Evariste Ryba was a mathematician and a genius savant. He loved numbers and for him, mathematics had an almost emotional attachment. He cared for numbers in the same way that a poet might humanize a tree or a river. His world only made sense with numbers. He would often say that numbers are his friends. Everyone calls him “Fish” because he once told his school class that Ryba meant fish in Czech and his family originated from the Czech Republic. He had amazing timekeeping skills, and he instinctively knows the exact hour, minute and second of a day at all times. Naturally, Fish doesn’t own or wear a watch. Shy and intense, Fish had very few friends and prefers his books and his computers to people.
But today he was waiting for the one friend he does have, Nathan Carpenter. He was working at his desk in his laboratory at the ACASTOR Center. The American Center for Advanced Scientific and Technological Research. The Center approached Fish whilst he was still at school and offered him a position at their research center. He was 16 years old when he started work there and has never worked anywhere else. It is the one place where Fish feels totally at home and comfortable. But today he needs his friend to help him with a pioneering experiment that could revolutionize the world. He has known Nathan since Kindergarten school and to this day Nathan remains his only true friend. He was present at his friends’ birthday parties throughout the years, and today he had asked Nathan to bring along his DVD from his 10th Birthday Party.
The intercom buzzed, and he lifted the receiver, “Professor Ryba, your guest has arrived” The nameless voice from the front office waited for a reply. “Please escort him to my office, thank you” …. Less than 3 minutes later, Nathan walked through the door.
“Why good morning Professor Ryba, Am I early or late?”
“You are 4 minutes and 35 seconds late” came the humorless reply. Even though they were best friends, there was no back-slapping or hugging. Fish was not keen on any tactile habits, and after all these years, Nathan understood his friend and his unconventional ways.
“Did you bring your DVD?” he asked.
“Yes, I did, but I must confess to being completely perplexed as to why you want it”. He handed the DVD to Fish, who took it over to the DVD player.
“In good time, In good time” … The monitor lit up, and the home movie started to play. It was a simple birthday party for a young boy and a few friends. On the Kitchen table sat a big cake with 10 candles, and the children and adults present were singing “Happy Birthday”. The 10-year-old Nathan blew out the candles and beamed at the camera. Fish stopped the DVD.
“This was April 15th, 2004 correct?”….
“Yes, you know it was. It was my 10th birthday party”
Fish sat at his computer and started to type away on his keyboard. Nathan sat down in the spare chair and watched as numbers and equations flashed across the screen in what appeared to be indiscriminate and random sequences. It was mesmerizing to watch his friend working so fast with numbers that any ordinary human would find impossible to assimilate. It took a full 10 minutes before Fish stopped working and wrote down a figure on a notepad.
“4,46pm and 30 seconds precisely”. Nathan looked up,
“What do you mean?”.
“That was the precise time you blew out your candles. 4,46pm and 30 seconds on April 15th 2004”. Nathan looked at his friend,
“How can you be so sure? How can you be THAT accurate?” Fish contemplated his friend,
“Accuracy and precision are different aspects related to obtaining a correct measurement. Accuracy is related to how close to the real value a particular measurement is. Precision is how small a difference can be resolved and how repeatable a measurement is. I am never accurate. I am always precise.” Fish turned off the DVD player and stood up.
“Accuracy is not enough when Precision is essential, This needs absolute precision, or it won’t work”. Nathan never pretended to truly understand his friend, but was amazed at how he could work out the exact timing of an event to the second.
“OK, so how do you do it so ……. precisely?. there was a deliberate pause and an exaggerated pronunciation of the last word. Fish thought about the best way to explain to his friend without using terminology that would be incomprehensible.
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“Have you heard of Exif Data?” … Nathan shook his head,
“Details about when, where, and how a photo or video was taken are captured automatically and stored as Exchangeable Image File Format data. Information on everything from exposure settings to altitude may be included. And the Exif data travels with the photo or video. I just used something similar to that, added a few minor mathematical sequences and came up with a precise time, which I believe is accurate AND precise” The room went silent as Nathan tried to digest this information,
“OK, but why do you need to know the exact time I blew out the candles on my birthday cake, almost 18 years ago”?
