Love Story: In The Web of Life by Ken Renshaw (most motivational books txt) 📗

ways I can go. I canwrite a paper that is armored with footnotes and references toprove I was not doing anything innovative. And, if I worked at auniversity with a rigid review process, I would submit it to afaculty review process to further assure that I had not doneanything the technically conservative head of the department woulddisagree with, and then I would submit it to a peer review journaland spend another two years dealing with comments and objections,some of which were from technically conservative guys who don'tlike new ideas, and then it would be published.

"There is very little vulnerability in going onthat route. Few will criticize a paper that has been so expertlyscrubbed and there is little danger to one's academicreputation.

"Or, if I teach at a state college, where theemphasis is more on teaching, and they kind of let me publish whatI want, I can write a paper and publish it in any of the highquality journals that don't have the innovation squeezing peerreview process. Then, I can move onto something else.

"There is a vulnerability in this processbecause, if you openly do something innovative, you are open topersonal and professional criticism from many people. I publishwhat I believe in, and if people disagree with me that is theirproblem. If the work is useful, some people will build on theideas. If the work is of no value, it will beforgotten."

She said with some apparent pride, "I have beendoing papers on the implications of complex eight-dimensionalMinkowski space for more than a decade. The Colson Foundationdecided the subject was useful for explaining things like ESP andremote sensing.

"My students often scoff and object to mybroaching the subject of ESP in discussions of eight-space. I tellthem they can believe it, or not believe it as they wish, buteight-space will be on the final exam.

"Many of my papers reflect my grandfather'sheritage by taking on subjects outside the normal scientific realmlike ESP.

"By the way, when Einstein submitted his paperon Special Relativity to the university as a doctoral thesis, itwas rejected by the 'old white guys' in the university as too farout."

I thought for a minute and then said, "Iunderstand your philosophy here on the subject of professionalpapers. I am not sure how this would work in a trial. We always tryto present an invulnerable case."

Candice replied, "Tom, my significant other,counsels many people on vulnerability. It is a frequent topic inour house. I have learned the value of being vulnerable in personalrelationships."

"I don't understand," I admitted.

"It is somehow easier for women to understandthan men. For example, I have told you a lot about my personallife, like how I feel about my Native American heritage, its use itin my everyday life, my philosophy of teaching and writing papers,and why I teach at a state college instead of a major university. Ihave exposed much of who I am and how I feel. In doing so, I couldhave been risking your judging me, or somehow changing myrelationship with the Colson Foundation. That is vulnerability. Ifelt that I was safe with you. It is important that, if we are tohave an extended professional relationship, you know who I reallyam and what is important to me. I didn't want to work with you fora few weeks, and then have you judge that I was irrational becausemy grandmother was a witch doctor. I don't have time forthat."

She gave me a soft smile that seemed to say, 'Iam your friend.'

I replied with a smile, "Your gamble, if itwere that, paid off. I understand a lot about you and think we canwork wonderfully well together."

I contemplated starting to tell her some moreabout myself. Then, the check came.

"We should get back to work," she said. "Readyfor some more mind stretching mathematics?"

At my office we returned to the conference roomand Candice began describing her movie.

"The Colson Foundation asked for me to write amovie script for an animation short film, for a TV show, a NOVA orDiscovery Channel kind of thing. I'll try to describe it for you.You will have to try to visualize it. I wrote the script, and thenturned it over to a professional screenwriter. The animation hasbeen done, and the film is in final editing. I am supposed toreview the final cut this week. I think it will be ready when thetrial comes up."

Candice described the movie [included here asan appendix] to me in detail and then said. "What do youthink?"

I replied, "I think that is an elegantexplanation of an esoteric subject, quite suitable for asophisticated audience like those that watch NOVA or the DiscoveryChannel. I understood it fully because I have had a lot ofmathematics. I am sure that many of today’s high school studentswould understand it. But, it might send a jury, particularly thosewho 'hate math,' into a spin of confusion."

"The jury doesn't need to care about orunderstand those mathematics. They do need to know that a valid,scientific, paradigm exists for the many kinds of informationshortcuts we use and observe. I could submit the movie as evidenceand have you testify that the theory presented by the movie isvalid. Maybe one of the jurors will understand the movie andconvince the rest of the jury it is OK."

Candice said, "Maybe we should 'cut to thechase,' explain what it all means. Let's try this. Infour–dimensional reality, if Bob is in New York and his wife,Alice, is in San Francisco, we could calculate their separation,using their GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, to be about2,500 miles. Their information distance isnot the same. If Bob dialed Alice on her cell phone,they would only be separated by the time it took their voices totravel through the telephone network, a fraction of asecond.

"In Minkowski'seight–dimensional space, if Bob is in New York andAlice is in San Francisco, they are still separated by about 2,500miles. However, there is a shortcut through those eight dimensionsthat is zero miles formind-to-mind communication. If Bob sends thoughts of love to Alice,because of their bond she can instantaneously get them. They don'tneed to use the cellphone.

"We all have something I call the'Magic Mirror of The Mind,'that operates through the