Daryl Gregory's "Dead Horse Point": Free will, physics, and the philosophy of time

The August issue of Asimov's Science Fiction is really, really good—I would unreservedly describe all but one of the stories as excellent. Case in point: Daryl Gregory's "Dead Horse Point," a beautiful and sad story about a quantum physicist with an odd disease akin to narcolepsy that causes her to sleep for weeks at a time. When she wakes she writes extensive notes toward a definitive theory on quantum indeterminacy (her solution bears some strong similarities to Augustinian eternalism, which made me pretty happy). It's a pretty heavy story, but it still finds time for humor in a great joke about free will. (Apologies if this is an old joke; it's the first time I'd heard it):

The Jehovah's Witness goes to heaven[...] But instead of the pearly gates, there's a fork in the road, and a sign pointing down each path. One sign says 'Believers in Predestination' and the other says 'Believers in Free Will' [...] The guy's always believed in predestination, so he goes down that road, and eventually he comes to a huge wall and a big door with the word 'PREDESTINATION' written over the top. He knocks, and an angel opens the door and says, 'What brings you to my door, mortal?' And the guy says, 'Well, there were these two signs, and I chose the one that said predestination.' The angel says, 'You chose it? You can't come in here, Bub,' and slams the door. The guy's heartbroken. Finally he trudges back to the crossroads and goes down the other road. Eventually he comes to another giant wall and a door that says 'FREE WILL.' He knocks and another angel opens the door and says, 'Why did you come this way, mortal?' And the guy says, 'I had no choice!'"

Jokes aside, there's some really good stuff on the nature of time, which is a big theological point for me (thanks in large part to books 10-11 of Augustine's Confessions). Gregory describes eternalism as a map:

"Time's arrow doesn't matter. If the map is true, it's true for any point in time. It's a map of the world, for all space-time. The future is as set as the past, for everyone. The territory doesn't change[...] Free will just means that you don't know what's on the map. You don't create the future, it's already there, waiting for you like a Christmas present. All you have to do on Christmas morning is see what's inside."

I'd add my own caveat to that last bit—we still make our choices, but the idea that we make them in time is an illusion. Eternalism is a rich philosophical perspective that doesn't get discussed nearly enough. Gregory's story well illustrates how important an idea it is by showing its applications to current questions in physics.

"Dead Horse Point" is great, but there are 6 other really strong stories in this issue as well—If you've been putting off picking up Asimov's, this is the month to do it!

Comments

[John]

I actually just finished reading "Dead Horse Point," and I also thought it was brilliantly crafted. Daryl Gregory has done it once again.

But I found the joke about Jehovah's Witnesses rather misinformed. Coming from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses, I can say for a fact that they don't believe in Predestination.

I had also not heard of the joke before, but if it's an old one, whoever came up with it has no idea what Jehovah's Witnesses believe.

[Matthew Baldwin]

I just read this story in a Science Fiction "best of" anthology, and found this entry while searching for the joke to see if it was original. Apparently it is.

He changed it to "A Calvinist goes to heaven" in the reprint, so apparently the commenter above wasn't the only one to observe the "Jehovah's Witness / predestination" incongruity.