Author's Foreword
(Author's excuses and forewarning.)
You may wonder what would possess someone to take two wonderful people, let them learn to care for each other, then strand them on a desert island without letting them marry first.
I suppose I should try to explain.
When trying to decipher the physical laws of the universe, we find it
easier to start with simplifications. For example, when describing
the flight of a cannonball, we start by ignoring air friction and the
wind. That makes the math simple enough to handle without a computer in
many cases. Once you understand the ideal case, you start adding in analysis of
the complicating factors.
Economics is not as easily simplified as physics.
In physics, we can see many of the interactions, even if we don't directly observe many of the interactants -- wind, electricity, magnetism, gravity, etc. Extending the cannonball example, gunpowder is not very simple, but we might use a catapult or trebuchet instead to launch the cannonball. We can observe and measure what happens. We can control the forces, and measure and time the acceleration paths. And we can compare our results with the path and timing of a dropped cannonball, or a cannonball rolling on a slope.
We develop understanding of the simpler mechanical systems, and from that we develop the tools that allow us to analyze and understand the more complicated systems involving chemical reactions.
In economics, we deal with complex interactants and abstract interactions. Some of the elements are relatively straightforward, like food, fuel, and housing. Some, like value, are so abstract that we can't define them once and be sure they won't change. Some elements of economics, like money, are deceptive simplicities hiding complex and abstract qualities that play directly into the math.
We need simplifications to be able to work with economics, even with help from computers. But economic interactions are difficult to simplify.
As mathematics becomes more complex, it begins to look a lot like literature -- abstract mathematics even more so.
So, I'm taking a hint from the math and constructing an informal thesis on the fundamentals of Economics as a set of thought experiments in the form of a novel.
I need a framing story. A good simulation game always has a good framing story, and this is a mental simulation game.
But uncharted, uninhabited islands no longer exist. Google took the final steps to taking care of that when they introduced their map service. So I have to set this framing story about 50 years ago, when uninhabited islands still seemed like they might stay undiscovered for a while. And I'll still need to set it in a slightly altered history.
No, alternate reality won't be quite enough. I won't go so far as to theorize about interstellar travel and write an Adam and Eve story, though. We think we know too much about all that, anyway.
This framing story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events on our planet is purely coincidental.
Framing Story
"Your thesis plan looks good, but you'll need to do some on-location
research." Doctor MacVittie pointed to a paragraph in the plan set out on his
desk.
Karel Pratt nodded in agreement. "I guess I should go ahead and say I need the fieldwork, even though I'm not yet sure yet when and where."
Doctor MacVittie tilted his head. "Well, I think you know enough about what you want to do to be somewhat specific about the location. You might name several islands you think are possibilities."
Karel scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Sure. I guess I can say I'm looking at a few locations."
"I think it would be a good idea." Doctor MacVittie paused. "By the way, do you know Roberta Whitmer?"
"Not really. I think I may have met her. She calls herself Bobbie, right? And
she's in the anthropology program, too?"
"Yes. She's also working with Doctor White and me. I'm her primary supervising professor. Her thesis seems like it might complement yours."
Karel's expression was unreadable.
"Just a suggestion, but you might want to talk with her. It often helps to have someone you can work with."
Karel thought a moment further before responding.
"Okay. I'll talk with her and see."
*****
"Lately, you two never seem to get together anywhere but in my office."
"We meet at the library, too." Bobbie looked a little taken aback.
"Once a month?"
"At least once a week."
"Was suggesting that you two back each other up during the fieldwork phase a bad idea?"
Bobbie and Karel both shook their heads.
Karel said, "No. It's a great idea. We're working together on the logistics. But our theses are different enough that we really don't have that much to talk over besides the schedule, flight plans, and such." He shrugged.
"We actually went to the airport together to find the closest regular flights to the islands." Bobbie said, a little unnaturally brightly.
Karel continued, "And we've written to some consulates and gotten the names of some charter companies in the islands, and some independents, too. And we've talked with travel agents who have put us in touch with people out on the coast who handle tours of our islands."
"People keep asking us if this is our honeymoon. Silly people." Bobbie grinned.
"Not so silly if they've only just met you. Okay, so you're actually ahead of me."
"Not really," said Karel. "We do need to show you what we've found so far, and we would definitely appreciate it if we could have you check over what we have for flight plans and such. That's something we'd like to do while we're here, if we could."
------
As it turned out, many of the faculty thought it was a good idea for Doctor MacVittie to accompany them for the first two weeks, just to be safe. Sister MacVittie was definitely not averse to going along, nor was their youngest son, who was preparing to go on his mission.
(Sister MacVittie is Doctor MacVittie's wife, if you are wondering. This is a Church university. God is the Father of us all, so everyone is a brother or a sister.)
Their schedule ended up giving them approximately a month on each of four islands, enough time to get involved in volunteer service projects while they did their research. And things went well for the four months. We aren't interested in the details. If this were a normal novel, we would be interested, but it's just the framing story for our experiment.
(Besides, I'd have to do more research. The whole purpose of this story is to set up the simple economic system, so we'll scrimp on details there.)
Where things get interesting for us again is towards the end of the last month, on the island they were scheduled to begin their flight home from, in the office of Wycliffe and Zedidiah, the charter pilots who had taken them around from island to island.
------
Wycliffe looked at the schedule on his desk. "Hey, Zed. Look what we got here."
Zedidiah looked up. "Yeah, I saw that. Those two grad students from that Apist school. Come to study ant rope loggies. Native culture and all that. And do busybody serve ice pro jets. Straight as two rulers. Even the natives are laughing behind their backs."
