The Plight of Mongo

Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After reading the Illuminatus Trilogy, I was really anticipating this novel. Robert Anton Wilson’s high mind style of writing is enjoyable, if a bit fractured. I really had high hopes.

This book fell kind of flat however, as Mr. Wilson attempts to visualize the concept of the multiverse my creating different versions of each of his characters, many of whom first appeared in the Illuminatus. However what the author does not do is adhere to any kind of real plot, and just when you think you might have a bit of a narrative or the resemblance of a coherent story he changes the world again.

The point of the book is to show you how everything you do or do not do, is inversely done or not done in a connected universe. I believe the author is also trying to convince us that we are all Schrodinger’s cat, living in a state that is neither living or dead, up until the moment we are observed, upon observation we will either die or live.

However, I could not stop reading this book, as the vivid imagination of Wilson’s is enticing and extremely visual. Having read the Illuminatus first, I recognized the characters, and how he was attempting to show the variations based on quantum variability.

A good read overall, but not nearly the quality of his first Trilogy.

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Has anyone ever told you to make time for something?  Or have you promised yourself or other that you would make time for something?  Sure, what is meant by this overused cliche’ is to simply fit something into your daily routine.  However, the simple concept of “making time” bugs the crap out of me.

Time is not a material, it has no corporeal existence.  Most of what we simple earth creatures consider time is really just a measurement of the moon’s orbit.  Thanks to our good friend Albert, we understand that there are forces in this universe that can alter our perception of time, and even alter time itself.

Now consider what would happen if time could actually be created.  If you could step into a chem lab and whip up a fresh batch of seconds, minutes, hours or even days.  Time that could be contained, consumed, and poof.  A new hour with no plans.  Would it change time for everyone?  Or could it just contain you inside a bubble of your own time, only to catch you up with the rest of the world.  Imagine, a bottle of liquid time.  I think it would look like mercury, because liquid mercury looks cool.

Dude, you just spilled like three hours.

So you drink this bottle of liquid time, at say 3pm.  You got about your business, only everyone else seems frozen.  And then the hour runs out, and the world starts back up for you at 3pm.  Only the things you worked with had changed.  Or, imagine that others who were drinking the liquid time at the same time were there with you until you dropped out of the bottled time space into real time.

Entire groups of people would age by years in what seemed like days.  However, research to ease the pain of aging could be done in the bottled time space.  Vehicles would pop in and out of traffic, causing massive accidents.  Some people would never return from bottled time.  One day they would buy years of the silver magic drought,  and then appear the next second ancient and dying.

There you go, making time will create massive car accidents, people disappearing and reappearing as withered old crones, and the only science that would be making progress would be to keep people around for longer.  Something we really don’t need.

So the next time you are asked to make time for something, or promise yourself to make time for someone, understand the consequences.  Ask them if they really want all those people to die, and all those old people taking Viagra and living on social security for 100yrs.

Those assholes.