Read Online Partnership by Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Ball - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Ball
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Darnell whined.
"But who has time to read all that crud?"
"The price of some kinds of information," Polyon said, "is more than the cost of a book and the time to read it. I could print out the rules of Singularity math for you, but you haven't paid the price of understanding it — the years of space transformation algebra and the intelligence to move the theories into multiple dimensions."
"Oh, come on," Blaize challenged him. "It's not that PARTNERSHIP
55
compjjcated. Even I know Baykowski's Theorem."
"A continuum C is said to be locally shrinkable in M
if and only if, for each epsilon greater than zero and each open set D containing C, there is a homeomorphism h of M onto M which takes C onto a set of diameter less than epsilon and which is the identity on M ___ D," Polyon recited rapidly. "And it's not a theorem, it's a definition."
Nancia quietly followed the discussion with mild interest. The mathematics of Singularity was nothing new to her, but at least when her brat passengers were talking mathematics they weren't trying to drive each other crazy. And she was impressed that Polyon had retained enough Singularity theory to be able to recite Baykowski's Definition from memory; common gossip among the brainships in training was that no softperson could really understand multidimensional decompositions.
"The real basis for decom theory," Polyon lectured his audience, "is what follows that definition. Namely, Zerlion's Lemma: that our universe can be considered as a collection of locally shrinkable continua each containing at least one non-degenerating element."
Fassa del Parma pouted and jabbed her play icon across the display screen in a series of short, jerky moves.
"Very useful information, I'm sure," she said in a sarcastic voice, "but do the rest of us have to pay the price of listening to it? All this theoretical mathematics makes my head hurt And it's not as if it were good for anything, like stress analysis or materials testing."
"It's good for getting us to the Nyota system in two weeks instead of six months, my dove," Polyon told her. "And it's really quite simple. In layman's terms, Singularity theory just shows us how to decompose two widely separated subspace areas into a sequence of compacted dimensionalities sharing one non-degenerating element. When the subspaces become 56
Anm McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
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singular they will appear to intersect at that element —.
and when we expand from the decomposition, pon|
out of Central subspace and into Vega space we go."
Nancia felt grateful that she'd resisted her impulse to join in the conversation. Her Lab Schools classmates had been right about softpersons. Polyon knew all the right words for Singularity mathematics, but he'd gotten the basic theory hopelessly scrambled. And clearly he didn't understand the computational problems underlying that theory. Pure topological theory might prove the existence of a decomposition series, but actually forcing a ship through that series required massive linear programming optimizations, all performed in realtime with no second chances for mistakes. No wonder softpersons weren't trusted to pilot a ship through Singularity!
"I agree with you," Alpha told Fassa. "Bo-ring. Even the history of Nyota is better than studying mathematics."
"You'd think so, of course," Fassa said, "seeing that it was discovered and named by your people." The small grin on her face told Nancia that this was a jab of some sort at Alpha. Hastily she scanned her data notes on the Nyota system, but nothing there explained why the Hezra-Fong family should take a particular interest in it
"Swahili is a slave language," Alpha said haughtily.
"It has nothing to do with the Fong tribe. My people come from the other side of the continent — and we were never enslaved!"
"Will somebody give me a map of this conversation?" Darnell said plaintively. "I'm more lost than I was during Polyon's math
"But who has time to read all that crud?"
"The price of some kinds of information," Polyon said, "is more than the cost of a book and the time to read it. I could print out the rules of Singularity math for you, but you haven't paid the price of understanding it — the years of space transformation algebra and the intelligence to move the theories into multiple dimensions."
"Oh, come on," Blaize challenged him. "It's not that PARTNERSHIP
55
compjjcated. Even I know Baykowski's Theorem."
"A continuum C is said to be locally shrinkable in M
if and only if, for each epsilon greater than zero and each open set D containing C, there is a homeomorphism h of M onto M which takes C onto a set of diameter less than epsilon and which is the identity on M ___ D," Polyon recited rapidly. "And it's not a theorem, it's a definition."
Nancia quietly followed the discussion with mild interest. The mathematics of Singularity was nothing new to her, but at least when her brat passengers were talking mathematics they weren't trying to drive each other crazy. And she was impressed that Polyon had retained enough Singularity theory to be able to recite Baykowski's Definition from memory; common gossip among the brainships in training was that no softperson could really understand multidimensional decompositions.
"The real basis for decom theory," Polyon lectured his audience, "is what follows that definition. Namely, Zerlion's Lemma: that our universe can be considered as a collection of locally shrinkable continua each containing at least one non-degenerating element."
Fassa del Parma pouted and jabbed her play icon across the display screen in a series of short, jerky moves.
"Very useful information, I'm sure," she said in a sarcastic voice, "but do the rest of us have to pay the price of listening to it? All this theoretical mathematics makes my head hurt And it's not as if it were good for anything, like stress analysis or materials testing."
"It's good for getting us to the Nyota system in two weeks instead of six months, my dove," Polyon told her. "And it's really quite simple. In layman's terms, Singularity theory just shows us how to decompose two widely separated subspace areas into a sequence of compacted dimensionalities sharing one non-degenerating element. When the subspaces become 56
Anm McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
PARTNERSHIP
57
singular they will appear to intersect at that element —.
and when we expand from the decomposition, pon|
out of Central subspace and into Vega space we go."
Nancia felt grateful that she'd resisted her impulse to join in the conversation. Her Lab Schools classmates had been right about softpersons. Polyon knew all the right words for Singularity mathematics, but he'd gotten the basic theory hopelessly scrambled. And clearly he didn't understand the computational problems underlying that theory. Pure topological theory might prove the existence of a decomposition series, but actually forcing a ship through that series required massive linear programming optimizations, all performed in realtime with no second chances for mistakes. No wonder softpersons weren't trusted to pilot a ship through Singularity!
"I agree with you," Alpha told Fassa. "Bo-ring. Even the history of Nyota is better than studying mathematics."
"You'd think so, of course," Fassa said, "seeing that it was discovered and named by your people." The small grin on her face told Nancia that this was a jab of some sort at Alpha. Hastily she scanned her data notes on the Nyota system, but nothing there explained why the Hezra-Fong family should take a particular interest in it
"Swahili is a slave language," Alpha said haughtily.
"It has nothing to do with the Fong tribe. My people come from the other side of the continent — and we were never enslaved!"
"Will somebody give me a map of this conversation?" Darnell said plaintively. "I'm more lost than I was during Polyon's math
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