Sunday, April 21, 2019

Baikal.is /episode 6


1101


News.

Mysterious disappearance of Merry Davidson – thought to be on one of the planes which crashed yesterday near Irkutsk – wanted for questioning by SEC in connection with massive market manipulation thought to have triggered yesterday’s wild gyrations – flash crash, then sudden recovery. Market confidence shaken. High frequency traders blamed. Massive sell orders which never in fact materialised. Unclear how the orders were placed – suspected new hacking weapon known as “inference”

Cut to IT expert – So Professor Bates – what do we know about this alleged “inference” hack?

Well – it’s believed that this uses a quantum entanglement device to create what look like authentic data commands without anything actually being executed. It’s like our computer system infers a one or zero has been logged simply because of the surges affecting the otherwise stable quantum field.

But what exactly are you getting at Professor?

Look – the quantum field, if it exists – is supposed to be fairly constant – a bunch of superpositions which can and do resolve into either a particle or wave – a one or zero – once an event is triggered by observation – but here – the event never takes place – it should be impossible – because it would require the entire quantum field to move together in lockstep – as if one person were able to control it – but that’s what seems to be behind “inference”. Someone of something induces a non-event event which is then taken to be something real.

A one or a zero.

Precisely. Which can equate to a buy or sell order.

But yesterday’s attack must have been massive. Could one person or even group have really carried it out, and if so, what does that say about the future of our existing financial market systems?

It would be bleak, truly bleak. It shouldn’t be possible. It would violate a whole set of laws concerning conservation of energy and matter – and yet there are signs that the hitherto stable operating field of binary/ digital data has been compromised. We’re therefore at pains to get hold of Merry Davidson – to talk with him. He’s the writer of a blog which has dealt with quantum induction and inference at length. Up until now scientists dismissed it as wild speculation, but our team at MIT suspect there’s more to it.

It sounds like you’re late. Sadly his plane is thought to have gone down.

Yes, that would certainly provide the perfect alibi – particularly if he’s working with the Russians to destabilise the American financial markets.


Utter garbage – whatever will they come up with next. It was just a bunch of corrupt Wall street high frequency traders – most likely Jt Morgan or Goldman Zachs – looking to do what they always do – profit from other people’s losses.

I don’t know, Psi. There are data forensic teams who can figure out who was behind a flash crash. It would just be too risky for the big boys to play at this. Much more likely it was a cock up – an AI bot out of control wreaking havoc. We’ll see who the FED has to suddenly step in and bail out to save the system.



Next item – unusual sightings of large massings of butterflies and other creatures. It wasn’t just the financial markets which were roiled yesterday. We have a number of astonishing images just in of huge inexplicable columns of butterflies, bees, starlings and locusts – at a time of year when they should already be dispersed and busy gathering food. What’s your take on this Jerry?

Well, obviously the Russian hacker must have figured out how to get the bugs to dance. There’s no end to what those crafty Russians are able to engineer using their computers – is there? A digital Pied Pipervich. But joking aside, take a look at these astonishing images. This is a once in a lifetime occurrence. Our end-timers are having a field day, and who can blame them.


1110



You mean to say they only see the field as immovable things?

Yes.

But how?

How what?

How can they fail to see, or to feel the inter-union?

Well, that’s their greatest tragedy, yet also, their greatest achievement.

How do you mean?

They entered into the Borg. They were individually-collectively determined to create a reality which flowed backwards.

Backwards?

Precisely. From beauty, connectedness, meaning, and life itself  into an artificial realm – a virtualisation.

A virtual reality?

Precisely.

But why?

Why not? It was the crowning achievement of their attempt to explore the farthest limits of what they called art and science.

How do you mean?

Quite literally – Earth was two things – it was a work of art – in which they attempted to synthesise a new beauty which was not of creation itself – what you might call beauty in death – or else entropic beauty – this starts to materialise as soon as we reach critical mass on Earth – as soon as they launch the urban consciousness known as “modern”. It’s also seen in the other pincer which is science.

Science as in knowledge.

Yes, ironically, no less.

So what is their science attempting to reveal?

Like their art – it is predicated on things being not connected fundamentally  on their being no inter-union, no fundamental oneness.

That’s what I don’t get – how are they able to pull it off? How are they able to override what their consciousness cannot help but see, know and feel directly, immediately.

