history. The short answer is, ultimately, a TOE will be based on observations of every aspect of the world, and the search for patterns in those observations.”
Mosala said, “That’s a start. But there are two powerful steps beyond that kind of observation, which have made all the difference. Carrying out deliberate, controlled experiments, instead of only watching nature as it unfolds. And carrying out quantitative observations: making measurements, and trying to find patterns in the numbers.”
“Eike numerology?”
Mosala shook her head, and said patiently, “Not any pattern, for the sake of it. You have to have a clear hypothesis to start with, and you have to know how to test it.”
“You mean… use all the right statistical methods, and so on?”
“Exactly.”
“But
Mosala hesitated, probably wondering if the tortuous process of explaining anything more subtle would be worse than accepting that characterization other life’s work.
“More or less.”
“Everything’s in the numbers? The numbers never lie?”
Mosala lost all patience. “No, they don’t.”
Walsh said, “That’s very interesting. Because a few months ago, I came across a preposterous—very offensive!—idea that was being spread on some of the far-right-wing European networks. I thought it deserved to be properly—scientifically!—refuted. So I bought a little statistical package, and I asked it to test the hypothesis that a certain portion—a certain
A dozen more people stood up to abuse her. Four journalists stormed out of the auditorium. Walsh remained on her feet, waiting for a response, smiling innocently. I saw Marian Fox move tentatively toward the podium; Mosala gestured to her to stay back.
Mosala began typing on her notepad. The shouting and hissing gradually subsided, and then everyone but Walsh took their seats again.
The silence can’t have lasted more than ten seconds, but it was long enough for me to realize that my heart was pounding. I wanted to punch someone. Walsh was no racist, but she was an expert manipulator. She’d slipped a barb under everyone’s skin; if she’d had two hundred screaming, placard-waving followers at the back of the auditorium, she couldn’t have raised stronger passions.
Mosala looked up and smiled sweetly.
She said, “The African scientific renaissance has been examined in detail, in over thirty papers in the last ten years. I’d be happy to give you the references, if you can’t track them down yourself. You’ll find there are several more sophisticated hypotheses for explaining the sharp rise in the number of articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, the rates of citation of those articles, the number of patents awarded—and the number of Nobel Prizes for physics and chemistry.
“When it comes to your own field, though, I'm afraid you’re on your own. I can’t find a single study which offers any alternative explanation to the
The auditorium exploded with laughter. Walsh remained standing for a few seconds, then took her seat with remarkable dignity: unrepentant, unashamed, unfazed. I wondered if all she’d wanted was for Mosala to hit back on the same level. There was no question that Planet Noise would find a way to twist the exchange into a victory for Walsh: SCIENCE PRODIGY, CONFRONTED WITH THE FACTS, INSULTS RESPECTED AUTHOR. But most of the media would report that Mosala had responded with great restraint to deliberate provocation.
There were a few more questions—all of them innocuous and mildly technical—then the session was declared at an end. I walked around to the back of the stage, where Karin De Groot was waiting for me.
De Groot was unmistakably ifem—a look which was not at all “halfway toward” androgynous; it was far more distinctive than that. While ufems and umales exaggerated well-established facial gender cues, and asexes eliminated them, the first ifems and imales had modeled the human visual system and found completely new clusters of parameters which would set them apart at a glance—without rendering them all homogeneous.
She shook my hand then led me toward one of the hotel’s small meeting rooms. She said quietly, “Go easy on her, will you? That wasn’t pleasant back there.”
“I can’t imagine anyone handling it better.”
“Violet’s not someone I’d want as an enemy; she never hits back without thinking it through. But that doesn’t mean she’s made of stone.”
The room had a table and seating for twelve, but only Mosala was waiting there. I’d been half expecting a private security guard—but then, the fan club notwithstanding, she wasn’t quite in the rock star league. And Kuwale’s dire intimations notwithstanding, there was probably no need.
Mosala greeted me warmly. “I'm sorry we couldn’t do this earlier, but I'm afraid I hadn’t set aside any time for it. After all those meetings with Sarah Knight, I’d assumed the whole planning stage was over.”
I said, “I'm sorry to put you through it again. There’s always some unavoidable duplication when a new director takes over a project.”
Mosala nodded, distracted. We sat and went through the whole conference timetable together, comparing notes. Mosala asked not to be filmed at more than fifty percent of the sessions she attended. “I’d go mad if you were watching me all the time, catching me out whenever I pulled a face at something I disagreed with.” I agreed, but then we haggled over the particular fifty percent—I definitely wanted reaction shots for all the talks where her work would be explicitly discussed.
We decided on three interview sessions, two hours each, the first on Wednesday afternoon.
Mosala said, “I still have some trouble understanding what your aim is with this program. If the subject is TOEs… why not just cover the whole conference, instead of putting the spotlight on me?”
“Audiences find the theories more accessible if they come packaged as something which a particular person has done.” I shrugged. “Or so the network executives have convinced themselves—and probably convinced the audiences as well, by now.” SeeNet stood for Science, Education and Entertainment Network, but the S-word was often treated as a source of embarrassment incapable of being intrinsically interesting, and requiring the maximum possible sugar-coating. “With a profile we can touch on some broader issues, though, in terms of the way they affect your day-to-day life. The Ignorance Cults, for example.”
Mosala said drily, “You don’t think they get enough publicity already?”
“Yes—but most of it’s on their own terms. The profile could be a chance for people to see them through your eyes.”
She laughed. “You want me to tell your audience what I think of the cults? You won’t have time for anything else, if I get started.”
“You could stick to the big three.”
Mosala hesitated. De Groot flashed me a warning look, but I ignored it. I said, “Culture First?”
“Culture First is the most pathetic. It’s the last refuge for people desperate to think of themselves as ‘intellectuals'—while remaining complete scientific illiterates. Most of them are just nostalgic for the era when a
