Many teachers took only a few days off during the winter break, and more than a few teachers invited their most compatible students to spend some time with them on the actual holidays themselves.
John Calder and Grace Ling were both invited to spend some time on Christmas day with John’s most compatible teacher, his math teacher, Sally Aston. They also spent some time with Grace’s favourite teacher, Mr. Alvaro.
Mr. Alvaro was Catholic and could not entirely approve of John and Grace’s obviously sexual relationship, but he was also Hispanic, and somehow his culture seemed more tolerant of men having sex before marriage. Mr. Alvaro was also extremely compatible with Grace – in an appropriate non-sexual way, so he could not think the less of her for being with John.
The two lovers enjoyed dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Alvaro, and their five children. The eldest was a boy who would turn 18 in a week, on New Years day. Tony Alvaro badly wanted to go to the school, but a compatible link for him had not been found before the school filled up.
Tony’s younger sister, Maria, had been offered a place in the school, but Mr. Alvaro had refused to let his 15 year old daughter link up with the boy who would have been that link.
The Alvaro’s didn’t know it, but the girl had used the Tech Fantasies software herself, searching for a boy who was compatible with her and was probably in the school. It had taken three exchanged e-mails to find the right boy, but she was sure he was the one she would have been in school with.
Maria’s secret plan was to bring the boy over for visits or perhaps dinner, to get the family used to him. Then maybe her parents would learn to accept him. Or her father would kill him. She wasn’t sure which.
Except for such social occasions and a little rest time, many teachers and students were at school over the break, entirely unscheduled and unorganized. They just wanted to be there. With their friends. Some were helping with renovations to the building.
Having had the experience of a school operating at full intended first-stage capacity for over a month, Sally consulted with the teachers about expansion questions when school resumed normal operation in January.
“Our major donors have agreed to fund expansions provided the school’s operating costs remain covered by school fees. What do you think?”
“I would like to see some lower grades included”, Alma Renwick said at once, hoping to eventually have a chance to teach at her preferred level, Grade 7.
“Very difficult because of the underage sex problem, Alma, but perhaps we could work something out. Let’s think it over. Any other ideas?”
“Perhaps a Grade 13, for graduates who want more education but have no college plans”, Paul Grey suggested.
“I’d rather not give anyone a reason to avoid going to college on graduation, Paul. We must encourage them all to find a good college or university, but I suppose we could offer some advanced education for new students, or existing students who have good academic capabilities but just cannot further their education any other way. We can consider it.”
Dr. Elliot said what most were thinking. “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? A lateral expansion, more classes. The building has more than enough room to double the size of the school. We could build up the school population gradually as before, and have a double-sized school before June.”
“That’s what I had in mind too, Avery”, Sally responded.
The other options were talked about, but just adding classes in the grades already represented, 9 through 12, seemed most popular.
“There is another issue”, Sally said. “The school is not just the school anymore. Many parents have been following their kids’ work so closely that they are almost a part of the school, without meeting the schools compatibility requirements. I don’t think there is much we can do about it, though.”
Alma Renwick disagreed. “Let us pretend we get to the point where we have 1,000 parents involved. I don’t know how many students that would mean. It would probably only be possible if we were in the midst of yet another expansion, which would fill the building completely. Do you see where I am going with this?”
“Yes, of course. You are thinking of matching parents to parents. Finding the best one-in-a-thousand match between parents is not bad. That’s Level Three on our logarithmic scale. Not bad at all.”
It took but a moment for all the teachers to get the idea, but a few of them groaned. This could be a social nightmare.
Paul Grey didn’t say so, but he had the same thoughts many others did. He knew that the eventual effect of good matching was to reduce the divorce rate drastically, but the immediate effect could be the opposite, breaking up families once the adults discovered that they had more compatible matches. In the tight-knit greater community around the school, a lot of this might happen, disrupting families and the students in them.
Apparently oblivious to this, Sally pushed on, thinking out loud. “OK, Alma, let’s extend this further. Let us call it the school community, all family members and friends of our actual students. Perhaps even the friends of those people. Add them, and suppose we really have filled up the building. Then we might have an extended school community of 10,000 people. Level Four matches would be typical, some less, but some even better ones, just by accident.”