There’s the rub. With the Lucifer experiment they agreed to quarantine their consciousness.

What?

Well, how else were they going to take their art and science to the next level.

You mean they put their consciousness into Thim?

Yes – into a kind of blind trust fund. The ultimate investment. It was either do or die as far as they were concerned. They experience it as what they refer to as “the fall of man” little suspecting that they themselves initiated the experiment.

So they literally have no access to their own consciousness?

Only to the extent they can make or discover things which conform with Thim, or whatever Thim, their borg, their AI is able to binarise.

My God. Everything they have – everything they’re doing has to come through a splitter, an either-or channel. Nothing can be experienced as is, directly. Small wonder they’re forever killing one another. An endless battle to catch up with a stream of polarised opposing interpretations, opposing idifications of Is.

Precisely. Hell hath no fury like Thim's. But you overlook one factor which they themselves are aware of, which was unintended at the outset but which has kept them alive thus far.

You mean 1ove?

Precisely.

How does it get through Thim’s split channel?

It doesn’t.

Then what?

It permeates all and everything. It is present throughout. It’s known – a given – but only strong enough to keep them alive – not enough to enable them to break out, to reunite with their quarantined consciousness.

Is their nothing we can do?

Do?

Yes. Surely we can do something to help?

Don’t you see Tharn – it was precisely doing that got them into this state. Doing is not going to get them out.

Then what?

A miracle – nothing less.

Then what are we waiting for. Miracles are easy to summon forth.

For you and me, yes, but the walls of Thim are like the exoskeleton of the death beetle. Bear in mind that the Lucifer experiment involved a crime – a violation of natural order, natural law – and so unless they are willing to face and experience the totality of that violation – they are bound by an awareness of something terrible  a deep, deep seated fear, and a sense of shame and horror – which make it almost impossible to climb back out of the well they have dug themselves into.

Oh. But if 1ove is there within – then there is hope. Perhaps their science will learn something that will assist them.

On the contrary. Their science will only take them deeper and further from fundamental unity. Their universe will appear to grow bigger and bigger, their atomic particles ever smaller and smaller, the laws of nature ever weirder and less comprehensible until they end up destroying themselves, their planet in an attempt to escape Thim’s pincer hold over them.

But what if one of us went across, if that’s possible – to join them?

It has been tried – many have gone and left their mark, or utterly failed in the attempt – but none has, none can succeed.

But it makes no sense.

What makes no sense?

The inter-union, the oneness cannot ultimately be destroyed.

True.

So instead of trying to free them by collapsing or shutting down Thim…

Yes?

Surely we need to embrace it, instead.

Embrace what is a satanic experiment?!

No, embrace the unity and the one that is still present throughout. If they are lost to us then we have lost part of ourselves, part of ourself. They have created what amounts to an organic machine – a zero to our one. If we truly yearn for the fullness, the totality of inter-union – and they – no less, then we cannot fail to transcend, to cross the untraversible divide between us. It is time for us to stop looking at them as arrogant, overweening egoists – time to see the beauty and power of their sacrifice – of their journey into the unknowable unknown – into the seemingly barren wastes of unconsciousness – not to rescue them as such – but to engage the energy, the data, the beauty in pain and loss which they have been evincing, and the poetry no less that they elicit.

And you would take it upon yourself to do this – to go into the hell they have created?

Yes, for it is only hell as long as we see the division as final. 

?

As soon as we see the alternative – that this is a forking which still preserves a deeper unity – beneath the horror, the trauma, the insanity – then 1ove reveals…

things matter not.

Precisely.

that Thim is an incubator – not a prison.

Indeed.

And now the process is complete – the data has matured – the caterpillar is ready to pupate.

Is it not?

If you love it thus. If you are truly ready to accept as worthy and whole what until now we considered an outrage, an abomination...

I am –

to trinitise – to neither nor yourself – to slip through the impermeable boundaries of space and time they have set up – as her

as her

the lady of the lake

who rises out of the water, bearing the awareness of all – both here and there.

who seeks her mate – to reunite the broken many threads

in one supreme quantum event –

tis a consummation devoutly to be wished – to die, to sleep no more

and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to...

