Ian

Ch 02 - Ian

Dr. Ian Malcolm sat in his office looking at his talons. He was deep in thought. Dr. Malcolm was the preeminent mathematical expert in all of dinopodia. His work in base eight to match the biologic urge to count talon by talon was widely quoted as opening up a new line of mathematics. He sat and looked at his complex mathematical text of differential equations. He said, “There must be something underpinning this all if I can just simplify.” His brow wrinkled from his increased concentration on pure mathematics. Divorced from reality, his lizard brain searched for answers that seemed just at his talontips.

Gabby, his teaching assistant said, “You’re getting closer and closer each year, Dr. Malcolm.”

Ian’s concentration was broken and he returned to Dinoterra from the clouds. He teased Gabby, “How many times do I have to ask you to call me Ian, Gabby. Dr. Malcolm was my father. He’s a great guy that introduced himself a few years back. He’s planning on marrying my mother in a couple years evidently and they’ll both be there when I’m ready to become an egg again.”

Gabby was too young and wrinkled and slow to have met her parents yet, “Man, I look forward to that day. What was it like for you, Doc – I mean Ian?”

Ian said, “It was amazing.” Ian reminisced about his past as a younger dpod. He had always wondered what his mother would be like. As a child, he’d look at his rheumy eyes in the mirror and stare back at his wrinkled, saggy countenance. He’d wondered if his mother would have eyes like him or maybe it was his mouth that would attract her. It would be decades before he’d get the fateful call almost every dinopod hears — late in life, but not too late.

Ian had once met a sad man who was actually a boy. Completely looked as if he was only years away from finding a place to curl up and egg himself. It was a tragic tale. The entire family just emerged together out of a tar pit. The children had very short lives ahead, but their parents tried to make the best out of a horrible situation.

Ian was fortunate. He had pulled himself from the ground and was very decomposed at the beginning. He was healthy and should live a complete life without some horrible accident.

Ian relayed his story to Gabby, “I got the call and there he was. He had pulled himself out of the dirt and spent some time just recomposing himself on the bare ground while the sun and nature built his body up. He’s very wrinkled and can barely walk right now, but he’s getting a bit stronger each day.”

Gabby smiled. That was exactly how she hoped to meet her folks. Ideally as close together as possible as it was great to be a full family for as long as you can manage it. Most families fall apart near the end. That’s just how it goes after so long together.

Gabby changed the subject, “Are you any closer to finding the one math?”

Ian walked over to Gabby and wrote two strange symbols on the board. One was a horizontal line and the other was similar but the horizontal line was bisected by a vertical line. He started a small lecture for Gabby alone, “All of math seems to be pointing towards this pair. A cosmic pair that binds not only math but all of us. I call them ‘addition’ and ‘subtraction’.”

Gabby cocked her head and her frills popped open a bit, “Addition and subtraction? I’m not following? Is this a matrix transform or an eigenvector?”

Ian laughed, “No. Far more simple. Let me show you.”

Ian took a raw meat bar that he’d been saving for his lunch. His sharp teeth snapped at the raw meat, but he kept himself under control as he carefully sliced the bar into two.

Ian explained, “These are two things. This is the hardest part of the mathematics here. Someone has to classify the world into similar things. Our brains do this but we do not understand why. Once your brain has decided that there is a thing in a classification, then you can, and here’s the magic, ‘add one’ or ‘subtract one’.”

Gabby was still confused, “This doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen? How can this one idea underpin all math? It’s not possible?”

Ian continued, “It sounds too simple. I know how counterintuitive it all is given all of our focus on the higher order math we learn as children, but this one concept, and how it all connects is my life’s work.”

Gabby admired the focus and asked, “Which symbol on the board means which idea, Dr. Mal… I mean Ian!”

Ian looked at her and said, “Can’t you figure it out?”

Gabby looked hard and noted, “Oh, the addition has something more, another line. That’s addition; the two lines. So the other, the single line, must be subtraction, its mate.”

Ian laughed again and said, “Exactly right. All my research is pointing to this. We just need to keep throwing away the layers of abstraction until we get to the truth.”

Suddenly, before Ian could explain further, the phone rang.