Fish walked to the door,
“Follow me”. They walked into an adjacent room and Fish made his way to a large white aquarium sitting on a laboratory table. The aquarium had a secure mesh top and inside the aquarium were an array of small boxes, toy ladders propped against the sides and a couple of toys. The floor was covered with several inches of Aspen shavings, and there was a drinking tube attached to the side full of water. Nathan counted six white mice in total. Each mouse had a number painted on its back in bright blue ink. Number 3 was drinking water and Number 5 and 6 seemed to be sleeping.
“Pick a Number between 1 and 8,” said Fish, “But not 1 or 6, we don’t use those numbers”. Nathan felt baffled and had no idea where this was going,
“You’re not going to hurt them, are you”? Fish looked astonished,
“Of course not”.
“OK number 3”. Fish reached into the aquarium and gently pulled out number 3. He handled the little rodent with care and almost affection, which was strange for Nathan to see, as Fish never usually showed any emotion.
They returned to the lab and Fish opened the huge steel door to the connecting room, which was completely white and had a simple circle on the floor about 24” in diameter and with white laminate walls about 10” high. He carefully placed number 3 inside the white circle. Protruding from the ceiling was a huge silver jointed arm which resembled something you might see in a hospital radiotherapy department. They returned to the computers and switched on a monitor. It showed the little mouse with the bright blue number 3 in the white circle quite clearly. Fish locked the laboratory door and switched on the red “DO NOT ENTER” sign that told any would-be visitor to stay away. He sat down and started working on the keyboard again.
Nathan started to feel a little nervous,
“What are you going to do Fish?”…. But there was no reaction from Fish as he tapped away on the keyboard. He stopped typing and stood up to get two sets of goggles from a drawer, handing one to Nathan and placing one over his own face.
“Keep these on at all times,” he said, and then went back to work.
Nathan felt the beginnings of a vibration and a noise emanating from the room behind the steel doors. He looked on the monitor and could see the hefty steel arm moving down from the ceiling and position itself over the white circle on the floor. Number 3 stood up on two hind legs and looked up at the movement above its head. Fish looked across at Nathan and nodded before flicking a clasp on his consul in front of him and pressing the red button that was now exposed.
A white flash radiated from the metallic arm, and Nathan felt compelled to look away. Then he heard the rumble of the mechanical arm as it lifted and repositioned itself once again high on the ceiling. Everything seemed normal as Fish turned the monitor towards Nathan.
“What do you see?” Nathan could see the room next door, and the camera focusing on the white circle in the center.
“I can’t see anything” he replied,
“I know you can’t,” said Fish. Nathan looked again, and he opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything. Number 3 mouse had completely vanished!
Nathan looked again, more to confirm to himself what he was or wasn’t seeing.
“Where has he gone?” Nathan was trying hard to interpret what he was looking at. No mouse! The white circle on the floor was completely empty, but the sides were too high for the mouse to escape. He just couldn’t fathom it. Fish reached across and turned on the DVD player. The TV monitor lit up, and the birthday party started to play one more time.
“Watch again and tell me if you notice anything different”. Nathan moved closer to the screen, but nothing had changed. The cake was there, the children started to sing happy birthday. He could see his Mum and his Dad, his Aunty Maureen, and 10-year-old Fish with his big glasses palpably silent watching everyone else sing, nothing had changed. The singing stopped, and he heard his Mum telling him to blow and make a wish. The 10-year-old Nathan blew and Fish pressed pause and froze the picture. He inspected the still image for a few seconds and then lent back in his chair and looked at Nathan.
“Well?”…
Well, what? I don’t understand, what am I looking for?” Nathan scrutinized the still image frozen on the screen., not knowing what he was looking for. It was beginning to frustrate him when he jolted back in his chair in complete astonishment. He looked twice and stared again, unable to really grasp what his eyes were revealing. He glanced at his friend, who simply nodded. Fish pressed play and a tiny white rodent scuttled across the room and disappeared. A big blue number was painted on its back. Mouse number 3 was perfectly visible in the video taken 18 years ago.