Chapter 43: It Works Better in the Movies

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

I woke and we all immediately thought, <Yay, we get married tomorrow!>

After a few seconds of celebrating that imminent event, we became aware that it was raining. Only dummies go running in the rain for fun, so all I had to do was let Donna know it was off, then I could snuggle back into my bed.

#1: <If we applied ourselves to it, we might be able to get even better at running. Maybe increase our optimal speed, and maybe our sprint speed too. We might get very good at other athletic activities too, like weightlifting, swimming, or whatever. At the moment we're just accepting what our body can do without trying to increase it. We're trying to strengthen our TK by pushing against walls all the time, but we don't develop our body.>

#4: <Why would picking up big weights and putting them down again be any use to us?>

#1: <I'm just saying that we're not trying to get better at physical things. We might be able to do some of those extraordinarily well.>

#3: <I don't really want the attention that getting good at any of those things could bring. Not to mention all the competitive crap and macho bullshit that jocks get into.>

#2: <If we push ourselves in any way, I'd rather it was in mental things like TK, and even that I don't care about much with our marriage happening soon. That's far more exciting to think about than some jock-type activity.>

#1: <I'm not going to argue with that!>

I went and knocked very lightly on the girls' door. Donna opened it for me, and I whispered, "I don't want to run in the rain. Another day, okay?" Donna just nodded, so I turned and headed back toward my room.

To my surprise Donna followed me. When I paused in the hallway, she motioned for me to continue.

Once in my room, she shut the door, and quietly said, "Mom was asking questions last night about how we're getting along with you and Julia. She was nosey, but I didn't tell her anything about you and Carol. I hardly ever see Julia so I couldn't say much about her. I said that you were the best brother ever and Carol's the best sister."

"Thanks very much, Donna. That's very good of you. I could get into lots of trouble if Mom and Dad knew what I'd been doing to Carol."

"Yeah, I know. But it's silly to get in trouble for making her so happy. And you're not doing anything TO Carol, you're doing it FOR her. She keeps telling me what a great brother you are for making her feel so good and for sharing your girlfriend with her. She feels really sad for you that she can spend the night with Julia but you can't. It's not fair that she gets so much and you get so little."

#4: <I haven't noticed that we've been getting "so little" recently! I agree it's a bummer we can't have sleepovers with Julia, but other than that everything's fantastic. We've got two girls who let us do anything we want to them. How could it get any better?>

#2: <Does Donna know that Carol and Julia are going to have sex? It almost sounds like she does know, but I'm too scared to ask.>

#4: <Let's not ask until after the wedding. We don't want to do or say anything that could cause trouble before then.>

#1: <Agreed.>

"I enjoy what I do 'for' Carol. You're right that I do a lot of it to make her happy, but I HUGELY enjoy myself too. But regardless, thank you very much for keeping it quiet. I appreciate it very much. I'm sure Carol does too."

"Can I ask something else?"

"Of course."

"I was going to ask you on our run, but you are definitely going to win on Saturday, aren't you? I want you to win."

If I'd had any uncertainty, that would've removed them all. "Sweetie, if you want me to win, then I definitely will. I'll make sure of it for you. I owe you a LOT!"

Donna wanted more certainty, "I don't just mean that you'll try your best to win, to humor me or whatever. I want to know whether you'll really, truly win?"

"I timed myself at school and I'm very confident that I can win. The only way I could lose is if I got tripped and was too badly injured to continue, or something like that. That's not likely because I'm graceful on my feet, that being my middle name, remember?"

"What was your time?"

I should've expected Donna to ask that. When I'd been doing my time trials at school I hadn't actually timed a 10k distance, but I'd run for longer than the race would take so I knew my body could hold the optimal running rate at least that long. I could give her my calculated 10k time but I didn't want to tell her a time that was less than the world record, so I just said, "Just take it from me that I'm confident that I can win."

"I know you're a great runner but you haven't done ANY training! If I hadn't seen you running I wouldn't believe you, but you never boast. Are you REALLY sure? There's going to be some VERY good runners in the race."

"They won't be as good as me. I'll make sure I win for you."

"Okay, please make sure you do."

"For you, sweetie, I guarantee it. You've been wonderful to me recently, so I'll do my best and that's easily good enough."

She gave me a kiss on the cheek then went back to her room.

