Free The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka

of principle.” I looked at the three of them. “Now let’s find out if all observers were created equal.”
    Point Machine put a frog in the box.
    And here it was—the stepping-off point. A view into the implicate.
    I nodded to Satvik. “Fire the gun.”
    He hit the switch, and the machine hummed. I watched the screen. I closed my eyes, felt my heart beating in my chest. Inside the box, I knew a light had come on for one of the two detectors; I knew the frog had seen it. But when I opened my eyes, the interference pattern still showed on the screen. The frog hadn’t changed the system at all.
    â€œAgain,” I said.
    Satvik fired the gun again.
    Again. Again.
    Point Machine looked at me. “Well?”
    â€œThere’s still an interference pattern. The probability wave didn’t collapse.”
    â€œMeaning what?” Joy asked.
    â€œIt means we try a different frog.”
    We tried six. One after another. Pulling them from their aquarium and putting them in the box. None changed the result.
    â€œThey’re part of the indeterminate system,” Satvik said.
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Point Machine asked.
    Satvik didn’t answer, just pulled at his ear, lost in thought.
    I watched the screen closely, and the interference pattern suddenly vanished. I was about to shout, but when I looked up, I saw Point Machine peeking into the box.
    â€œYou looked,” I said.
    â€œI was just making sure the light worked.”
    â€œIt worked. I could tell the moment you saw it.”
    We tried every frog in his lab. Then we tried the salamanders. None collapsed the waveform.
    â€œMaybe it’s just amphibians,” he said.
    â€œYeah, maybe.”
    â€œWhat does that have to do with anything?”
    â€œI haven’t the slightest idea.”
    â€œHow is it that we affect the system, but frogs and salamanders can’t?”
    â€œMaybe it’s our eyes,” Point Machine said. “Quantum coherence effects in the retinal rod-rhopsin molecules themselves.”
    â€œWhy would that matter?”
    â€œOptic nerve cells only conduct measured quanta to the visual cortex. Eyes are just another detector.”
    â€œIt’s more than just our eyes.”
    â€œYou don’t know that.”
    â€œFrogs have eyes. They have a cortex.”
    â€œCan I try?” Joy interrupted.
    We all turned to look at her. A brown lock of hair had fallen loose from its place behind her ear and now dangled across her cheek, pointing to her mouth. Her expression was serious.
    â€œYeah,” I said.
    We prepared the experiment again, this time with Joy’s empty eyes pointed at the box.
    â€œYou ready?”
    â€œYes,” she said.
    Satvik hit the button.
    The machine hummed. We let it run for ten seconds. I checked the results.
    I shook my head. “Nothing.” The interference pattern hadn’t collapsed. Instead of two distinct points, the screen still showed the intersecting waves.
    â€œIt was worth a try,” Point Machine said.
    *   *   *
    The next morning, Point Machine met Satvik and me in the parking lot before work. We climbed into my car and drove to the mall.
    We went to a pet store. I bought three mice, a canary, a turtle, and a squish-faced Boston terrier puppy. The sales clerk stared at us.
    â€œYou pet lovers, huh?” He looked suspiciously at Satvik and Point Machine.
    â€œOh, yes,” I said. “Pets.”
    The drive back was quiet, punctuated only by the occasional whining of the puppy.
    Point Machine broke the silence. “Perhaps it takes a more complex nervous system than amphibians.”
    â€œThat shouldn’t matter,” Satvik said. “Life is life.”
    I gripped the steering wheel, remembering a dozen late-night arguments back in college. “What’s the difference between mind and brain?”
    â€œSemantics,” said Point Machine. “Different names for