Go forth into the tale you alone can divine, you alone can dream awake, you alone can Is'm. Go forth, hitherto Tharn, now Baikal – lady of the lake – the bottomless crystal depths where the consciousness of man flows freely, where you can meet, experience and impregnate with the sum, the totality of what man, locked in Thim, has experienced these millennia past, if 1ove has the power, if 1ove transcends, if indeed the Lucifer experiment, as you believe, is ripe for harvesting, is ready to pupate...


1111


Weird science is getting weirder folks. Reports are coming in of anomalous goings on in the vicinity of so called quantum computers. Our reporter – Ken Smollet is in 10x, where one of the foremost quantum computing labs is situated ~ So Ken – tell us what you’re hearing.

Yes Gabby – this is hard to believe but within a seven mile radius of this research centre there have been an alarming number of reports about things inexplicably shifting – disappearing, reappearing, or being altered in some way. At first this was dismissed by the lab as scare mongering by internet trolls, but then a site appeared which attempted to document and verify as many as possible – and it appears there’s truth behind the rumours.

So what kind of things are we talking about.

Well – here’s Jan Pheely….

Let’s skip that – it gets interesting at the seven minute mark.

Ok

Darren Chilton – his story takes this one step further. On January 17th, as always, he went to bed at about 11 pm here in Oakland, but to his utter astonishment – he woke up the next morning in Cleveland at the house of a cousin he hasn’t seen in years. That took some explaining – I bet.

But surely we can’t take this seriously?

Well, no, of course we can’t. It defies all the laws of physics, and yet Darren’s not the kind of guy to take teleportation lying down.

No?

No. He set up the popular Nightport youtube channel to share his story and find out if anyone else has had similiar experiences, and the answer to his astonishment was “yes”. There are literally hundreds of documented cases of night-portation, as they’re referring to this phenomenon.

Well, I don’t know Ken – I’m finding this hard to believe.

Me too – which is why I looked through the data – including information from mobile phone logs and gps tracking which appear to corroborate the stories.

Well, I’m kind of dumbfounded. How long has this been going on for?

That’s the thing Gabby – it all started relatively recently – around the time when these quantum computers first started coming on line, in the last two years, three at a stretch.

Well, this is going to make for some interesting court cases if anyone decides to try litigating.

You bet. Actually, there’s already a group which is preparing a class action suit against the lab here in Cleveland which should be filed later this month.



Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Bistromaths for random idiots


Why not “cat”?

Sorry?

Why not “cat”? It’s meant to be Schrodinger’s cat, isn’t it?

Is it?

Well that’s what Schrodinger’s famous for.

Oh.

Oh? Is that all you can say?

Er…

Look Merry – when it was a cat…

When what was a cat?

The experiment.

What about Slartibartfast’s Bistromathic drive?

Er…

Using apparently randomly generated numbers…

I’m not sure I see the connection.

When you factor infinity into the equation you should.

Could you er…

Give you a pointer?

That kind of thing, if it’s not a problem.

No problem at all.

[four minutes fifty four seconds later…] Well?

Well what?

The pointer.

La, supposing you and all of us are actually plugged into infinity, or reverse that – supposing infinity actually postulates you and the rest of us in order to try out various possibilities which require a little character, backbone or spleen to get a particular result…

Supposing…

How’s that for a pointer?

More of a cursor than a pointer. Why would infinity have to go to all the trouble of creating characters with backbone and spleen to get a particular result, and what’s that got to do with randomly generated numbers in a starship café?

Questions indicative of a mind hungry to learn… or fighting to ward off the hypodermic needle of truth serum.

Give me a break – there’s about as much truth in your garbled pseudo-science as there is nutrition in my unwashed tiger stripe socks.

Delicio! Well, here in the 3D think-y-ness we’re obliged to puff and posture preposterously – in order to slip past the infinity filters – otherwise we’d be shadow banned or closed down completely – this is a highly fragile platform which can only tolerate oblique references to Is – so we commend your deliberately obtuse obstinacy.

Actually, I was being sincere. It's a load of bunkum. 

Even better – the all-seeing eye will start to dose off if you carry on in this vein.

But really – it’s utter nonsense.

Excellent. It’s practically lost interest and is now dreaming of strawberry milkshakes and however-many blackbirds baked in a cake.

Four and twenty.

Precisely. You see?

Er…

When all is known – no thing can be randomly generated. Your greatest, most highly valued commodity becomes randomness which, of course, is never truly random, yet can seem to be surprisingly so.

