Timeline

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of death by suicide and graphic violence.

In the Introduction, Michael Crichton gives a summary of scientific and technological advances in physics, particularly the field of quantum mechanics, that have taken place from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century, when Timeline was written. At the end of the 19th century, scientists believed that they had discovered all the fundamental laws of the universe. However, new discoveries about the laws of the quantum world complicated these foundational understandings. Crichton describes quantum computing, a technology that theoretically could allow computers to “do their calculations in other universes” (xi). He also describes “quantum teleportation,” the ability to transport objects between two locations. While this technology remains theoretical, corporations and research centers like Los Alamos have invested in their development.

Within this factual summary, Crichton weaves in the fictional example of ITC, “the first company to have a practical, working application employing advanced quantum technology, in 1998” (xii). While ITC claimed that their applications were harmless, the technology resulted in two dead, one disappeared, and one seriously injured. To the graduate students in this story, this technology was not harmless.