cannot be a ground pillar of the world. Material objects are derivative of atoms, not other way abound. Love is a derivative of consciousness, which arises in living organisms with neural systems. Does human consciousness affect the physical world around us? Sure. We can will to lift a finger and press a button to trigger a massive change. Living with love is a phychological life hack: you love the world and the world loves you back, you feel great. No way to repeat the same world history without this “proof of work”, to compare and see if it actually made any difference.

I am not seeking to improve my life, it is fine as is. I seek a scientific method to understand the world all the way to the bottom. The concepts of God or Light or Love are not scientific and do not qualify to be at the bottom. The most basic and abstract mathematical structure - hypergraph - does qualify.

Love it.

The Nostr Book club!

Something to talk about other than money!!!!

This theory is nonsense, but the series was fun to watch. Also enjoyed Constellation.

Any recommendations for good reads?