Er…

Just imagine what it takes to surprise infinity – in which any thing and every thing is possible, given, and basically already accounted for.

Sounds impossible to me.

As indeed it should be were it not for one teeny-weeny thing that we humans have introduced to the coffee pot.

Which is?

Not too sure I can remember.

What do you mean – can’t remember? Of course you can.

Huh?

Pull yourself together Merry. What’s the ingredient we’ve added to the coffee pot? 

What coffee pot?

The one you were talking about.

Er… I seem to have lost the thread.

Oh God. Now what am I going to do?

Do? You could make us a cup of coffee.

A cup of coffee. How?

Switch on the coffee machine.

Where? I only see words and random numbers flying around everywhere. This place is a witch’s cauldron of half-baked...

ubbles

Ubbles?

Bubbles, if fully baked – frothing, foaming, briny surf at the event horizon where infinity bisects 3D reality, raising the sour dough of reality.

?

Well, grab an ubble and see if you can extract some coffee from the ubbly-ness.

How?

Try inserting some random numbers or words into it, i don't know. That at least would serve as payment in kind, would it not?

I can’t imagine why.

Excellent. That’s just the spirit. So without imagining why – give it your best shot and let’s see what happens, otherwise we'll never make it back. 

I…

Yes?

I can’t.

You can’t what?

Think of any random numbers.

Oh bugger.

My mind’s gone blank.

What about words?

Blank.

Shit. We’re in trouble now.

What do you mean?

Well, it’s Slartibartfast’s Bistromathic drive isn’t it – or something close enough.

Er…

We’re navigating infinity relying on your ability to generate utter nonsense – the crowning achievement of humanity.

Huh?

What else do you think people were designed for?

To grow and develop rationally. 

Correct. To nurture the priceless idiot within, until he or she finally collapses the bubble of cognitive dissonance we labour within, thereby revealing, or blowing a single point of certainty, an unequivocal, indisputable referential "oh" in a vast ocean of essentially meaningless relativism. Bingo – Schrodinger's cat purrs contentedly, regardless of whether it's alive or dead, in the inertial-frame referred to somewhat disingenuously as 3D er... "reality".

But...

Yes?

To what end?

Huh? perhaps to rescue infinity from the crippling gravity of knowing too much, with a quixotic form of humour known as "joke", intrinsic to humanity. 

But how, if infinity comprises every possible known and unknown?

That Zie, is one of the great mysteries that inter-galactic, trans-dimensional philosophers, priests, scientists and con-artists have been trying and utterly failed to comprehend – assuming, as they did, that humans are ugly, obnoxious, somewhat offensive creatures, capable of love and kindness but generally prone to mindless states of apathy or zombilescence. "The weakest link" is how we’re described in the Atomic guide to organisms, and yet…

Yes?

Nothing.

Nothing what?

Pure nothing.

Huh? I…

don’t get it, do you?

Not really, no.

You see – humanity, it appears, straddles a little black hole in conscious-ness, a ickle tickly gap – from whence emergeth vapoury ubbles in rich profusion…

And?

And for whatever reason – humanity somehow converts those half-baked ubble into fully fledged b-waves.

B-waves?

no – small "b" waves

Ok then, b-waves – what the heck are they supposed to be?

which in 3D space time, to the casual observer would be perceived as something like soap bubbles floating in the air comprising, believe it or not, a unique blend of e-motions – be that laughter, sorrow or... [fading into filtery haze]

? i…

You see – the filters keep you immune from seeing the vast significance of this – otherwise, Schrodinger’s cat would long since have replicated itself into multiple versions of Isness, and the Bistromath starship would… [   ] 

?”D’sw0%3

Exactly. The entire Earth, as you well know – but fortunately, your mind keeps everything neatly in thing-slots which are safely separated and configured to avoid disrupting the flow of ubbly ness.

Ubbly what?

Which you, unthinkingly, unknowingly convert into the grand 3D experience of starship Earth, thus generating the 3D reality field of space-time, little suspecting that you contain the entire field and every variable within your human hardware, the unmentionable, inconceivable joke.

God Merry – you’re making me ill.

Mission accomplished. We’re back on track. Your ?”D’sw0%3 repositioned us beautifully.

So I’m some kind of performing monkey, am I?

