Worldwide Wormhole Complex

The Worldwide Wormhole Complex (or WWC), is a global transport network comprising thousands of entry/exit points. Stumbled upon by unsuspecting high school physics whiz Lyle Casey, from Washburn, Iowa, in April 2014, the WWC has changed the face of travel forever. Long gone are the days of airport delays and checked baggage. Eager travelers simply line up at the nearest Wormhole Terminal to go wormholing. By setting specific latitude and longitude coordinates, people can whisk themselves from the steps of Angkor Wat to the precipice of the Grand Canyon in under an hour.

Many adventurous explorers and experienced wormholers enjoy trying their luck (or lack thereof) with the Wormhole Dice Roll, whereby they set the destination to random and see where they turn up. Others have taken to "jump mobbing", where a large group of people follow a notice to use the WWC to converge on one seemingly random point all at once.

Discovery

Though formal discovery of the complex is attributed to Lyle Casey, the first known wormhole was the one on Presidente Street, found independently by Georges Rose in 1964. It would be five full decades before the nature of the Presidente Phenomenon as part of a greater complex was explained by Casey's accidental Matter Conjunction Theorem and the system could begin to be developed upon the foundation that formula laid.

Casey's contribution to the modern understanding of the WWC was quite unexpected, perhaps to no one as much as himself. He was attempting to demonstrate that electron orbits follow strict cubical paths with vertices at 90-degree angles (instead of the conventionally accepted spherical shell model), but instead stumbled onto the concepts that would eventually give humans control over the WWC. Casey has stated that he has no interest in wormhole travel and has continued research into electron orbits. "I'm glad I could help," he said in an interview with his school newspaper, "but there are clearly more important things for me to be focusing on than sophomoric wormholes. That sort of nonsense is a dead end for any serious physicist."

Nobel laureate Hans Wendell continued research into the the WWC where Casey left off. "The Matter Conjunction Theorem is one of the three fundamentally universe-shaking mathematical discoveries physics has ever produced," Wendell says, "and it's a shame the boy didn't have the sense to realize it at the time." Wendell is credited with the first real-world application of the theorem using an array of variable-track supercolliders routed by oscillating carbon nanotubes, which for the first time enabled humans to control access to Wormhole Terminals.

Development

Wendell's invention was succeeded by the more efficient Pocket Wormhole Activator, invented by Julius Mantosh in 2021.

Mantosh is also credited with suggesting an alternative application of the wormholes - "Perpetual mOtion Wormhole Hydroelectric pOwer Generation" (POWHOG). The idea is to pipe water through a wormhole with an exit at a higher altitude than the intake (i.e. a higher gravitational potential). The water, once it exits the wormhole, has anomalously gained gravitational energy which can be extracted by traditional hydroelectric technology.

Metaphysicists are at a loss to explain the apparent violation of conservation of energy. When asked how it works by a WormVision reporter, Mantosh himself shrugged and quipped "It works - what more do you want from me."

The first POWHOG station went online in 2490 with one terminal at the top of Mt. McKinley in Alaska, the other at an offshore rig near Abu Dhabi, Dubai. It demonstrated a maximum output of 1 GW.

Controversy

The POWHOG concept, first put into place by La Bac Inc., inspired often violent protests by groups who feared that the energy was not inexhaustible. The leading opponents of POWHOG are the No Free Lunch organization, headed by charismatic leader Monica Silva. Opinions vary as to what might happen if the wormhole energy is tapped out. Some groups believe the wormholes will collapse, and with it the planetary economy. Others predict more dire consequences.

Origin Theories

Since its discovery in 2014, there have been many theories as to the origins of the WWC. However most fall on one or the other side of a central divide: whether the wormholes are a "natural" phenomenon (and theories even differ as to what "natural" means" or whether they were created or engineered (by whom is, of course, in dispute).

The Church of the Worm is a religious organization whose leader claims to have insight into the creation of the WWC.