I’m thinking about space-time and reality because I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what Brian Palmer, a character in the Matt Miller in the Colonies series, would say about this topic. Palmer has gained a hyper-intelligent mind from time travel, and like the rest of us, he is spending a significant portion of his life thinking about his place in the Universe. I’m hoping he can offer insight into the role that human consciousness plays in reality. Are we just human-shaped balls being smacked around an intergalactic pool table, or are we part and parcel of a story that can only happen if we are there to see it unfold?

Brian Palmer would be aware of the Copenhagen Interpretation. In a nutshell, the Copenhagen Interpretation, formulated by Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, says that physical systems do not have definitive properties until the system is measured. By measured, we mean that they are observed or sensed in some way by a human using one of our five senses. The Copenhagen Interpretation postulates that the movie hasn’t played until you’ve watched it because it’s still in the realm of all possible futures. Has the Copenhagen Interpretation ever been confirmed experimentally in a way we can understand? Stay tuned, but until then, look up the Delayed Choice Experiment, performed by physicist, John Wheeler.