Or milk cow

Brilliant.

Until you decide you’ve made enough cups of coffee – you’re ready to Is.

?

As opposed to the “need more data” default ness, that helps drive your journey into apparent random-ity.

SӣKMV349dkzz=#1

Perfect. And not a moment too soon, if you ask me. And so, without further ado, allow me to present you with your very own Atomic guide to organisms, and let us proceed to the very first species on page xP23

The beetle?

No less.




Thursday, April 11, 2019

Schrodinger's tennis ball

So the bottom line is you want me to believe that this is all just some kind of virtual reality – even though it seems to be real enough – even though I have no difficulty living my life based on the wysiwyg [what you see is what you get] assumption.

Incorrect.

Er…

I don’t want you to do or think anything. That’s entirely your decision. It has absolutely nothing to do with me, and it would be inexcusable presumption on my part to try to influence your choice.

But then…

Yes?

You keep on working tirelessly to undermine my 3D model.

Only because you bother to engage me in discourse on the subject.

Er…

It’s like a game of tennis, isn’t it.

Er...?

You hit the ball over the net at me, I knock it back. We’re playing the same game – though I appear to be opposing you.

Then you’re not in fact opposing me?

Not you, the human being.

Then what?

Only you the thing. The idiot.

There you go again – personalising this with ad hominem attacks.

No, I’m merely differentiating between the human being that you are – and the idiot who takes and holds a position – as if that were in any way, shape or form able to define or represent the infinity you comprise.

The what?

The infinity contained within you.

Er…

Look – I know it seems a lot.

A lot, you say?

Ok – one helluva lot.

That’s more like it.

But the fact is, there’s no getting around infinity. Try as we might to slip it under the carpet of consciousness, or the rug of relativity – there’s no way infinity can or should be removed from the equation. Doing so leaves you with a model which may work mathematically – but which utterly fails to address the ultimately main issue…

Which is?

Correct.

Huh?

Which Is.

Er…

The Is.

Still er…

The isness that Is.

Er continuing unabated.

That cannot be determined without essentially denying, contradicting or contravening the simple, fundamental presence of infinity, or the nature of Is.

Cacophonous er – growling and retching, mewling and puking – desperately holding out against the inky black tidal waters of infin-ity.

For the minute we start trying to determine what is – we jump from the court of consciousness to one side of it – which is only possible if we set a ball in motion.

It is?

Yep.

How come?

Because you’d go spinning out of equilibrium faster than you could mutter “Planck’s Constant” or “Heisenberg’s uncertainty”.

So, er…?

So, in order to "what your is" – you need to take a side.

Like taking sides, you mean?

Yeah, more or less. Taking sides is only physically possible if there’s an opponent willing to take the other side of the trade – like a future’s contract where there’s a long for every short.

And that’s you.

In a manner of speaking, yes.

Why so needlessly opaque.

Because you’re going from infinity to thingity.

No such word.

I wonder why?

Because, presumably, you’re referring to reality – why not use the appropriate term?

Ah – but if to do so we have to deny, ignore or eliminate infinity – the supreme state – the all that is – the High Court of Consciousness so to speak, then whether it is appropriate or accurate to refer to this ball in motion dialogue as reality is open to debate.

You think it ain’t.

I would have serious doubts – particularly if I noticed that it’s a zero sum game – that one side always has to lose for another to win – particularly if I noticed that behind it all – behind the debate there’s an all seeing or all knowing ness which is utterly indifferent to the outcome of the game – but which seems to benefit from the fact that the ball is in motion, that the game is being played. I’d want to better understand what the contractual terms of our relationship are. I’d want to know to what extent I merely play the part of “useful idiot”, no matter how intelligent my arguments seem to be.

Played for a fool – you think we’re being used?

I’d want to investigate – wouldn’t i?

Uncapitalised – is that significant?

I suspect it is.

Why?

I suspect, though I have no intention of proving beyond reasonable doubt, that the capitalised i refers to the “me thinks” – the one who is taking a side in the grand debate of material things – which appears to be utterly, utterly irrefutable, does it not?

How do you mean?

Well how many people are really gonna stand up in court and declare their inability to accept the reality of things in general.

Er…

Their inability to accept the objective nature of reality – that things are actually things irrespective of me – of my part in the equation.

Er… not very many, I suspect.