#4: <She's very eager for us to win, isn't she?>

#1: <Not surprising really. She found the race for us and she's very proud of us, I think it just naturally flows from that. We were intending to win anyway, but now we are going to make absolutely sure of it.>

#2: <Damned right! To change the subject, I'm a bit worried about Mom. Is she suspicious about anything we don't want her to be suspicious about?>

#4: <Nothing's changed since our discussing it last night.>

#2: <Okay. What's our strategy for Donna's race? How are we going to run it?>

#1: <I'd been thinking of staying just ahead of the fastest runner the whole race, but that's not ideal if they run erratic rates. If they run slow at the beginning and fast at the end, we might get left behind in the last stages. Or if they run fast at the beginning we might get tired. Because of Donna, I suggest we just stick to our optimal speed the whole time. We know no one can beat that, even though some fast starters might be ahead for a while at the beginning. If we're getting near the finish line and we're well ahead, we can slow down to avoid looking too freaky, but I want to make damned sure we win for Donna.>

#2, #4: <Agreed.>

I went back to bed, but wasn't tired so I didn't fall back sleep. We could have ordered ourselves to sleep, but it was more enjoyable to spend the time daydreaming.

After some VERY pleasant daydreams/fantasies, #1 commented, #1: <Let's have another TK experimentation session. We've got time for one now. I want to try bringing things to us, like pencils or whatever. Whenever you see TK in a movie they always pick up a pen or pencil. Let's try that.>

I could see our desk across the room, with a pen lying on it. The pen weighed far less than 3.5 pounds, so one mind created two fingers which pinched it. I saw the pen move a fraction, and felt I had a good grip. I commanded it to lift, which resulted in my two TK-fingertips flying up in the air, leaving the pen wobbling on the desk.

#1: <It works better than that in the movies.>

#2: <It's the same a pinching the hem of a skirt and then lifting it. It doesn't work if we stop the pinching action.>

I moved the two fingertips back to the pen and gripped it again. I tried a slightly different solution this time. We didn't want to use other fingertips to push with because that used up our practical maximum of twelve fingertips too quickly (sixteen was our true maximum, but the mind on duty could only do very simple things without losing center). We wanted to lift the pen by vectoring the push, as that'd be more efficient, so I pinched the pen again, then changed the direction the fingertips pushed so each of them was pushing toward the other, but also forty five degrees upward from the desk; half holding the pen, half raising it.

It almost worked. The end of the pen I was holding rose, but as more of it cleared the desk, it swiveled in my grip and fell out.

I tried yet again, this time holding the pen as close to the center as possible, so it wouldn't swivel. That worked, and the pen slowly moved upward. When it was several inches high I wanted to stop its rising, so I reduced the force both fingertips were pushing with. The pen fell through my fingertips, dropping to the desk.

#1: <We can't reduce our force because it gets too weak to grip the pen. We have to keep pressing inward. When it's high enough, rotate the forty five-degree vector back to horizontal.>

That made sense, so we did it again. When the pen was high enough we maintained our force, but rotated the vector of the push around to zero degrees. The pen fell to the desk again.

#4: <It works better than that in the movies.>

#2: <Yes, I think we're all in agreement on that. Why did it fall this time?>

#1: <With no upward vector we can't overcome gravity. Did you notice that when it fell that time we didn't lose our grip? We held our pinch as our eyes followed the pen downward. We need to keep a slight upward vector, depending on the weight of the object and the pressure of our TK-push.>

#4: <This is rather complicated, isn't it? I can just imagine the pen bobbing up and down in the air for however long it takes to get to the correct upward vector. Hardly a cool look. And the moment we pick up an object of another weight, we have the same problem all over again. Are we going to have to carry a scientific calculator and a set of scales around with us?>

Nonetheless we tried again. When the pen was about a foot off the desk we started rotating our angle back toward horizontal. The pen's upward motion slowed, then it started dropping, so we increased the angle until it started rising again. That meant we had to reduce the angle, etc., etc. Eventually we had it almost stationary. It was rising very slowly, but when we reduced the angle, the pen slowly fell. Our control was not fine enough.

The obvious next step was to 'float' it to me, so I moved the fingers toward me. Immediately the pen fell to the desk again.

#4: <We're impressive aren't we? We could have manually carried the pen back and forth fifty times in the time we've taken so far.>

Again the problem was obvious. We were holding the pen in the air with a pinch of two fingertips pressed toward each other. The moment we moved both the fingertips in the same direction (toward us) there was not enough pinch pressure to hold the pen, so it fell out of our grip.

