 First edition cover | |
| Author | Robert J. Sawyer |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published |
|
Publication date | 1 March 2016 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 351 |
| ISBN | 9780425256831 |
Quantum Night is a 2016 science-fiction thriller novel written by Canadian novelist Robert J. Sawyer. Set in 2020, the book touches on themes of quantum physics, psychology, current politics and ethics.
Professor Jim Marchuk is an experimental psychologist at the University of Manitoba and a subscriber to utilitarianism. He is asked to testify at the sentencing hearing of a convicted murderer in Atlanta, using his new technique for identifying psychopaths from lack of saccadic eye motion, which he claims outperforms the Hare checklist. While in the United States, he learns that the recently elected President Quentin Carroway has overturned Roe v. Wade and enacted several measures to reduce the rights of illegal immigrants. While being cross-examined in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he is missing six months of memory from early 2001.
Returning to Winnipeg, Jim consults with his colleague and mentor Menno Warkentin, whom he describes as an elderly professor who was blinded in a car accident. They attribute Jim's memory loss to the trauma of a stabbing at the hands of a stranger that Jim remembers from a New Year's Eve 2000 trip to visit his parents in Calgary. A physicist named Kayla Huron contacts Jim and informs him that her research is also related to psychopathy. As they agree to meet, Jim learns that Kayla is his former girlfriend from the lost period. Over dinner Kayla reveals that she ended their relationship because Jim was abusive towards her, but she believes that he has changed.
Kayla introduces Jim to her collaborator Victoria Chen at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) in Saskatoon. They use the beam to perform a measurement on Jim's brain cells and find that they have three microtubules in a quantum superposition. This is revealed to be part of a taxonomy which they call Q1-Q2-Q3: four-sevenths of all humans have one quantum microtubule in superposition, two-sevenths have two and one-seventh have three, with these numbers only changing as a result of a coma or general anaesthetic. By observing behavioural traits of their test subjects, Kayla and Victoria hypothesize that Q2s are psychopaths, while Q1s are philosophical zombies: non-conscious humans who lack free will and become susceptible to mob mentality. Only Q3s are seen as having critical thinking ability and empathy. Jim and Kayla become romantically involved once again, but Victoria breaks up with her boyfriend after the test identifies him as a Q1.
Meanwhile, Jim begins to reconstruct his past and discovers that his memory of being stabbed is a confabulation. He learns that, along with spending that New Year's Eve in Winnipeg, he participated in a Pentagon-funded study run by Menno and engineering professor Dominic Adler. The study, called Project Lucidity, aimed to create an EEG-like helmet to read articulated thoughts and aid battlefield communication. To overcome the 'background noise' of Jim's inner voice – his conscience – they accidentally caused him to enter a Q1 state during which his memories were indexed differently. Menno reveals that Jim returned to a fully conscious state six months later, and that he and Dominic decided to go their separate ways and maintained secrecy due to a non-disclosure agreement, moral issues due to Menno's Mennonite religion, and concerns that their research could be used to justify discrimination. As Jim continues therapy, he gains access to a memory from the end of his lost period when he had become psychopathic. He is shocked to learn that he killed Dominic in cold blood and blinded Menno before a laboratory device 'rebooted' him into a Q3 state.
As political tensions rise, a series of violent riots erupt across Canada, precipitated by a protest over the Winnipeg Jets' overtime loss in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, and the Canadian government under new Prime Minister Naheed Nenshi struggles to restore order. Using the riots as an excuse, Carroway orders an American invasion of Canada. Russian President Vladimir Putin also makes plans to invade Canada, bringing the US and Russia to the brink of war. Jim uses his technique to show Carroway and Putin are psychopaths, and asks Kayla if they can be transitioned from Q2 to Q3, thus averting the crisis. Kayla says that the CLS running at full power can manipulate cranial superposition on a global scale, and that the best solution would be two reboots, resulting in the majority of humans fully conscious and empathetic. However, she refuses to help as she doesn't want her daughter Ryan to become a psychopath. Jim suspects that Kayla had been a psychopath before surgical anesthetic caused her consciousness to reboot; Kayla admits to this and explains it as the reason she has been studying psychopathy.
Jim enlists the help of Victoria, who had lied about Ryan's test and says that the reboots will raise Ryan from a Q1 to a Q3. Menno volunteers to sacrifice himself and keep the CLS running amid lethal doses of radiation. Before Kayla can stop them, the plan comes to fruition and the world enters a new age in which the majority of humans can feel empathy and remorse. As a Q2, Jim decides to have an affair with Victoria. However, Kayla perceives him as a threat and reboots him as a Q3 with Menno's device. Kayla and Victoria wish to remain in the Q2 state. Out of self-interest, Victoria erases their research and Kayla gives Jim custody of Ryan. Convinced of having made an unprecedented move for the greater good, Jim decides to connect with his estranged family.
Author Robert J. Sawyer keeps an updated list of all of his works and groups them among recurring themes. He self-identified Quantum Night as containing the following themes: the nature of consciousness, biology determining psychology, Canada, courtroom drama, parent-child relationships, psychotherapy/counseling/psychological testing, modern physics and the nature of reality.[1]
In an interview with SFFWorld, Sawyer described how he wrote the book. When asked if the characters or the story came first, Sawyer said, "Neither. I'm a thematically driven writer; I figure out what I want to say first and then devise the storyline and a cast of characters that will let me most effectively say it." The theme that drives Quantum Night is "the most pernicious lie humanity has ever told itself is that you can't change human nature." In the same interview Sawyer said, "I wanted to open people's eyes and have them look critically at social forces sweeping around them."[2]
Sawyer includes a list of fifty-one non-fiction books in the back of the novel which he consulted while writing the novel. Books, articles and authors referenced.
Consciousness and quantum mechanics:
Complex behavior:
Stanford Prison Guard Experiment:
Human Evil:
Scientific basis for creation of literature and art:
2015, US, Ace ISBN 9780425256831, 1 March 2016, Hardcover
The title refers to "it's always darkest before the dawn." Sawyer wanted to write a book that addressed the dark side of human nature and the negative forces and outright evil in the 21st century world and he wanted the title to reflect that.[2]
Quantum Night has received positive reviews. Publishers Weekly called it a "fast-moving, mind-stretching exploration of the nature of personality and consciousness."[3] Winnipeg Free Press described the book "a breath of fresh air and a return to classic Sawyer: big ideas, relatable people and a Canadian perspective."[4]