several more. “Okay,” she finally said, handing Trish the slip of paper.
Trish perused the list of search strings, and her eyes grew wide.
What kind of crazy legend is Katherine investigating?
“You want me to search for
all
of these key phrases?” One of the words Trish didn’t even recognize.
Is that even English?
“Do you really think we’ll find all of these in one place? Verbatim?”
“I’d like to try.”
Trish would have said
impossible,
but the I-word was banned here. Katherine considered it a dangerous mind-set in a field that often transformed preconceived falsehoods into confirmed truths. Trish Dunne seriously doubted this key-phrase search would fall into that category.
“How long for results?” Katherine asked.
“A few minutes to write the spider and launch it. After that, maybe fifteen for the spider to exhaust itself.”
“So fast?” Katherine looked encouraged.
Trish nodded. Traditional search engines often required a full day to crawl across the entire online universe, find new documents, digest their content, and add it to their searchable database. But this was not the kind of search spider Trish would write.
“I’ll write a program called a
delegator,
” Trish explained. “It’s not entirely kosher, but it’s fast. Essentially, it’s a program that orders other people’s search engines to do our work. Most databases have a search function built in—libraries, museums, universities, governments. So I write a spider that finds
their
search engines, inputs your keywords, and asks them to search. This way, we harness the power of thousands of engines, working in unison.”
Katherine looked impressed. “Parallel processing.”
A kind of metasystem.
“I’ll call you if I get anything.”
“I appreciate it,Trish.” Katherine patted her on the back and headed for the door. “I’ll be in the library.”
Trish settled in to write the program. Coding a search spider was a menial task far below her skill level, but Trish Dunne didn’t care. She would do anything for Katherine Solomon. Sometimes Trish still couldn’t believe the good fortune that had brought her here.
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Just over a year ago, Trish had quit her job as a metasystems analyst in one of the high-tech industry’s many cubicle farms. In her off-hours, she did some freelance programming and started an industry blog—“Future Applications in Computational Metasystem Analysis”—although she doubted anyone read it. Then one evening her phone rang.
“Trish Dunne?” a woman’s voice asked politely.
“Yes, who’s calling, please?”
“My name is Katherine Solomon.”
Trish almost fainted on the spot.
Katherine Solomon?
“I just read your book—
Noetic Science: Modern Gateway to Ancient Wisdom—and
I wrote about it on my blog!”
“Yes, I know,” the woman replied graciously. “That’s why I’m calling.”
Of course it is,
Trish realized, feeling dumb.
Even brilliant scientists Google themselves.
“Your blog intrigues me,” Katherine told her. “I wasn’t aware metasystems modeling had come so far.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Trish managed, starstruck. “Data models are an exploding technology with far-reaching applications.”
For several minutes, the two women chatted about Trish’s work in metasystems, discussing her experience analyzing, modeling, and predicting the flow of massive data fields.
“Obviously, your book is way over my head,” Trish said, “but I understood enough to see an intersection with my metasystems work.”
“Your blog said you believe metasystems modeling can
transform
the study of Noetics?”
“Absolutely. I believe metasystems could turn Noetics into real science
.
”
“
Real
science?” Katherine’s tone hardened slightly. “As opposed to . . . ?”
Oh shit, that came out wrong.
“Um, what I meant is that Noetics is more . . . esoteric.”
Katherine laughed. “Relax, I’m kidding. I get that all the time.”
I’m
Trish perused the list of search strings, and her eyes grew wide.
What kind of crazy legend is Katherine investigating?
“You want me to search for
all
of these key phrases?” One of the words Trish didn’t even recognize.
Is that even English?
“Do you really think we’ll find all of these in one place? Verbatim?”
“I’d like to try.”
Trish would have said
impossible,
but the I-word was banned here. Katherine considered it a dangerous mind-set in a field that often transformed preconceived falsehoods into confirmed truths. Trish Dunne seriously doubted this key-phrase search would fall into that category.
“How long for results?” Katherine asked.
“A few minutes to write the spider and launch it. After that, maybe fifteen for the spider to exhaust itself.”
“So fast?” Katherine looked encouraged.
Trish nodded. Traditional search engines often required a full day to crawl across the entire online universe, find new documents, digest their content, and add it to their searchable database. But this was not the kind of search spider Trish would write.
“I’ll write a program called a
delegator,
” Trish explained. “It’s not entirely kosher, but it’s fast. Essentially, it’s a program that orders other people’s search engines to do our work. Most databases have a search function built in—libraries, museums, universities, governments. So I write a spider that finds
their
search engines, inputs your keywords, and asks them to search. This way, we harness the power of thousands of engines, working in unison.”
Katherine looked impressed. “Parallel processing.”
A kind of metasystem.
“I’ll call you if I get anything.”
“I appreciate it,Trish.” Katherine patted her on the back and headed for the door. “I’ll be in the library.”
Trish settled in to write the program. Coding a search spider was a menial task far below her skill level, but Trish Dunne didn’t care. She would do anything for Katherine Solomon. Sometimes Trish still couldn’t believe the good fortune that had brought her here.
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Just over a year ago, Trish had quit her job as a metasystems analyst in one of the high-tech industry’s many cubicle farms. In her off-hours, she did some freelance programming and started an industry blog—“Future Applications in Computational Metasystem Analysis”—although she doubted anyone read it. Then one evening her phone rang.
“Trish Dunne?” a woman’s voice asked politely.
“Yes, who’s calling, please?”
“My name is Katherine Solomon.”
Trish almost fainted on the spot.
Katherine Solomon?
“I just read your book—
Noetic Science: Modern Gateway to Ancient Wisdom—and
I wrote about it on my blog!”
“Yes, I know,” the woman replied graciously. “That’s why I’m calling.”
Of course it is,
Trish realized, feeling dumb.
Even brilliant scientists Google themselves.
“Your blog intrigues me,” Katherine told her. “I wasn’t aware metasystems modeling had come so far.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Trish managed, starstruck. “Data models are an exploding technology with far-reaching applications.”
For several minutes, the two women chatted about Trish’s work in metasystems, discussing her experience analyzing, modeling, and predicting the flow of massive data fields.
“Obviously, your book is way over my head,” Trish said, “but I understood enough to see an intersection with my metasystems work.”
“Your blog said you believe metasystems modeling can
transform
the study of Noetics?”
“Absolutely. I believe metasystems could turn Noetics into real science
.
”
“
Real
science?” Katherine’s tone hardened slightly. “As opposed to . . . ?”
Oh shit, that came out wrong.
“Um, what I meant is that Noetics is more . . . esoteric.”
Katherine laughed. “Relax, I’m kidding. I get that all the time.”
I’m
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