Avery Elliot grimaced. “Ouch, Sally, remember the under-age sex problem!”
“OK, then let us pass the matching suggestions directly to all the adult members of this extended community, so they can do what they wish with respect to their own children. That would lower the mean or typical match level considerably, but it would still be good. Worth doing.”
Alma Renwick liked the idea. “What are we waiting for, then? I agree, Sally. Let’s do it. Do it now.”
Still oblivious to some of the problems this might raise, Sally was enthusiastic.
Finally the vice-principal and English teacher, Dr. Paul Grey, a quiet and thoughtful man, felt he had to give voice to his objections.
“I’m sorry to have to disagree with you, we see eye-to-eye on so many things, Sally. But this is could almost destroy the school. The school community would have a much higher density of matching-software users. There might be family breakups, not an unusual short term consequence. People suddenly discover better matches nearby, and go for those greener pastures. Families breaking up could ruin the lives of our students.”
Once again a problem was emerging. There was a bold new idea, but it could threaten the school community. Perhaps it would threaten the school and the people associated with it, even if Social Tech High did nothing, as Grace’s history teacher pointed out.
“Dr. Aston, you and colleagues did a wonderful thing when you created the Technological Fantasies organization. We use only a tiny bit of what you provide, not much more than the matching software. But within the school community it is well known. Everyone has heard of it, I am sure many use it. What Dr. Grey fears may already be happening.”
“Oh.”
Sally called an emergency meeting, to be held at the school. Invited were the two other members of the original Tech Fantasies Trio, Ann and Drake; Paul Grey and Alma Renwick; Antonio Alvaro, because he had pointed out the problem; Ken Green and his daughter Beth, because he was the major donor and she the prodigy behind the throne; Don and Helen Walker.
Helen did not come, she was pregnant and experiencing morning sickness. Ken Green had asked to bring another of his children, and showed up with Beth’s half-sister Esmeralda, who sat in on the meeting with out saying much. She sketched something on pads of paper while the others talked.
Sally opened the meeting by expressing the idea which she and Alma found so fascinating. Paul Grey told of his fears, then Antonio Alvaro gave an expanded version of his earlier comments.
There was much discussion, but nothing resembling a conclusion emerged until the meeting resumed for one last hour, following a short break.
During each break, the three Greens went off by themselves. Beth and Esmeralda were seen to be in a corner of the room, in rapid dialogue, with their father moderating. When they returned after the last break of the day, Ken spoke on behalf of his children.
“The kids have come up with a tentative solution. Here, look at this.” He showed the group a network diagram apparently drawn by Esmeralda. Then he turned over the page and showed a tangled mess, recognizable as the first diagram distorted by severe changes.
“Beth says she can write software to turn out diagrams like this for any circumstance that can arise, automatically, whenever they might be needed. The software can turn them into sequences, making videos of them, to let people see the networks evolving over time. The girls see it as an educational problem, for everyone in the community. People can be shown the probable effects of their actions and be able to make changes in small increments.”
Beth took over, explaining the idea with obvious enthusiasm. “If everybody finds a better partner and gets divorced all at once, chaos results. If our software can model the changes, make them visual, producing teaching aids from them, then maybe people will act more rationally. I’m just a kid, but I am 14 now, so I think I understand about irrational urges. I know they can be overcome with the right information at the right time.”
“Irrational urges? Even you?”, Don Walker asked, smiling.
“Yes. Even me. A boy my age came to see me a couple of months ago. Real handsome, as smart as I am, the beast, bringing me some high tech presents. I was almost swept off my feet, but calmly and rationally agreed with him that we were too similar to be compatible. When he saw me pouting, he made me look us up, and when the system proved he was right, I calmly and rationally let him get away. That didn’t stop me from daydreaming about him for a long time, which proves I really do know all about irrational urges.”
They all laughed, amused at the girl who was as much a prodigy as ever, even while becoming a woman.
