Dark Matter and Alternate Realities

I see that a new series is coming on May 8 to Apple+ titled Dark Matter. It is based on the novel of the same name by Blake Crouch. I read the novel a few years ago and, as TV shows go into reruns, I will look for streaming series to fill the summer.

I wrote elsewhere about the “real” dark matter. I say “real” because in astronomy, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that appears not to interact with light or the electromagnetic field like other matter.

Dark matter isn’t something we can see but gravitational effects which cannot be explained by Einstein’s general relativity give scientists the impression that it is present. This gets complicated but it seems to be involved in the formation and evolution of galaxies. Powerful

Crouch has said that in using the term for his novel he was thinking that life is full of mysteries, but that there are many more beneath the surface that we cannot see, hidden like dark matter but felt as a presence.

Experimental quantum physicist Aaron D. O’Connell demonstrated that subatomic particles exist in quantum superposition – a fancy way to say that occupy multiple realities. Crouch imagined that if someone could build a device that allowed a person to exist in superposition. Not time travel, but travel to an alternate reality.

Of course, the novel and series is entertainment not science but you can see how the leap to considering the nature of reality and of identity, and of questioning whether or not to trust what we see before our eyes would be easy.

I looked back at some reviews of the book since it has been a few years since I read the book. Interestingly, they label it alternate-universe science fiction, a countdown thriller, pop physics and a fantasy. They compare it to C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and Lev Grossman’s Magicians books. One critic, Brian Truitt, said the novel was “a nightmarish quantum-mechanics version of It’s a Wonderful Life.” I like that comparison both because I love that film and because I consider it a dark (film noir) tale of an alternate life.