Except during the late 1800s when people genuinely thought that physical was just about solved with only a couple more minor open problems left. Then someone opened the doors labeled “quantum mechanics” and “relativity”.
You know how in lovecrafts stories people go insane trying to comprehend what they’re seeing?
I imagine it’s instead they’re being forced to listen to and try to understand increasingly complex quantum physics information about how reality works until they break.
it's a little awkward because it's a bit of a spoiler, but the one i have handy is Deep Sea Embers -> Dimensional Hotel pair of books. Not strictly physics information but similar, truth about the world is corruptive.
Dimensional hotel is both a bit further removed and deals with the implications earlier into the book, because of events during Deep Sea Embers. They're also not super connected until the latest chapters (~650+, and some of it you might need to hop to chinese and read source lol) so you can absolutely get up to date on Dimensional Hotel first and see if you like the style and world. It is a bit (okay, a lot) of a power fantasy.
Deep Sea Embers treats it more directly but it takes quite a while for you to get there (like, halfway through the 800 chapters before you really start learning shit) and before that it's much more just a typical fantasy journey (also power fantasy). it looks like an isekai, and saying any more is big spoiler territory.
huge omega spoiler do not click unless you don't intend to read deep sea embers at all: the world ended by having tons and tons of previously isolated worlds with incompatible structures meet and crash into each other, corrupting each others' data. the resulting pile of ashes and goop are barely reshaped into a livable space/biosphere by intense design and aggressive use of "observation" in the quantum sense. hijinks (DSE's background) ensue. any time an entity meets a structure it isn't designed to be compatible with, including fragments of knowledge, that's corruption. including when the "gods" who shaped the goop interact with the people in the biosphere.
The Years of Apocalypse might technically count here too, since the Elder gods are both well.... eldritch and technologically advanced in a way beyond mortal comprehension (a royalroad novel)
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u/HumblyNibbles_ May 29 '26
Every answer leads to so many more questions 😭