The Experiment |1|

Author Notes

1. 11/11 là ngày Quốc tế Độc thân (do các bạn F.A. ở không rảnh rỗi tự nghĩ ra).
   
2. FB tràn ngập các post liên quan tới (1) nên nó nhớ tới một trong những quyển truyện yêu thích nhất mình từng đọc: “Nỗi cô đơn của các số nguyên tố (The Solitude of Prime Numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solitude_of_Prime_Numbers). Truyện vẫn hay hơn phim, nên khuyến cáo đọc truyện trước khi coi phim.
   
3. Vì nhớ tới cuốn truyện ở (2), ngẫm lại những quyển sách trong cuộc đời mình, đọc được một quyển sách hay đúng thời điểm âu cũng là duyên số. Cảm hứng viết lách cũng vậy.
   
4. Nghĩ tới viết lách ở (3) mà lòng buồn. Dạo này khả năng viết lách đang dần về âm vô cực. Chắc do dạo này xem nhiều hơn đọc.
   
5. Nhắc tới xem ở (4), nhớ tới đoạn clip khá dễ thương này https://vimeo.com/145154247 . Chắc phải nghiêm khắc hơn với bản thân, không dành thời gian quý báu coi nhiều thứ linh tinh nữa.
   
6. Nhắc tới thời gian ở (5) , dạo này không rảnh rỗi lắm, nhưng không muốn làm gì cả, mà vẫn phải làm vì lỡ hứa.
   
7. Có những chuyện vẫn phải ráng làm như (6) đã nói, điển hình là viết truyện làm quà (trả nợ). Cho chừa tội nhiều chuyện.
   
8. Sau 1 lúc lâu nhiều chuyện cùng cách với số (7) để ra tên nhân vật chính, cuối cùng con tác giả mất dại quyết định không thèm đặt tên luôn :v
   
9. Vì đã quá lộn xộn ở trên, nên quyết định viết bằng tiếng Anh cho đơn giản, đỡ hại Google dịch :3
   
10. Chiếc lá cuối thu sắp rụng rồi, sao còn chưa bắt đầu viết truyện?
    
11. Lảm nhảm cho xong 11 điều, chả biết để làm gì. Con người đâu phải lúc nào cũng làm chuyện có ý nghĩa.
    

The Experiment

What is the odd of two true lovers being together? Only one in a lifetime. Probably less for those unlucky beings.

What is the odd of two prime numbers being next to each other? Only one in a natural numbers set. Those are Two and Three, and this is the story about them.

11:11 AM - 11/11

She was early for a lunch date with herself, so now she had some minutes to spare. She happily found a small bookstore at the street corner filled with the old paper smell. Her feet were wandering between narrow shelves as her fingers were moving along dusty books. Suddenly she stopped at quite new a pair of books named “The Solitude of Prime Numbers”. That is such an intriguing title. She bought the book without even knowing the author name. It had always been like this. She believed in the fate of finding a good read at the right time, all the times. Half an hour later, sitting comfortably at her regular coffee shop, she opened the novel and look at a minimalist design flier. On the white plain background lay a big bold text in green: “Speed Dating for lonely prime numbers!”. That was everything, except for a small line with time and place. It might be good.

11:11 PM - 11/11

He had skipped his dinner due to the long conference call with his team overseas. He left his office at the hour that no nearby shop was still opened, except for this old dusty bookstore. Without even realising it, he walking among the shelves, gazing unintentionally at different titles. Most of them were romances or thrillers, while he only read scientific papers and non-fiction. As he was about to leave, a book suddenly dropped onto his feet, lay opened to his eyes a fascinating flier. On the white plain background lay a big bold text in green: “Speed Dating for lonely prime numbers!”. That was everything, except for a small line with time and place. He picked it up and looked at the title “The Solitude of Prime Numbers”, and then he bought it without reading the contents and references pages as usual. It might be good.

07:07 PM - 13/11

It was a new cozy restaurant. She was early, and he was on time. There were about 30 people in that room, most of them were carrying the book which made it hard to think of this as a non-PR event. As the ladies sat still, the gentlemen would go from tables to tables, each for about ten minutes. You literally had only ten minutes to know a person. It was like judging the book by it cover. And that was exactly the doubtful look on his face when he sat down in front of her right from the beginning.

• Hi.
  
• Hi. What’s your name?
  
• Why must I tell you my name? - He spoke with such a cold voice.
  
• Well, it’s part of the social introduction and this is a social event so we should know each other’s name before any other socialise steps. - She thought he was probably just shy.
  
• Are you a student of social sciences? Since you use the word quite often.
  
• I am a professor on that subject, but this is still not the right order of this type of social interactions. I still haven’t know your name yet.
  
• Let’s call me Two…
  
• Do you want to know my name?
  
• Why would I want to know your name? As a matter of fact, name are not a scientific definition for any one or anything. So why does it trouble you so much about the name?
  
