Flashforward (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Flashforward (disambiguation).

Flashforward
Cover of the Hardback edition.
Author	Robert J. Sawyer
Country	United States/Canada
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	1999
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	320pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-312-86712-3

Flashforward is a science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer. It was first published in 1999. Although the copyright page, title page, spine, and back cover all identify the book as Flashforward, the front cover styles the title as two words, Flash Forward.

The novel revolves around events in the year 2009. At CERN the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is performing a run to search for the Higgs boson. During the run the entire human race loses its consciousness of the present and experiences events from about 21 years in the future. Each individual, except for those asleep, experiences their own future through the senses of their future self. This "flashforward" lasts a matter of two minutes, but when it is over many are dead in accidents involving vehicles, aircraft, and any other device needing human control.

[edit] Plot summary

The protagonist is Lloyd Simcoe, a 47 year old Canadian particle physicist. He works with his fiancée Michiko, who has a daughter, Tamiko. Another researcher and friend is Theo Procopides.

The fallout from the flashforward occupies much of the first part of the book. The consequences include the death of Michiko's daughter as an out-of-control vehicle plows into her school. Oddly, no recording devices anywhere in the world functioned in the present during the event. Security camera tapes show noise and even recording devices in television studios show nothing until the event is over. This is interpreted as proof of the observer effect in quantum theory. With the awareness of the entire human race absent, "reality" went into a state of indeterminacy. When the awareness returned, reality collapsed into its most likely configuration, which was one in which moving objects had careened out of control in the direction they were already headed.

The deaths of several characters are forecast by the "flashforward". Anyone who did not experience it is assumed to be dead in the future. This includes Theo Procopides. Some people report reading about his murder in the future. However as time goes by it seems that the events of the future are not predestined. Some people, depressed by their visions of their own dismal futures, commit suicide, thereby changing those futures. The story begins to take on the features of a murder mystery, as Theo attempts to prevent his own murder. His brother Dimitrios, who aspired to be a writer but saw himself just working in a restaurant in the future, is one of the suicides.

At CERN, the scientists plan a repeat of the run, but this time warning the world of the exact time, so that preparations can be made. However, there is no "flashforward", but the LHC does find the Higgs boson.

One of the consequences of the event is that Simcoe is approached by a billionaire who is researching practical immortality. He is offered an opportunity to benefit from this himself.

He is considering this when the riddle of the "flashforward" is solved. At the same time as the LHC was running, a pulse of neutrinos arrived from the remnant of supernova 1987A. The remnant is not a neutron star, but a quark star, a superdense body of strange matter. Starquakes cause it to emit a neutrino pulse at unpredictable intervals. As the date at the other end of the "flashforward" approaches, a satellite is launched into an orbit close to that of Pluto, from where it can give several hours warning of another neutrino pulse arriving. The neutrinos travel slower than light, since they have mass, and thus a radio message from the satellite will arrive at Earth before the neutrinos do. The intent is to run the LHC again and create another "flashforward".

Theo Procopides, meanwhile, discovers a religious fanatic attempting to sabotage the experiment. In a chase sequence through the tunnels containing the LHC equipment, he is able to stop this, preventing his own murder in the process.

It turns out that the neutrino pulse arrives on the exact day which everyone experienced during the original event. The world stops and rests at the appointed time, but this time nobody experiences anything, except for a few. Simcoe experiences a vision of himself moving through time for billions of years, his consciousness existing in different artificial bodies, presumably supplied by the immortality researchers. He is aware of the billionaire being with him in some of these situations.

When the event is over, there is general puzzlement over why nothing happened. Simcoe comes to realize that the effect connects two periods of quantum disturbance occurring within the lifetimes of the individuals involved. Since there will be no more events in the lifetimes of any living people, nobody experience a "flashforward", except for those, like himself, who are secretly associated with the immortality project. However, he decides to change the future yet again and refuses the treatment.

[edit] Themes

The author presents themes of free-will versus predestination, of hope versus reality, and of romantic love in a situation where the future is believed to be bad.

Lloyd Simcoe and Michiko, despite the loss of her daughter, get married, even though Lloyd's own vision showed him sharing a bed with a woman he did not recognize. In time, they grow apart and divorce. Lloyd later marries the woman he saw in his flashforward.

Those who kill themselves over their dismal prospects are, by their very acts, changing the future they dread.

Two peripheral characters, who did not previously know each other, begin a relationship simply because it was part of their visions.