Science Fiction Predicted a no Deal Brexit in 2005

       Sometimes science fiction stories offer alarmingly accurate predictions of future events, attitudes and gadgets. Written in 2005, Peter F. Hamilton's short story "Foot Vote is just such a story. Another example is George R.R. Martin's "Unsound Variations," published in January 1982, which mentions how the house of an obsessed and time traveling evil chess genius is outfitted with a voice-activated stereo that plays all the songs you could desire. There are countless other examples of foreshadowing  in the vast expanse of SF writing, including the famous Star Trek communicators, which inspired flip phone technology, and the many SF stories that mention "slates," apparent models for touch tablets.  

      In the case of Peter F. Hamilton's "Foot Vote," it's downright scary — and arguably humorous, depending on which side of the issue you fall on — how close the story comes to predicting one of the most politically disruptive events of the twenty-first century: Brexit. In this story, however, instead of leaving the EU by means of a vote and prolonged parliamentary process, UK citizens leave via a wormhole in this short but climactic story.

Stranger than (science) fiction

      When Hamilton wrote "Foot Vote" in 2005, the idea that a large portion of the UK population would want to pick up and leave their relatively safe reality in a dramatic, globe-rattling fashion was so far out there it was science fiction, literally.

      But the UK did it. Voters passed Brexit. They went to the polls in 2016 and were so angry, frustrated and disillusioned by their state of affairs that they voted to leave the European Union, to cut their umbilical to the European mainland, to undock the UK escape pod from the enflamed EU mothership, to ride a time machine back to a better — or let's say "greater" — UK, to create a giant dimension ripping wormhole and travel to an unknown alien planet.

      Wow, that last one is extreme, but when you really listen to pro-Brexit Brits, it is not hard to believe that many would prefer trying their luck in an interdimensional wormhole than sticking to the status quo.

     In "Foot Vote" — featured in "The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 22", compiled by legendary editor Gardner Dozois — Bradley Ethan Murray opens a wormhole in downtown London on January 1, 2003 for two years so all "the decent people" still living in the UK can leave to a better home known as "New Suffolk." The quick, engaging story jumps between an afternoon narrative about a recently divorced couple and long diatribes from Bradley Ethan regarding who and what is allowed on his new world.

     After picking up the kids from mom Janette for what she thinks is a regular parent exchange, the dad, Collin, scoops up his girlfriend Zoë, loads his new BMW and horse trailer with all the supplies they'll need on their new planet and drives straight to the wormhole. In the meantime, Mom meets up with a protestor friend and heads to the “racist fascist wormhole" to protest all her fellow country people leaving. Sorry, no spoilers, but the piece comes to an unexpected climax at the base of this giant rip in space time. 

       Meanwhile, expressing his disillusionment with modern society, Bradley Ethan Murray — the creator of London’s three-hundred-yard wide spherical, shimmering white wormhole — declares unequivocally that New Suffolk will be based on an "English ethnicity." The quantum colony would have socialized medicine and universal education, but no unemployment, he said. If unemployed, you'd be given five acres and crop seed to become self-sufficient.

       There would be no metric system or traffic tickets. Members of "extreme political parties" like the Labor, Conservative, and Communist parties would not be allowed on New Suffolk. Trade unionists, tabloid journalists, EU bureaucrats, traffic wardens, stock brokers, weapons manufacturers and TV soap stars all need not apply to join Murray's new home, where things like prisons and frivolous lawsuits are banned, and filing a frivolous lawsuit would get you five years in a "penal colony.” If one did run afoul of the law, you would only get access to a public defender three times in your life. Luckily, you’d be able to choose when you use your get out of jail free cards. No "compensation culture" or death tax would be tolerated on New Suffolk. Lastly, there would be no religion allowed in this UK interdimensional “paradise” — perhaps it's greatest saving grace.

Actual wormholes?

       "Wormhole Theory" was first proposed in 1916 by Ludwig Flamm while reviewing Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Flamm noticed different solutions to Einstein's equations that hinted at the existence of "white holes," a time reversal of a black hole. Later, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory to explain that it was possible such holes could be opened in space time. These "holes” could theoretically be opened in different locations and could be connected by "bridges," allowing travel between places that are extremely far away from each other. Despite Einstein's theories pointing to the possibility of wormholes, scientists haven’t found one yet. Many believe if wormholes did exist, they'd be very small and short-lived, and it would be impossible for humans to travel through such an orifice due to the enormous pressures found in such space time locations.

Sorry UK friends, you're stuck with Brexit for now

      It’s looking like at this point in our own space time, it may be easier for Boris Johnson and the rest of the UK to create a wormhole than come to an agreement on Brexit. In the recent EU elections, the Brexit Party picked up thirty-two percent of the UK’s seats (the largest chunk held by a single party). However, three parties supporting a second referendum — Green, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party — add up to thirty-six percent. Throw in the non-committal Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party and the embattled pro-Brexit Conservative Party, who both lost seats in the election, and we have a political concoction more complicated than any exotic matter needed to create a wormhole.

      Time will only tell if the United Kingdom leaves the EU via a "no Deal Brexit," but Peter F. Hamilton offered up another option years ago for the UK to consider in his fortuitous story "Foot Vote" — just as soon as quantum physics catches up.