#4: <I understand that, but I'm also confused about one thing. When we pick up a pen with our real hand, we can move it around freely. It doesn't fall out of our grip unless we let go. How come this doesn't work that way?>

#1: <When we pick up a pen with our real hand, our fingers do nothing except grip; it's our arm that moves the pen around, by moving the hand around, which moves the still-gripping-fingers, which moves the pen. Sounds silly, but that's what we do in reality. But we don't have a TK-arm, just fingertips. I was visualizing what we were doing as holding the pen between our thumb and forefinger, the same as we'd do if we picked it up with our real hand, but I think that's the wrong way to visualize it because the two TK-fingertips aren't part of the same hand, as there's nothing connecting them. It's better to think of them as two fingertips from two DIFFERENT hands. They'd have to cooperate very carefully, which is what we've noticed.>

#4: <I like the movie version better. This is hard!>

#1: <Yeah. Even worse for us because our maximum force is so tiny, only half of 3.5 pounds as we're creating the fingertips with one mind. We could try using two minds, to have two fingertips of 3.5 pounds each, but then we'd have even worse coordination problems.>

#2: <We're having more than enough trouble as it is.>

#1: <That's for sure. When we want to do horizontal movement, it's no good to have both fingertips moving toward us, as the relaxation of pressure lets the pen fall. What we need to do is have the fingertip closest to us continue to press outward - toward the pen - at say half a pound of pressure, and the far fingertip press inward - again toward the pen but also toward us - at one pound, so the whole assembly will move toward us at whatever speed the net half pound of pressure makes.>

So we tried that. We got the pen about a foot above the desk, and then reduced the upward vector so it was held reasonably stationary. But then we noticed that the 'outside' finger (the one farther away from us, the one that had to push the pen toward us) was not aimed directly at us. If it pushed, the pen would miss us by a couple of feet. So we had to do a careful swivel to get to two fingertips on the right line. Swiveling was tricky, requiring another fingertip to push on one end of the pen while the two gripping fingertips maintained their grip. To our considerable surprise we managed this without dropping the pen.

Then we made the outside gripping fingertip push harder, while maintaining the same pressure against the pen with the inward one. The pen started moving toward us but rising too.

#1: <Of course. The upward vector is stronger too. The outward fingertip has to flatten its vector closer to zero degrees.>

We all knew this meant more struggling to find the best angle. When we tried that, the pen fell to the floor. I got up and put it back on the desk.

We tried again, successfully managing to get it moving toward us again although still rising. We even got the outside fingertip at the right angle to zero the pen's vertical velocity without dropping it, although there was a great deal of bobbing up and down involved. When we finally got the pen vertically stationary, it was moving horizontally faster than the slow speed we were comfortable with, so we tried to slow the horizontal movement, instantly resulting in the pen falling to the floor again.

#4: <I think we actually managed to get it a couple of feet toward us before we dropped it this time. Impressive, aren't we?>

#2: <I dropped the pen because I accidentally tried to move both fingertips backward, rather than just push with the inner one. This is going to take some getting used to.>

#1: <It's even worse than that. I just realized that the sideways pushing ACCELERATES the pen. We need to carefully decelerate it to stop it. Good old Newton. We need to exert a constant force to hold the pen stationary vertically because of gravity, but we need to exert no force at all and cancel any existing movement to make it stationary horizontally. I think I feel a headache coming on!>

#4: <This is too complex. I think I have a better idea, or at least something worth trying. When they take a boat out of the water to work on it, the hold it in two V-shaped supports. The boat isn't clamped in, or pinched like we do, it just rests in the V's. It'd be great if we could create a fingertip with a concave shape or notch, but they're nowhere near that adaptable. It takes more fingertips, but I think if we create four of them, pair them up to create two V's, so the bottom edges of two fingertips are touching but the top is open, then I think we can lift the pen much easier. Let me show you what I mean.>

We can all sense each other's fingertips, just as we share every other sense. Although we can each control the shared body, we cannot control each other's fingertips. We can't even tell who owns each fingertip, other than each mind knowing which fingertips it created. We guessed the mutual ignorance was because the creation and control of fingertips is purely a 'mind' function, rather than a brain or body function.

#4 created the four vertically oriented fingertips, one pair at each end of the pen, with each member of a pair on opposite sides of the pen. He angled them inward and brought each pair together to touch their bottom edges, which pushed the pen up a fraction, until it was nicely nestled in the two V's.

#4: <Provided I keep the bottom edges touching, which takes a little bit of force, but only a little, then the pen cannot fall through. That and keep the two pairs roughly level with each other, so the pen doesn't slide out lengthwise. Simple eh? I figure that if I push upward now, keeping just a little inward pressure to hold the bottom edges together, that should work easily.>

We all sensed the fingertips move, and they smoothly did what he'd predicted. Even better, when he got it about a foot of the table, the pen stopped still. It did not bobble up and down for a minute or two like it always had previously.