Just before Ken Green left with his two daughters, the younger one, Esmeralda, presented Sally with some of the sketches she had been doing earlier in the day. They included drawings of the school the way it was, along with some illustrating proposed additions and alterations. Her drawing abilities and architectural insight was clearly as prodigious as Beth’s analysis, design and programming skills.
Ken mentioned that Esmeralda was Beth’s best friend and that together they could do anything. Sally wished they were in her school, but knew that Ken Green would never let them out of sight. His love for them was evident, his need for their abilities was almost as clear.
Sally wondered just how many children the man did have. How talented were the others? From words mentioned in passing, Sally began to grasp the fact that each child had several personal tutors, chosen to be as compatible as possible. What she did not know was that they had received this kind of attention almost from birth.
Sally herself was too involved with the school to take time away, but Ann Kelly agreed to go back to Vancouver when Ken invited her. Ann wanted to work with Beth, and was more than a little curious as to the environment in which the girl grew up.
Ann found a building with at least two dozen women in it, some who seemed to be tutors for the children, some who seemed to have an intimate relationship with Ken.
Still puzzled by the social environment, an apparently happy one with no visible discord, Ann accepted a luxurious visitor’s room on a lower floor, eating in a common room with other women. She worked with Beth and no fewer than three women who seemed to be tutors, a computer science generalist and two mathematicians.
The result was a totally new piece of social technology, capable of showing how a local or larger social network might evolve in time, depending on decisions made by the participants.
A brilliant pure mathematician who was also a brilliant computer programmer, Ann was almost left behind, able to make only small contributions. When she went home, still somewhat dazed by the experience, much of what she had known from her doctoral work now appeared less than insightful. From now on she would work harder, do better, try to catch up to that damn kid.
The new software made a difference right away. The school already had some profile information for parents who helped their kids with homework or had submitted information to Tech Fantasies for other reasons.
Sally sent each student home with a letter outlining the planned changes and a video showing how the school had evolved so far. The names of teachers and students were not given, just a basic overview. The letter asked for permission to get very limited access to Tech Fantasies’ files and requested that family members fill out profile questionnaires or engage in the usual online dialogues.
As soon as a response was obtained, updated models of the school community were obtained. When they indicated possible social problems, new videos were generated, showing the possible and probable changes, with and without the adults restricting themselves to modest incremental changes.
There were lots of responses right away, but it took a while to get a steady stream of information flowing in. As it arrived, some processing was done immediately, but full-scale matching in the bipartite sense, each person to exactly one other, would be impossible for a long time. Approximations were possible, though, so a steady stream of suggestions soon flowed outwards, accompanied in each case by generated videos showing the effects of changes.
Sally and her husband were impressed by how well this interpersonal matching was working, but Drake said, “Sally, this isn’t right. We are not doing enough. We should be taking advantage of the school being centre of this cluster, to connect the community to ideas and projects. We offer it through Tech Fantasies already, but you know we don’t get enough user density. Even here in New York City we don’t. The rest of the US and Canada are way behind.”
“Yes, I know. Here the school is giving us a real core project, something to drag in more and more people. But we aren’t doing enough with it because we limit ourselves.”
“Well, let’s just not limit ourselves, then, Sal. Take on the whole school community as a unified project. Instead of waiting for them to sign up for our other services, push them a bit. Be an employment service for the community. Handle real estate and moves, relocations. Find cultural stuff for them, books, music, movies, art, link them into clubs. Help them find other kinds of education and recreation. All the things we know how to do and do sporadically for people outside the school community, but focus on them.”
“This is going to be too big to spring on people all at once, Drakie. I think we have to start by giving classes on it, make the students understand it first. Let it leak out into the community. Let me start with a few students we know, see what happens. I’ll grab John and Grace and Clarity, throw them into a classroom, and start explaining. If I can’t get this past them, it’s not going to happen.” But they would understand, Sally knew. They were special.
“Do it, doll. The way the school is linked up, tell any kid anything, soon they all know it. Tell those three our crazy ideas, the rest of the school will be talking about them before lunch time.”