Echo #17 - Abstract Studio

This is the issue that everything up until now has been leading to. This one explains everything. Well . . kind of. Dillon and Dan have gone to talk to Dr Dumfries, Will. He was there in the beginning . . when Annie first joined HenRi out of college. She had been scouted and recruited, much like a baseball player, as they followed her through most of her academic career. They hired her because of her thesis work. 'Basically what she said was, base 10 mathematics was an approximation whose inaccuracies culminated into the dead ends of higher mathematics.' She was going to change the way the scientists and mathematicians thought about everything. After that . . well a lot of the story is a big 'ol science and math lecture. But, the part that's important to this character, and this book, is the Phi Project. That was the project in which Annie created the Alpha Suit. However, before doing so, one of their biggest supporters, John Foster, had sold them out to military interests. Anything else that she might have developed this alloy 618 for were shelved, with military concerns taking main priority. And then they found out that Mr Foster was working to create a super-collider of his own . . technically the United States military's, but . . a collider that they could test with this alloy 618. The part that has Will concerned is that . . 'Annie's theories gave us the key to physics, Dillon. If they use it to try and make a black hole . . they will make a black hole. Once they do, of course, there'll be no stopping it. It will consume the planet and everything else in the solar system.' Will gives Dillon all of Annie's notes and papers. And then sits in the rain looking at the magnificent landscape . . as he kills himself. If they stay on this course, he knows that it will end the world. And he feels responsible for that. Now the question comes, is there anything Dillon and Dan can do about this? And how will Julie play a part in all of this? She is, afterall in sole possession of the largest amount of alloy 618 on the planet. But does she know what to do with it? And the ultimate question is, how do you stop mathematical and scientific progress by sheer will-power? This was another thought provoking, and deeply concerning issue by Terry Moore. After reading it, I felt like I had just gone through a science lecture, but . . I also feel like my mind has been expanded. Terry is touching on some major themes here. The likes of which I never expected when I first started reading this book. To me, the ultimate testament of a really great comic . . or any story for that matter, is how it affects your thought process' afterwards. Does it change the way you think about things, or give you new things to try to process? If so, then you've just been the lucky recipient of a very rare gift . . awareness. For the price of admission, I definitely think it was worth it. Thank you, Terry! Thank you for the enlightenment.