Solution Washington part 7

"Okay, POTUS," said Sam.
"No, not POTUS," said Potus. "Call me Potus."
A quizzical look passed over Samantha's face.
The older woman who had walked in with Potus sat next to Sam. She was asleep and snoring. Potus said, "Everyone knows Secretary of State, of course. Next to her is a representative from the NS... Homeland. Homeland Security, I mean."
The large man who had earlier taped microphones to Sam and Mark waved his hand to his left. The next man introduced himself as Secretary of Defense. Various generals and other Cabinet staff were introduced.
After everyone was done speaking Potus said, "Ms. U.N. Ambassador, let us know what those loonies over at the U.N. are saying about this mess."
U.N. Ambassador nodded and said, "Thank you sir. The security council and the general council have put forth a motion that the United Nations members as well as any non-members should take this threat to our survival very seriously. The disappearance of cruise ships and crashing of airplanes is a very serious matter and involves all humans, not just those who live in privileged nations of the first and second worlds." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Further, the general council has brought a motion that recognises all moons or orbiting bodies of the earth as complementary and equal. There should be no discrimination about which one is a quote-unquote 'real' Moon or which one is fake. All Moons should be treated equally and all should be allowed to exist."
Potus shook his head angrily. "Nobody recognises shit about fake moons. If God had wanted us to have two moons, we would have them. There can only be one moon. Or is it 'there can be only one'? I can never remember."
Secretary of Defense said, "Sir, it's 'there can be only one.' The adverb should follow the verb."
"Well la-dee-da motherfucker," said Potus.
"Yes sir," said Secretary of Defense.
"Does anybody know what's going on here?" asked Potus.
Samantha raised her good right hand. "I do, I think, Mister... Potus. Sorry. Potus. Anyway, I know what's been going on and I think I know what's at stake. There is a complicated bit of science I study called quantum mechanics. It proposes that very small objects, or particles, do not behave according to Newton's laws when we observe them. When you go back to the first millennium in the common era, humankind understood very little about the underlying rules of how things worked in our world. For example, we didn't understand why the apple falls or what causes objects to move when hit or are knocked down. Early in the second millennium in the common era Newton devised a system of mathematics and physics that described how objects moved, interacted, and so forth.
"Late in the second millennium in the common era, Einstein was able to turn the whole thing upside down by describing the theories of special and general relativity. Many problems that were observed to appear to violate physics in the cosmos were described accurately in a way that expanded on Newtonian, or classical, physics. In other words, Einstein was able to extend Newtonian physics in a way that suddenly incorporated all the observable phenomena in the universe as we knew it. However, in less than 20 years, a whole new area of physics was discovered at the atomic and sub-atomic level that seemed to turn even Einstein's theories upside down.
"Einstein rejected quantum mechanics because he famously believed that God did not throw dice. He believed the universe was deterministic, which is what his theories of relativity described. But quantum mechanics is inherently probabilistic and not deterministic at all. There are experiments, which I have performed myself in my lab, that prove that light behaves as both a wave and as a particle. A photon, which is a discrete particle, can choose multiple paths through a system, or one path. It can even take all paths simultaneously.
"I believe that the indeterminate nature of quantum mechanics at the nano- level is actually what allows us the ability to have free will. I believe that it allows the phenomenon of life to occur on earth. If the universe were completely deterministic, I believe that we wouldn't exist because all possibilities about the universe and life would be fixed. They wouldn't be as diverse and prolific as we see around us. When you think about how an idea resides in our minds and is expressed somehow in our brains, you can start to see how the quantum probabilistic of the brains interactions can give rise to our thoughts and ideas. It's as if a quantum soup of interactions in our brains allows the process of ideas and consciousness to take shape. That's just a metaphor, but it is useful in describing what happens. Without this 'quantum soup' we wouldn't be able to think and act freely. Without quantum mechanics, life would probably be unable to generate and spontaneously exist."
Potus raised his hand to stop Samantha. "Hold on a second," he said. "Shaniqua, get in here," he yelled. "Sorry about that," he said. "Did you know that the chef wants to put albacore into the tuna sandwiches? What kind of chef is that?"
"Sir," said Chief of Staff, "albacore is tuna."
"What?" asked Potus.
"Albacore is tuna," he repeated.
"Get the hell out of here," said Potus. "This chef is out to get me and I know it."
"Is anybody listening to me?" asked Samantha.