#1: <How could you stop it so precisely?>

#4: <I just ordered my fingertips to stop where they are. The only force that I'm having to think about is the inward pressing force, to keep their bottom edges together. I know I'm also having to push upward because of the weight of the pen, but it's almost literally thoughtless. I'd guess it's automatic because we are so used to holding variously weighted things stationary with our real hands that our brain already has all the necessary algorithms in place. Rather than trying to constantly adjust angles and forces like we were before, which caused bobbing because our brains don't have practiced algorithms for that, I just think "hold it stationary" and it works.>

#1: <Another advantage of #4's technique is that we had to pinch inward quite hard before, to get enough friction to stop the pen sliding through. With this idea we don't need any friction at all, as the pen is resting on our fingertips. Thus we've got more TK force left for upward pushing, and we can manage very slippery items easier too. That's a good technique, #4.>

#4: <I got another good idea too, also from thinking about boats. Boat trailers also look like two V's, and when people want to move a boat on a trailer they don't push on a V, they attach a car and tow it. We can't tow, but we can push, so why don't I just hold the pen up this way, and someone else pushes it. As the pen moves sideways, I'll see and feel the pen moving, and keep my V's under it. It shouldn't be hard because I'll sense where your fingertip is and know what direction you're pushing in.>

#2 formed a finger, and pushed. Because the pen was light and #4 wasn't exerting any sideways net force on it, #2's push on the barrel was easily able to move it.

#4: <I can feel the pen trying to spin a bit. You mustn't be pushing on the center. I can stop the spin with my grips just by thinking about holding the two V's in constant position relative to each other. It's not too hard. If there was lots of spin I might not be able to though, as I don't think I have much spare force left.>

#1: <Try pushing with two fingers #2, on either side of the center, and don't let one finger get ahead of the other, that should stop producing spin, although by reducing our maximum acceleration.>

We tried #1's suggestion, and it worked pretty well. The pen had acquired a reasonable horizontal speed now, and was soon within reach. I raised a real, physical hand, and plucked it out of the air. Success at long last!

[The preceding paragraphs mention a concept that became essential to my use of TK, so I'll explain it. Flying things around required very accurate "flying in formation" by all the TK-fingertips involved. Fortunately I had some degree of skill at that. Hold your two hands out in front of you with just your index fingers extended, so they're held beside each other and about two inches apart. Now write your name in the air, trying to move both fingers in perfect synchronization. Their relative distances will wobble around somewhat, but not excessively, especially if you write very slowly and carefully. Now imagine the pen is being pushed slightly off-center. That would normally cause it to rotate, but the mind that was providing the two V's would be concentrating on keeping them at the right distance and orientation, which canceled out the slow rotation. If he tried to cancel the rotation by deliberately pushing against it, he'd cause erratic movements, but by concentrating solely on keeping formation, small corrections were applied subconsciously. Similarly if the pen was being pushed by two fingertips. The owner of those would concentrate on keeping them in deliberate formation, which prevented any rotation. Concentrating on staying in formation rather than applying specific forces made flying things around MUCH easier. Our current TK movements were VERY slow and deliberate, but as we got more skilled at "flying in formation" - that being another algorithm our brain had quite a lot of practice at - our movements sped up.]

After a moment to congratulate ourselves, we used TK to send the pen back up and experimented some more. For example, we found it was a good idea for the mind holding the pen up to rotate it around so the pen was pointing sideways to the intended direction, that way the pushing mind's fingertips had no risk of sliding off the pen.

Cornering was another problem. Ideally it would've been a matter of the mind holding up the pen rotating it by ninety degrees, then the pushing mind resuming his push in the new direction, but unfortunately this didn't stop the pen's motion in the original direction. Its velocity in that direction would remain unchanged until it crashed into the wall, as the two V's holding the pen up weren't exerting any net horizontal force, and were letting the pen push them around horizontally.

The intellectually simplest way was to decelerate the pen in the original direction until it was as near to motionless as made no difference, then rotate the pen ninety degrees and start accelerating it in the new direction. That was hardly impressive and very slow. So much for our fantasy of making the pen zoom all around the room.

The best we could do was to rotate the pen forty five degrees, to be halfway between the old and new directions, then push perpendicularly into the pen until the original direction was completely canceled. Then rotate the pen so it was side-on to the desired direction and apply whatever pushing was then required. We could do it, but it was very tricky, detailed, and demanded a very high level of concentration to keep everything working properly. The slightest mistake usually resulted in the pen being dropped. We made a mental note not to do this with Mom's best china. We practiced it by flying the pen around the room for several minutes. It was doable, but hard work and not impressive.