• Fair enough. Then you can just call me Three.
  
• Why Three?
  
• I thought any name would not bother you. And Three because it’s larger than Two.
  
• I’m not bothered, just curious. And Three is bigger only as in Cardinal numbers, not as in Ordinal ones.
  
• So you must be a natural sciences student?
  
• That was years ago. Now I’m an engineer.
  
• Look like we have a lot in common. - There’s a little sarcasm in her voice.
  
• As if … Social sciences is not the real science. - There’s a lot more sarcasm in his tone.
  
• Then what does a science guy like you doing here?
  
• Why are you here?
  
• How come you always answer a question with a question?
  
• Answer without scientific proof should be in a form of an interrogative.
  
• So you say that there is no scientific reason to explain why you are here.
  
• Yes. Speaking from social aspect, I am doing this to please my mother who accidentally saw the flier in my room.
  
• Big mama boy .. you are such a good son. - She laughed out loud.
  
• Now it’s your turn. Why are you here? - There’s a little red on his face.
  
• Well, naturally speaking, I’m here to prove a scientific point.
  
• Prove what? Love at first sight only exists in Disney fairy tales?
  
• Not that. I’m working on a related theory of cognitive psychology. I want to prove that if two people are seeing each other long enough and often enough, they will eventually fall in love.
  
• Just like something I heard about a set 36 questions claimed to make two strangers falling in love?
  
• That is just a media fraud.
  
• I’m at the initial phase of first impression study. Just about how and how much people would remember after talking to different strangers?
  
• So how you quantify and qualify our conversation today?
  
• …
  
• Your silence prove that social sciences is nothing more than a bunch of hypothetical assumption and no valid verification.
  
• Today, we only have 10 minutes, not enough to talk about it. I will tell you more details another day.
  
• Now you also make an assumption that we will meet again?
  
• It’s not an assumption. It’s a statement.
  
• I would not be so sure about it. We don’t even know each other’s name yet. And I don’t plan to give you any contact information. - He clearly doubted what she said.
  
• I have scientific reason to believe it.
  
• Then prove it.
  
• I will, when we meet again.
  
• When?
  
• Soon! - She smiled, a beautiful smile.
  
• Soon is just a relative term, not specific enough for science.
  
• Fair enough. Then exactly 59 days from today, we will meet again.
  
• I don’t believe you.
  
• Then, shall me make a bet about this? If you and I won’t see each other again exactly 59 days from now, I would admit to you that social sciences is not a real sciences.
  
• And if you were right?
  
• You will have to attend my next experiments. - There’s something evil in her eyes.
  
• Deal! - He was either crazy or blind not thinking or seeing this through.
  
• Deal! - Now there’s definitely an evil grin on her face.
  

The switching bell rang, and they did not speak to each other again that evening.

07:07 AM - 14/11

He woke up with a hazy memory about the previous night. Somehow he managed to remember only she upon a dozen of girls he had talked to. How could she be so sure about their next encounter? Was there any magic trick or scam here? Or did she really have a scientific algorithm to calculate the chance of two perfect strangers meet again in this big city? Very unlikely. It would be just like auto generated a random value, the probability would depend on the sample population. If two person had nothing to share in common, it would be two over eight million citizens. If they both commuted to work on the same road every morning, the chance increase to two over a thousand. This would become two over hundreds if they worked in the same building or two over dozens if they lived in the same neighbourhood. 

Above all that rates regarding how often they met, what is the probability of two strangers falling in love? And how to quantify to minimum number of interactions required to spark a light of affection? Supposing that two persons have all the personalities appealing to each other, it takes on average at least three encounters for them to confirm their own affections. Then it would take a considerably double or triple of that number to confirm the feeling of the opposite partner. After that, you expected a finite loop that would result in happily ever after. Little did you know that you had just entered a complicated if clause with various conditions. Most of them would end up in a heart break, or even worse, an error. Many people were desperately working on their inputs in that algorithm, improving both their inside and outside in order to increase their chances of happiness. However, life was full of the unpredicted things called fate and destiny, which made all human calculations meaningless. 

What was wrong with him today? Why was his head filled with social sciences questions? Why her voice kept echoing around? Surprisingly, he, a scientific person, even thinking about spiritual stuffs like fate and destiny. Someone had said that spiritual stuffs are just things that science had not proven yet. Was she that good to find a solid solution for this tricky Enigma? How would she do that? Be a stalker? Hire detectives to find out about where he lives? To think of it, she could have done some hypnotising tricks in the first place to get him attending such a silly event. Anything was possible. Damn, he should have asked for her contact before moving onto the next table. Now, 59 days would relatively be a really long long time for him.

———————————

What will happen next? Will they ever meet again in exactly 59 days? How would she explain everything? The author is still conducting research on that, so please wait :3 

To be continued … (in 59 days)