“you found my favorite!”
She looked again at the cover. It was an unassuming blue. To one side was a small photo of Earth with an asterisk next to it. Large lettering gave the author’s name: Bill Bryson. In small white lettering at the bottom, the meaning of the asterisk read, “A Short History of Nearly Everything.”
“Amazing book. I read it at least once a year. I really wish Bryson would do a second addition that has a chapter on subatomic particles and quantum physics. History is always being created. We are creating history here, incredible history.” Max motioned for Min to sit.
She placed the book back and noticed that the top shelf was apparently reserved for knickknacks: a crystal scarab, an R2D2 model, one of those things with the hanging balls that bounce from side to side, and an assortment of Smurf figures. The smart looking Smurf with glasses was on a stand in the middle, more prominent even than the old guy with the red hat.
Min turned and sat in the guest chair, facing Max.
“So I hired you because you had strong statistical experience on your resume,” said Max, “something that we never have enough of. One thing about this project is it generates massive amounts of data. And I prefer that my senior scientists work on other problems than looking for trends. So your task is to run a first pass and find any significant correlations.” He handed her the flash drive.
“What’s this, data?” she asked.
He nodded. “Longitudinal data for population size, caste ratios, settlement density, and ethical alignment.”
“Alignment?”
“Yes. Remember when you interviewed and I gave you a tour of the server room? I showed you how the colors of the Qubes change based on the characteristics of each Polyan. If we directly measure the values of each qubit, it’d collapse their quantum field, thus removing the ability for the Polyan to make a non-predefined decision. We don’t want that to happen. We only want it to collapse when the actual Polyan is making a choice. Instead, color is a convenient shortcut for alignment: their tendency toward good or bad. So we end up with a value from -3 to +3. It’s certainly enough data to find trends.”
“I get it. Why red and blue? Is that based on Star Wars lightsabers?”
“One would think. It’s actually just how it worked out. Dumb luck I guess. It simplifies things that it matches our pop culture interpretation of colors.”
Min studied the flash drive as if she could see the data inside its steel exterior. “So what software should I use?”
“You know MatLab?”
“Yes.”
“That should be installed on Olivia’s, I mean, your machine.” He blushed at his inadvertent use of the former intern’s name. He didn’t want Min knowing about her predecessor. “But if you need something else, let me know. We get an excellent academic discount on almost any software.”
Min paused a second, apparently curious about Max’s odd expression. Then she said, “I'm more familiar with SPSS, but I've wanted an excuse to dig into MatLab, so this is as good as any. After all, interning is meant to be a learning experience, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” said Max. “Let me know if you need anything else.” He stood up abruptly, almost knocking over his chair. Min stood as well, albeit more gracefully.
“And Min…” Max smiled at her. “Good to have you on board.”
#
Min returned to her computer. She inserted the flash drive and began copying the data file to her local storage. A progress bar appeared but didn’t seem to move. She frowned and looked at the file size: 400GB.
“Jeez,” she whispered to herself, “That’s huge!”
She sat back and watched the green bar creep across the screen. She pondered how many hours of her life she’d lost watching progress bars. It was a disturbing thought. As she waited, her mind began to drift. She remembered Max’s little slip-up about Olivia, who used to be the owner of this computer.
She looked again at the cover. It was an unassuming blue. To one side was a small photo of Earth with an asterisk next to it. Large lettering gave the author’s name: Bill Bryson. In small white lettering at the bottom, the meaning of the asterisk read, “A Short History of Nearly Everything.”
“Amazing book. I read it at least once a year. I really wish Bryson would do a second addition that has a chapter on subatomic particles and quantum physics. History is always being created. We are creating history here, incredible history.” Max motioned for Min to sit.
She placed the book back and noticed that the top shelf was apparently reserved for knickknacks: a crystal scarab, an R2D2 model, one of those things with the hanging balls that bounce from side to side, and an assortment of Smurf figures. The smart looking Smurf with glasses was on a stand in the middle, more prominent even than the old guy with the red hat.
Min turned and sat in the guest chair, facing Max.
“So I hired you because you had strong statistical experience on your resume,” said Max, “something that we never have enough of. One thing about this project is it generates massive amounts of data. And I prefer that my senior scientists work on other problems than looking for trends. So your task is to run a first pass and find any significant correlations.” He handed her the flash drive.
“What’s this, data?” she asked.
He nodded. “Longitudinal data for population size, caste ratios, settlement density, and ethical alignment.”
“Alignment?”
“Yes. Remember when you interviewed and I gave you a tour of the server room? I showed you how the colors of the Qubes change based on the characteristics of each Polyan. If we directly measure the values of each qubit, it’d collapse their quantum field, thus removing the ability for the Polyan to make a non-predefined decision. We don’t want that to happen. We only want it to collapse when the actual Polyan is making a choice. Instead, color is a convenient shortcut for alignment: their tendency toward good or bad. So we end up with a value from -3 to +3. It’s certainly enough data to find trends.”
“I get it. Why red and blue? Is that based on Star Wars lightsabers?”
“One would think. It’s actually just how it worked out. Dumb luck I guess. It simplifies things that it matches our pop culture interpretation of colors.”
Min studied the flash drive as if she could see the data inside its steel exterior. “So what software should I use?”
“You know MatLab?”
“Yes.”
“That should be installed on Olivia’s, I mean, your machine.” He blushed at his inadvertent use of the former intern’s name. He didn’t want Min knowing about her predecessor. “But if you need something else, let me know. We get an excellent academic discount on almost any software.”
Min paused a second, apparently curious about Max’s odd expression. Then she said, “I'm more familiar with SPSS, but I've wanted an excuse to dig into MatLab, so this is as good as any. After all, interning is meant to be a learning experience, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” said Max. “Let me know if you need anything else.” He stood up abruptly, almost knocking over his chair. Min stood as well, albeit more gracefully.
“And Min…” Max smiled at her. “Good to have you on board.”
#
Min returned to her computer. She inserted the flash drive and began copying the data file to her local storage. A progress bar appeared but didn’t seem to move. She frowned and looked at the file size: 400GB.
“Jeez,” she whispered to herself, “That’s huge!”
She sat back and watched the green bar creep across the screen. She pondered how many hours of her life she’d lost watching progress bars. It was a disturbing thought. As she waited, her mind began to drift. She remembered Max’s little slip-up about Olivia, who used to be the owner of this computer.
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