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Originally posted by scifibum:

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I don't not want to believe it; I find it blindingly impossible.

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That's what's so great about the story. What if you convinced yourself of something that was blindingly impossible, and fundamentally undermined your relationship to the universe, but you couldn't believe any other thing?

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I get that. But (and this probably has a lot to do with being raised by a mathematician and a mathematical physicist), I just don't believe that is possible in this case. I don't believe that even the most brilliant mathematician could prove what she is supposed to have proven. Nor do I believe it is possible to prove the inverse.

The two Chiang stories that I have liked the most are the two where the science is minimal (The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate) or completely invented (Seventy-Two Letters). Although the latter was too long, in part because of all the unnecessary detail to the made-up science.

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