cartons had been reached.
Jay gestured to the sea of marbles. “Okay, show me the moves you would make to get them all back to where they were.”
Arp snorted. “That’s impossible!”
“Of course it is. And you know why as well as I do. It’s entropy. The whole universe is rigged for chaos. Mankind is fucked from the start. There are so many more crummy states of being than good ones, that the odds are stacked against us doing anything useful or desirable. Chances are that whatever move we make will result in a lousy outcome. That’s how a single person can cause so much grief with so little effort. I don’t care whether it’s a pile of marbles or sand or snow, or some kind of human system, like a computer program or a democracy. Chances are, you stick your oar in, you just churn up a shitstorm. One little wrong twist of your car’s steering wheel, and you’ve got a mile-long fatal pileup involving a hundred other people. Not some kind of spontaneous Shriners parade.”
Arp nodded thoughtfully. “It’s all true. Entropy rules, and that sucks. You and I have talked about this before. Murphy’s Law is a bitch. But you don’t understand exactly what I’m getting at. First off, we know that humans are negentropy agents. Even if only temporarily, we can push chaos back. But that’s not even what I’m theorizing here. It’s more like, more like –”
“Yeah, more like what? I’m waiting.”
The perfect analogy from science struck Arp like a dodgeball taking out a nerd in the gymnasium of his mind. “It’s like the Butterfly Effect!”
“Butterfly wags its wings in Brazil, you get a blizzard in Chicago?”
“Yes! By being in just the right place and doing just the right thing, a small action can launch a major result. It’s called, um, sensible impedance –”
“‘Sensitive dependence on initial conditions,’ jerkface!” Jason pondered where the discussion was leading. “And you’re saying you can suddenly see just what the butterfly has to do for something specific to happen?”
“Yeah, exactly! It’s not something I can verbalize, and if I tried to pass on the knowledge to anyone else, the moment would have slipped away. And you obviously can’t achieve every possible outcome from any given starting point in time and space. You’d be limited to the network of cause and effect radiating out from that particular moment in spacetime. But I can do it, I know! I did it in class!”
“How come all of a sudden?”
“How the hell do I know? My body’s changing! Maybe I was bitten by a radioactive butterfly!”
Jason punched Arp in the shoulder. “Did it feel anything like that?”
Arp punched back, and the two tussled for a few seconds. Breaking out of a clinch, Jason ran a hand through his flyaway hair and said, “Arp, my buddy, we need to experiment with this new skill of yours. And I’ve got just the goal to shoot for.”
Arp and Jason meandered through the GM Ren Cen. On this Saturday, the mall was packed with families and packs of teens, squads of power-walking elderly and alert security guards.
“You seen any invisible hooks yet?” asked Jason.
“I don’t think of them as hooks,” said Arp. “That analogy just doesn’t work somehow. It’s not anything that reaches out and grabs me. It’s more like –”
“Sweet spots! That’s what you’re seeing. The Nexus of All Realities, like where Man-Thing lives! Except there’s millions of them everywhere! Millions of little nex-eyes!”
“Yeah, right. No, that’s not exactly it either.”
“Or maybe it’s more like the universe’s clit! Tickle it just right, and everything explodes. You should know, the way you always score with Ronnie K!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Seething at his friend’s crude yet cutting joke, Arp surged ahead, entering the food court on Level A. Jason caught up with him, genuinely apologetic.
“Aw, c’mon, did you forget I was a lowlife ballbuster? Look, I’ll buy you a couple of
Jay gestured to the sea of marbles. “Okay, show me the moves you would make to get them all back to where they were.”
Arp snorted. “That’s impossible!”
“Of course it is. And you know why as well as I do. It’s entropy. The whole universe is rigged for chaos. Mankind is fucked from the start. There are so many more crummy states of being than good ones, that the odds are stacked against us doing anything useful or desirable. Chances are that whatever move we make will result in a lousy outcome. That’s how a single person can cause so much grief with so little effort. I don’t care whether it’s a pile of marbles or sand or snow, or some kind of human system, like a computer program or a democracy. Chances are, you stick your oar in, you just churn up a shitstorm. One little wrong twist of your car’s steering wheel, and you’ve got a mile-long fatal pileup involving a hundred other people. Not some kind of spontaneous Shriners parade.”
Arp nodded thoughtfully. “It’s all true. Entropy rules, and that sucks. You and I have talked about this before. Murphy’s Law is a bitch. But you don’t understand exactly what I’m getting at. First off, we know that humans are negentropy agents. Even if only temporarily, we can push chaos back. But that’s not even what I’m theorizing here. It’s more like, more like –”
“Yeah, more like what? I’m waiting.”
The perfect analogy from science struck Arp like a dodgeball taking out a nerd in the gymnasium of his mind. “It’s like the Butterfly Effect!”
“Butterfly wags its wings in Brazil, you get a blizzard in Chicago?”
“Yes! By being in just the right place and doing just the right thing, a small action can launch a major result. It’s called, um, sensible impedance –”
“‘Sensitive dependence on initial conditions,’ jerkface!” Jason pondered where the discussion was leading. “And you’re saying you can suddenly see just what the butterfly has to do for something specific to happen?”
“Yeah, exactly! It’s not something I can verbalize, and if I tried to pass on the knowledge to anyone else, the moment would have slipped away. And you obviously can’t achieve every possible outcome from any given starting point in time and space. You’d be limited to the network of cause and effect radiating out from that particular moment in spacetime. But I can do it, I know! I did it in class!”
“How come all of a sudden?”
“How the hell do I know? My body’s changing! Maybe I was bitten by a radioactive butterfly!”
Jason punched Arp in the shoulder. “Did it feel anything like that?”
Arp punched back, and the two tussled for a few seconds. Breaking out of a clinch, Jason ran a hand through his flyaway hair and said, “Arp, my buddy, we need to experiment with this new skill of yours. And I’ve got just the goal to shoot for.”
Arp and Jason meandered through the GM Ren Cen. On this Saturday, the mall was packed with families and packs of teens, squads of power-walking elderly and alert security guards.
“You seen any invisible hooks yet?” asked Jason.
“I don’t think of them as hooks,” said Arp. “That analogy just doesn’t work somehow. It’s not anything that reaches out and grabs me. It’s more like –”
“Sweet spots! That’s what you’re seeing. The Nexus of All Realities, like where Man-Thing lives! Except there’s millions of them everywhere! Millions of little nex-eyes!”
“Yeah, right. No, that’s not exactly it either.”
“Or maybe it’s more like the universe’s clit! Tickle it just right, and everything explodes. You should know, the way you always score with Ronnie K!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Seething at his friend’s crude yet cutting joke, Arp surged ahead, entering the food court on Level A. Jason caught up with him, genuinely apologetic.
“Aw, c’mon, did you forget I was a lowlife ballbuster? Look, I’ll buy you a couple of
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