Chapter 3

Ring... Ring... "Hello?"

"Hello, is this the great Dr. Hamm?"

"Ah, Et tu, Brute? Or should I say, and you too Amy? Hi! How are you?"

"Hi! I'm fine. Christmas was wonderful here in New York, and I loved meeting my roommate's family. How are you? Except for me, is the nickel all together?"

"I'm fine, and yes, everyone is here. Our honorary family's newest member is here too. Sarah and Bill brought Benjamin over yesterday! He's so adorable! Just wait till you see him! And it'll be so nice to see you again too, Amy."

"Oh, I feel the same! I'll be leaving for the airport in about an hour... Laura, I think I have one of your biggest fan club members here with me. He's graduating MIT this year. You might even have seen his grad student applications to Cal Tech and Princeton, I'm sure you're on both review committees, right? Anyway, his name is David. I promised to let him say hello. Let me put you on the speakerphone. Here he is!"

"... Uh... Hello? Dr. Hamm?"

"Hello David! It's very nice to meet you. Amy tells me you're applying to both Cal Tech and Princeton. Both faculties will begin to review the grad student applications in January. I haven't seen any of them yet. Are you thinking of the physics departments?"

"Uh... Yes, that's right. Actually, Dr. Hamm, you might have already read a paper I published in Quantum Interface Today last summer. It outlines how to use n-gram multi- wave-function entanglement to theoretically set up a new type of quantum interface instability. I left it as a puzzle to the readers as to why such a phenomenon should be called a chatterbox resonance. Have you read my paper?... Hello?... Dr. Hamm?"

"My gosh... My gosh... David and Amy, is there anyone else there that can hear this conversation?"

"What?! No, not now Laura, but the rest of David's family will be back within a half hour. Why in the world do you ask?"

"David, I know who you are now. It's a great pleasure for me to meet you. I can't wait until we can start working together in the fall. In the summer if you can come then."

"Well, I haven't been accepted yet."

"David, you're forgetting whom you're talking to..."

"What? Oh. OH! YO! This is fabulous! What a Christmas present! Thank you, thank you Dr. Hamm!"

"Laura, my question is still pending..."

"I know Amy. Cloak-and-dagger stuff is usually so absurd in pure science, but this is an exception. Trust me Amy?"

"Okay. I do trust you. I'll leave the house too if you want to talk only to David."

"Hmmm. No, I return the trust. You can stay Amy. I've mentioned this to Jill too. I need people to help me check my moral compass, just as everyone else does. I value your insight and character, but tell absolutely no one else. Most of the physics of this conversation might escape you, but perhaps you'll see the moral issues involved, depending how this conversation evolves... David, may I ask you, do you have any new publications in the pipeline?"

"Oh yes, a whole basketful of them!"

"Oh dear. Are any already submitted for review?"

"Oh dear? Uh, no. Doing the theoretical work itself is a lot more fun than writing it up for publication. For some reason that's beyond me, the whole quantum community seems to be missing the main point of the experimental interface exploration, to create consciousness in the lab. I'm not worried about being scooped. All the papers being published are heading in other directions. I don't think any of them will lead to the main issues. I intentionally used the common and incorrect formalism in my paper to show how bad it is, and left a clue with the name chatterbox to point to the right direction. It'll all be made clear in my next paper. I'm just about to submit it."