“Schrodinger’s cat is a thought experiment stating that if you seal a cat with something that can kill it, you will not know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box. Mathematically, it means that there is a 50% chance that the cat will be dead. In quantum mechanics terms, it means that the cat can be in a state where it is both dead and alive at the same time, which will collapse into one of the states when it is observed. This means that the experiment’s observer can affect its outcome by simply observing it. The observer can decide if the object can remain in an unknown state or if the object should be revealed with 100% certainty to be in a certain state.” Myungsoo paused to look at the male in front of him who was staring at himself in awe and confusion. 

He sighed before continuing, “This, Sungjong, is how teleportation works. Your body is made up of atoms, which can be anywhere at any point in time. You control where you want to be observed and poof, you would have teleported. The Schrodinger wave equation will then tell you how likely you will be able to teleport to the destination you want to be."

Myungsoo’s patience was thinning as he went through the textbook with Sungjong, who simply whined and buried his head under his arms on the table. 

“Sungjong, you need to understand this. This is how we travel faster than light. You need to be able to do that to survive nowadays. You’ll never know when our star might suddenly collapse on us."

It was the year N.E. 280. Humans had mastered the art of “traveling” faster than light, allowing them to explore outside the ever-expanding universe. Humans had also learned the art of nuclear fusion, which allowed them to harness the use of energy without limits. The amount of energy required to accelerate particles enough to combine them could easily be surpassed using pocket-sized catalysts, a device that could fit into the average-sized palm.

Myungsoo was at the forefront of such development. Graduating with a PhD at the age of 24, he already had a number of well-cited papers to his name. He even managed to secure a tenure at the University of TS45, one of the most prestigious universities in the part of the universe colonized by humans. TS45 referred to the star system he was living in. His current research was heavily on trans-dimensional travel, which will allow humans to explore higher dimensions and lower the likelihood of getting eliminated by other highly intelligent beings. 

Most of his friends were as established as he was. Sunggyu was a biotechnology professor working on gene editing technologies to achieve human immortality by eliminating genetic and infectious diseases.  Woohyun was a Chemistry professor working on changing the atmospheric conditions of nearby inhabitable planets to make them livable for humans without specialised equipment. His best friend, Sungyeol was an engineering assistant professor who worked on infrastructure design to develop the star system they were living in further. All of them worked at the same university.