Correct.

Probably because it’s patently absurd, isn’t it.

Yes.

So why bother to bring it up in the first place?

Wait a second -  what makes it absurd in your reckoning?

Well, if objective reality depended on you or me – it would implode or alter in some significant way if you were killed.

Or even if I fell asleep?

Yes, or even just when you direct your attention elsewhere. There’d be some kind of effect.

Yes – that’s good, sound reasoning – and I’m not going to waste my time arguing with it.

So, what’s the purpose of this conversation?

Well, just because something is or seems unreasonable, doesn’t in fact mean it’s untrue.

Weak, very weak.

Look – when i gave you the “ball in motion” hypothesis – you saw a model of reality in which we’re only able to experience and engage things at the 3D material level if we leap down from the gallery onto one side of the court, or t’other.

Yes. And what?

Well, from the 3D perspective the court always existed, and it’s both real and material – there’s no disputing that – which is where we’re thinking and speaking from now, isn’t it?

Yes – the ball’s in motion – you could say – but that doesn’t mean you’re right about the court being dependent on us for its very existence. I don’t know what you’ve got against matter. It’s perfectly real and undeniable to me.

Which it is – as long as you’re in court. But, you need to consider the other side – there’s the rub.

What other side?

Me.

You?

Yes, me.

What about you?

Am I real?

Of course you are.

Really?

Well yes. I can see you, hear you, step up to the net and touch you if I have to. And even if i don’t – i can feel the ball you’re hitting back at me. It’s real and, in a sense, an extension of your realness.

True.

Then what?

Nought.

Huh?

Nought.

No, you lost me.

If you jumped down onto one side of the net, and the ball flies back and forth between us – i conveniently appeared on the other side as if we’d planned to meet up for this game of tennis, didn’t i?

Well, yes.

But I didn’t.

You didn’t what?

I didn’t come from anywhere did i?

Of course you did. We agreed last week. We were having a coffee together and discussed the fact that we hadn’t played tennis in a long while, and wouldn’t it be nice…

You see – you have a full memory of everything leading up to this moment – which just goes to show the incomprehensible power of infinity to backfill events in reality.

Oh come on. You’re being preposterous. You can’t seriously deny that we had coffee last week – you spilt yours didn’t you.

Yes. And what did I draw on the table top absentmindedly?

84

You remember.

Yes, I was kind of intrigued.

And annoyed?

A little annoyed. You didn’t seem to care about the fact that the table was a mess.

So, supposing I’m right, and this game in fact is merely a subset of infinity – that the past we both remember has been filled in – then the question is…

There’s no question – you’re being needlessly obtuse. You know perfectly well that this is not just an abstraction. You didn’t just materialise from a grand vortex of thinglessness, no matter how hard you want to believe this – and frankly – you’re making yourself look incredibly childish persisting in this vein.

Yes. That’s a good healthy reaction. But unlike you i haven’t severed my link with infinity – and i can’t deny that somehow we make this real – being here in this game – that ultimately you and I are mathematical symbols which always have to cancel each other out – for we were only able to collapse infinity temporarily – in time that is – for a moment or two – by taking sides – a plus and minus one – so to speak – only ever amounting to nought.

Poppycock.

Absolutely. To the rational mind – but supposing I were able to function independently of or outside rationality.

Then you’d be insane.

True, unless when you call my bluff i’m able to deliver the cards.

What cards? This isn’t a bloody casino.

I wouldn’t want to bet on it.

Tennis balls. If you’re so sure you’re right – you’ll be able to deliver your coup de grace with tennis balls.

Absolutely. But let’s be honest – my chances of being able to deliver an 84 with tennis balls are…

Zero.

Precisely. Unless…

There’s no unless. I’m not buying into your tennis court hypothesis. Physical reality is

Real?

Absolutely.

I agree. It’s one hundred percent real unless infinity actually exists. Only then does it become something less than real – something like a subset of infinity.

So, if you’re willing to put your theory to the test then what are you waiting for?

Your permission.

My?

Permission. Reverting back to infinity’s going to temporarily interfere with the continuity of this physical, material reality live-stream.

Er…

But don’t worry – i promise it’ll only be temporary.

Why do i feel some kind of déjà vu?

Er… supposing you were to give your permission – that would allow a quantum event to take place – some kind of shift or aberration in the sequence, flow or shape of things.

