Mackenzie
by John Gribbin
Mackenzie, a researcher and problem solver who must continually justify his existence to
his benefactor, is puzzled about why the things he sends back in time never reappear, but
then in the first story (“Perpendicular Worlds,” Sep 1984 Analog) he starts
thinking about Hawking black holes and Everett parallel worlds, and his work continues in
a second story (“Random Variable,” Feb 1986 Analog) (although I prefer
Gribbon’s science books).
There must be as many different ways in which the world could have got into the state it
is now as there are different ways in which it can develop into the future.
“Mackenzie” by John Gribbin, in Analog,
September 1984.