Much to his surprise, Sean had spent most of his time chatting with the young women who were modeling as Disney princesses. Apparently most of them were college students with useful advice on application forms and sources of scholarship funding. Sean had attracted odd looks from the other kids, but who cared about them anyway.
"...and that's how I ended up at Ellis Island, as a five year old clutching my mother's hand," finished Priscilla, as Sean nodded fascinated. Judith's maternal grandmother was a sprightly old woman with snow white hair, who had obviously passed on her striking looks to Susan and Judith. At first he had listened to her ramblings simply out of politeness, but had gradually grown enthralled with stories of her childhood.
They were standing near a group by the French doors, when the doors opened to admit Judith's dad. Richard Fuller was of medium build with luxuriant brown hair greying at the edges, narrow downturned eyes that constantly darted around missing nothing. He was wearing a blazer with the Fuller Dynamics logo and looked utterly bored, the very image of a New England aristocrat who traced his roots to the Mayflower. He stopped by Susan, who smiled and turned to receive a peck on the cheek from her husband. Richard's eyes were always smiling, though his mouth never did, in mirrored contrast to his wife who never smiled with her eyes.
"Awesome party, sir," the tall atheletic-looking boy spoke earnestly, pumping Richard's hand, "and may I congratulate you on such a brilliant beautiful daughter? Her passion and sense of mission is matched only by my own."
Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you, Romeo, Sean rolled his eyes. Sean recognized him as an heir to Gibbs & Gibbs, another industrial heavyweight in the region. He was the oldest kid present, the only high school senior among Judith's circle. He'd styled his hair like waves frozen and sported a sweater monogrammed with the initials RG.
"Well... I might take some credit for Judith's looks," Richard snorted in amusement, "but not her brains I'm afraid. That would be my wife, who comes with beauty and brains, the full package."
"Hear, hear," Priscilla raised her glass, smiling proudly at Susan who murmured protest, "no, no, he's right you know. With all due respect to Richard who's quite a savvy businessman, my baby girl is the smarter half with a strong head for finance. Smart women are atleast a little bit smarter than the man they marry. It's kind of a universal truth."
"Hmm... now that you mention it, Priscilla," mused Richard thoughtfully, "that is true for a lot of smart women we know. I wonder if its because intelligent women attract a certain type of man..."
"Obvious enough, I should think, sir," smiled Romeo (as Sean had mentally tagged him), "Most so-called smart men are intimidated by lovely women who are also smart to boot. It takes a real man to win a woman as special as Mrs. Fuller here."
The toadying is strong in this one, Sean grinned sardonically, "It doesn't imply anything of the sort."
"Huh?" Romeo glared at him, while Richard raised an eyebrow. Susan studied him coolly.
"Smartness isn't perfectly correlated between spouses," elborated Sean, "that is, if you plotted the IQs of say, two couples on a graph, with the husbands' IQ on the x-axis and wives' IQ on the y-axis, the two dots wouldn't fall exactly on a 45 degree slant, but on either side of it."
"That's obvious, since no marriage is based on a perfect IQ match," scowled Romeo, "What's your point?"
"So pick the smarter of the two women," Sean gestured impatiently, "her husband is obviously not quite as smart as her, since the dot representing that pair is above the 45 degree line. Then pick the other woman. Her husband would be smarter than her, since their dot is below the 45 degree line. If smart women marry men not as smart, then it is equally true to say that smart men marry women not as smart. The two statements are algebraically equivalent, given imperfect correlation. It sounds mysterious only..."
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"...if one statement is made without its counterpart," breathed Susan, with a far away look, "it's so simple once you think in terms of statistical distribution. Drat, I should have seen that."
Priscilla was looking at Sean in surprise, while the corners of Richard's mouth were upturned slightly.
"It's obvious," agreed Sean, "the world isn't what you see."
"What?" Susan blurted. Sean blinked. It wouldn't have been obvious to him, a few short weeks ago, before he started binge 'reading' books. But now, he had absorbed so many of them, the concepts were beginning to coalesce in his mind like butter seperating from milk.
"Sampling bias," Sean smiled at Susan, "we only see a small part of the whole at any time."
#
There was a speech. Despite his antipathy to speeches in principle, Sean found Judith's to be tolerable. In fact it was rather moving, he admitted to himself. Perhaps the delicious birthday cake had mellowed him a bit. Judith had given the usual thanks to her parents for their inspiration and guidance, then laid out her vision for uplifting humanity via biotech in an economically feasible manner. Profitable philanthropy. They were seated at a very long table with the rest of Judith's friends and family, except for Jason thankfully.
Elliot had taken position behind his master's chair. The manservant stood hulking before the assembled crowd, his arms crossed intimidatingly. A man and his flunky, thought Sean.
"...umbrella foundation to counter poaching of endangered animals in Africa," Romeo was droning on earnestly, "and the need has never been greater. For example, the black rhino population is down to a mere 4000, down from 65,000 in seventies. The African elephant..."
Sean frowned. Was Sean the only selfish jerk here with no other goal than to enrich himself? He shrugged, guessing it was easy enough to be a philanthropist if one were born rich. Romeo was winding up his impassioned speech on how he had plans and donors all lined up to hit the ground running as soon as he graduated from Yale which he implied would be lucky to have him.
"...so wonderful, Reg," gushed Judith, staring at the scion, "Donating aerial drones is brilliant..."
"Not enough," muttered Sean.
"Excuse me?" frowned Reg, "Do you have something to say?"
""I'm sorry, but your proposal won't work," Sean began apologetically, "The incentives aren't aligned for all the players. Sure, it may catch a few poachers, but it won't save those poor animals." Sean grimaced almost in physical pain. He loved animals, especially the large mammals.
"What?" Reg(or Romeo) demanded raising his voice, "Do you know how many NGOs have reviewed..."
"Look," Sean raised his hand placatingly, "I appreciate what you're trying to do... but throwing more tech at the problem won't help. Hasn't helped for the last thirty years. The poachers are better funded, more dedicated and better armed than law enforcement; and they're trying to feed their families. That's the incentive you're trying to combat. And the market can't self-correct to meet the demand, because the rhinos and elephants are dying which raises the price of horns and tusks, which makes it even more lucrative for the poachers."
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Reg asked sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Sean nodded, "Privatize the animals. The poachers want the animals? Give it to them. Turn the poachers into ranchers."
"You're insane," Reg looked outraged, "these are bad people."
"So what?" Sean raised an eyebrow, "Now they'll have every incentive to conserve and protect their precious animals. Each herd would become their personal goldmine, you see, since the horns and tusks regrow in a couple of years.They would never let those animals go exitinct. It isn't about good or bad. It's about what works, and this plan has a heck of a better chance of working than yours. Don't take my word for it. Ask an economist."
There was thoughtful silence at the table. Judith gaped at Sean. Her father chuckled, which he quickly turned into a cough. Susan looked at Sean with an appraising look, while Reg glared daggers at him.
"Amazing architecture, by the way," Sean commented glancing around the living room, "anyone care to give me a guided tour?"
"I'd love to," smiled Priscilla. Sean smiled back. Bingo.
END OF CHAPTER