Apist. You'll allow me this substitution, won't you? -- even though "Ehyephoot" means something like "more good", or "progressing forever", not "ape"? "Eipef" wouldn't mean much to you, and you wouldn't get the jests Wye and Zed were making
"Yeah," agreed Wye. "I think they need help studying more natural island nature, way up close. And help seeing just how Apist they are. And help growing up."
"Heh heh. Hey. Wait. These are paying customers. Don't do anything stupid on me, okay? Just fly in and get them and fly them back."
"What, me? Would I deliberately sabotage my own plane to strand them on a desert island and test their morals?"
"Depends on how drunk you've been this week."
"Heh heh."
"Okay, that does it. I own half of that plane. I'm flying this one."
"Ten hour flight? The longest you've flown is four hours. And you accuse me of plotting to strand them. Naw, I'm just kidding around. I'll bring them back safe and sound."
------
I really hate to tell stories about bad people.
Now, Wycliffe really wasn't a bad person, just a little mixed up. He had
converted to the Ehyephoot religion at some point, in love with
a good Ehyephoot woman. And maybe she was insecure, or maybe she
just didn't realize what a great guy he was. Or maybe she could tell she wasn't
strong enough to be his wife, in particular. Anyway, she ditched him.
And that was part of the reason he was in the islands, trying to escape from himself, blaming the Ehyephoot religion for his sorrows.
------
About three hours after picking our two heroes up, already way off the path of the flight plan, Wycliffe started deliberately running the engine lean.
"What's wrong?" Karel asked.
Wycliffe shook his head. "Engine trouble, I guess. Sometimes engines get finicky."
"Are we in trouble?"
"Well, if we have to ditch in the water, I do pack a dinghy. But it should be okay." And he ran the mixture back to normal.
About an hour later, in a lull in the conversation, he asked, "Well, I was bettin' my partner that you two would be, like, an item by this time. I guess I lost?"
Bobbie made disgusted sounds. "Everyone seems to think that a single woman and a single man who work okay together and get to be good friends should jump into bed with each other. You don't have to get married to everyone you love."
"You love each other?"
Karel answered, "Like brother and sister. You know, in a sense, we are, because of our religion, if not just by being human."
"Well, what have you got against each other?"
Bobbie and Karel grinned wryly at each other, but Wycliffe's attention was on flying and missed the look that passed between them.
Bobbie answered, "Maybe we don't want to spend all of our evenings the rest of our lives talking shop at home."
Karel added, "Professional interests can sometimes get in the way of other kinds of interests."
"Okay, you don't want to be arguing about work at home. I guess I could see how that wouldn't necessarily be so great."
Then he leaned out the engine again pretending to nurse it. "C'mon baby keep with us." And returned the fuel mix to normal again.
"There you go." And, turning back to his passengers, "So, this wonderful, romantic view up here is just wasted on you two?
"I wouldn't say that," Bobbie laughed. "It's beautiful. And romantic."
"But you know," Karel added, "romance is about adventure. There are other kinds of adventure than sexual adventure. And some of those are adventures that friends can share."
Wycliffe almost found himself persuaded, but he was too far off the flight plan to back out -- too far into his own plan to back up and admit he was taking them away from their destination, and to admit to himself why it was wrong.
He repeated the game with the engine just as a desert island came into view over the horizon.
"Maybe we'd better put down on that island and look at the engine."
Put yourselves in Karel's and Bobbie's shoes. What would you have them do? Pray? Of course pray. But how were they supposed to know that Wycliffe was planning to ditch them on a desert island for a few days?
Well, both of them prayed in their hearts, but God, for some reason, didn't tell them one way or the other.
"Well, if that's the safest route, then go ahead," Karel said. "Maybe I can help with the engine."
"Do you know anything about engines?"
"I know a little about car engines. But at least I can use a wrench or hold things for you or something. Bobbie is no stranger to engines, either, I think?"
"Actually, I'm certified to fly. I should have mentioned that earlier, but sea flight is not something I've done yet. I've worked on airplane engines, too, but not this kind. It does sound like something is making it run lean. Let's put it down."
And Wycliffe put the plane down on the beach and radioed Zedidiah and told them they were on an island they were not on, several hundred miles away.
To get at the tools, they had to unload the luggage and the emergency supplies.
After an hour of fiddling with the engine, Wycliffe said, "I need to take her up and see how she's running. It'll take me about ten minutes of circling the island, and if there aren't any problems, we can fly on."
They both volunteered to help with the test flight, but Wycliffe made an excuse about needing the plane light. Once up, he circled twice, brought the airplane down as if to land, and then shouted out at them, "I'll be back when you two have had a chance to grow up!" and flew out.
Neither Karel nor Bobbie heard what he said over the engine noise. So they sat down on the beach, said a prayer together for the airplane, for Wycliffe, for themselves, and for getting home, and waited for him to come back.
Now, remember, I'm just setting up this simplified experiment in economics. If this were a regular novel, we would want to know why Wycliffe never came back.
In fact, there are many things we would want to know ...
... more about what Wycliffe and Zedidiah were doing in the islands, and whether they were no-gooders after all, or just having good fun;
... why Wycliffe died and what he did after he died, and how he managed to do so much in apparently so little time (Is time for the dead the same as for us, the living?);
... what Zedidiah did after Wycliffe died;
... how the police and others on the islands got involved; and, hey, what Bobbie and Karel's professors, family, friends, the school, and the Church all did when our co-protagonists failed to return; ....
But, mostly, our focus would be on Karel and Bobbie, since they are the lab subjects of our little experiment.
Come to think of it, maybe we should find out a little more about them, to help parameterize and calibrate this experiment.
| Table of Contents | Next: Introducing Bobbie |
You can find the original first draft of this chapter and other approaches
I have tried with it here:
https://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/03/economics-101-novel-ch00.html.
