“Obviously,” Bob said, “Anna can’t be defying the laws of physics. It’s not like the laws of New Jersey.”
“So what’s an alternate explanation?” Jill asked.
“Maybe,” Alec said, “it’s just an illusion — some sort of hypnosis.”
“It seems to me,” Jill said, “that if Anna can mess with our brains, it wouldn’t be beyond her to mess with a microwave oven.”
“It’s nice to know we’re smarter than a microwave oven,” Bob said.
“Look,” said Jill, “it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“Oh I see,” Alec said. “That’s very clever.”
“Wait,” Bob looked at his two students. “What am I missing?”
“Well,” Jill said, “whatever epistemology we use here, we reach the same conclusion. Anna is able to communicate with us. Even if we hypothesize that she’s doing it through illusion, we are all experiencing the same illusion.”
“Which means,” Alec said, looking at her admiringly, “that it doesn’t matter. The communication itself is real, whatever the mechanism of transmission.”
Jill felt quite pleased with herself. “Let’s test it! Bob, I’m borrowing your laptop.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Bob protested. “The wifi isn’t secure.”
“Who needs wifi? Look, I’m switching it off. Now we’re not on the network at all. Can’t get more undetectable than that.”
“But what’s the point,” Bob was thoroughly confused.
Jill opened a terminal window.
“You two realize this is completely crazy.”
Alec laughed. “They said Nicola Tesla was crazy.”
Bob shook his head. “Nicola Tesla was crazy.”
Jill was typing now. “Hello Anna.”
The reply came back immediately. "Hello Jill."
What about a pocket calculator! Digital watch! Computer monitor just plugged into a wall! Surely Anna has her limits somewhere. We gotta find them! 🙂
This is pretty fun stuff. What happens when Hollywood science happens to real scientists? They figure out how it’s not really Hollywood science after all! I bet these guys could rationalize a pink unicorn strolling in, or some tablets of stone appearing with rules for a moral life.