sojournerdeep | [Voice & Text] - Seeking Volunteers

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[Voice & Text] - Seeking Volunteers

Hello again, this is Harold Finch. I'm seeking volunteers for a little project-- Mr. Veidt, Mr. Holmes, and myself want to place some gravity monitoring devices through as much of the immediate city as we can reach. Ready hands and feet would be helpful in this task, as there's quite a lot of ground to cover.

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....I'm sorry.

Did you say 'magic'?

Quite. To tell you the truth, I find it hard to imagine a world without it.

How do you heal your sick and wounded? How do you protect your cities, communicate with your dead? What an astonishing world it must be.

...yes, Book, you're right. *ahem* I should say you're not the first one to sound dubious or perplexed. I should be more sympathetic.

I'm... certain. How very different it... well.

We-- we use medicine. Technology. I-- alright, correct me if I'm drawing incorrect assumptions, but I assume that without magic you're using... horses as a base transportation method?

--as a rule we don't speak with our dead.

Oh, no, that's alright, don't worry about that. Your device is a book?

All manner of beasts, yes, but horses are the more easily tamed.

Ah. Then forgive me for sounding macabre - and yes, my 'communicator' is a book. It is attempting to teach me manners. It's only partially successful. I think it's failing to grasp contextual variations of social interaction.

...which is to say I'm an outspoken ass with too much time on my hands, but only to those I feel deserving of a bit of verbal pugilism.

Yes, that makes sense. In my world horses are still used for recreational transport, or in areas without modern amenities, but by and large we use a sort of self-propelling wheeled carriage to get from point A to point B. Or railways, or-- well, anyway.

That's very interesting. Could I examine your book sometime?

Hm, what's your criteria for that, then?

Sounds fascinating. We've railways as well, of a sort. More for the transportation of precious metals. They're mostly contained to mines, you see.

And yes, of course. It's unlike any book I've ever seen, certainly. I'd be glad to have your opinion as well.

As for criteria, well, I've a very limited amount of patience with stupidity for instance. Raving lunatics, of course, I simply cannot abide them. I think perhaps I am the least friendly when people refuse to see the bigger picture or the finer details because they're too busy being clever.

...a wide net, perhaps, but I've dealt with too many shortsighted dim-wits in my time.

Mining carts then-- we have those as well, but it's not quite the same thing as our passenger railways.

I'll assume the word 'computer' is foreign to you-- that our hosts arranged your device as a book bespeaks a certain amount of, hm... cultural customization, I suppose.

I see. *Finch's voice sounds faintly amused* So the lunatics, the stupid, the too-clever, and the short-sighted, does that about sum it up?

Mining carts, yes, precisely. Computer? As in thinker, someone who determines by calculation? In that sense, certainly. In the sense of your form of communicating devices, not so much.

And yes, quite. *can't you just hear him smiling? it perfectly illuminates his perfect face, you know* Give me time. I'll very likely think of something else if I'm here long enough.

Yourself? What's your favourite broad sweep of generalization?

Yes, well, for us-- for most of the people I've met here, I think-- 'computer' refers in its most basic sense a mechanical device of some sort that does computations, calculations, for a person. Such as performing very advanced mathematical questions, that might take a human hours- the device can perform these much quicker. Our communications devices are elaborate permutations on that basic theme, with many expanded functions beyond simply math.

Well, unless we find some way to each return to our homes, it appears you will have that time, Mr. Pavus.

Hmmn, my favorite generalization? 'All generalizations are false.'

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[Voice & Text] - Seeking Volunteers

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