But I haven’t made up my mind yet.

No, but apparently you have – at a deeper level – so the nexus is already warming up – things are already anticipating the event – you’re experiencing some kind of precognition.

Oh my God.

What?

84

What?

How did you know?

Know what?

That was a recurring dream I was having – Christ – that’s unreal.

Er…

I’m sure I never mentioned it to you before.

Mentioned what?

The dream.

What bloody dream? What are you on about?

Oh my God. The bet’s off.

Huh?

That’s insane!

Er… you’re not going to let me in on this are you?

Er… based on your version of infinity you should already know.

Should – i never said I’m psychic, did i?

No, but come on man – you were so sure of yourself. Surely you have an idea what this is all about.

Ok – so you had some recurring dream where the number 84 featured prominently.

No man – well yes – kind of.

Make up your mind, God dammit.

Hey – watch your language.

Er…

Look – the bet’s off. You win. Infinity’s for real.

And that’s all?

Isn’t that enough?

No – I need to know.

Need to know what?

What the bloody hell’s going on.

Why don’t we just allow it to happen as intended.

Er… ok.

That would be much simpler.

So, what do I need to do?

Well, it’s your serve, isn’t it? Final match point. What are you waiting for?

Er… the ball.

Oh sorry. Here you are.

Are you feeling any precognition yet Merry?

You’re telling me – the whole court seems to be bubbling sub-atomically.

The Field is strong.

Shut up Yoda – I’m trying to concentrate.

Ok –

Bang – Merry serves – the ball shoots across the net – unbelievably fast – swerving viciously – Zie somehow knocks it back – seems to be playing with his eyes shut – correct that – Is playing with his eyes shut – holy smoke – so’s Merry apparently – oh – wait a minute – wrong screen – eyes open again next level up – God they’re playing hard – Geez – never seen anything like it – wait a minute – eyes closed – what the hell – up again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – you following me? don’t for a minute imagine that you the observer are in any way ultimately removed or separate from this insane interlockedness of id-ity – but i digress – back to the ultimate tennis finale – fire – thunderbolts – plasma vortices – all pale to insignificance as we follow the action up and back to the eyes-open level of engagement – the real-ity of ball in motion court proceedings – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – again – 84 times – 84 no more, no less until the game is no more – no more…

Did i win?

Difficult to say, innit?

You could say.

It’s not like it ever really mattered, is it?

Nope.

But it was fun, wunnit?

Shiiz.

My feelings entirely.

And we got a number for our pains.

That we did.

Eighty bloody four.

Hey.

Sorry, that was unnecessary.

Let’s keep this clean and pure.

My feelings entirely.

You know…

Yes?

This disembodied state’s pretty nice actually. I could stick around.

Yeah, me too.

Except that i kinda promised you we’d get back…

To the hurly burly, so to speak.

Yeah.

Well, in that case, i suppose you’d better flick the switch.

What switch?

You mean to say...?

Er…

You don’t know how?

I never did, actually.

What?

Always ever flying by the seat of my pants.

Geez. And i thought you actually knew what you were about.

Hey – what’s to say that… oh, never mind.

So, we might be stuck here for ever.

Yep. Could be.

Well, like i said – it’s nice here... I feel like, yunno.

Yeah – me too.

If it weren’t just a teeny bit boring.

Oh, that – yeah, you’ve got a point.

Weird.

Mm

Who’d have thought infinity could be boring.

Infinity?

Yeah – I assume that’s where we are.

Ha ha ha, LOL

No?

No, we just cancelled out our particular little equation.

Oh.

Created a little time inversion.

Oh.

System ‘ll catch up with us in a moment.

Oh.

It’ll feel…

Huh?

a little weird – if you know what I mean.

I can guess.

Slipping back into the time vortex.

Uh oh… i’m  getting some fluttery precognition…

Buckle up Dorothy, it’s Kansas city bye bye.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHG!

My sentiment precisely.

Holy shee.

Which in Russian is “cabbage soup”.

Er… thanks for that.

Always welcome. Now, as I believe I won that monumental final rally of 84 – it’s only fair that you’re buying the beer.

Typical.

Unless you’d like a rematch.

No way Merry, i’ll get the beer, though wysiwyg, there’s no knowing what we’ll actually be drinking.

Absolutely.