Particles And Waves FICTOID
“Don’t you understand? It’s not where the particles go that matters, it’s where the waves take them.”
“You’re making no sense. Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No! Particles are discrete components, you can swap the one out for another and it doesn’t change things. The wave is what’s important, the thing carrying the particles.”
“But you can’t tell where a wave is or where it’s heading unless you see it moving particles of some kind. Even a wave in the ocean is trillions of tiny drops of water being moved.”
“Precisely why the particles in and of themselves are unimportant. Look, the wave is energy, it’s something moving and propelling other things. Yes, the wave itself is invisible, but nonetheless it contains the force that move the particles and shapes the world.”
“All well and good, but I fail to grasp how this affects our business. We’re an online business.”
“What is the wave of our business? The interest and will of our customers.”
“Well, duh. Everybody knows that. That’s why we track sales -- “
“Sales are unimportant! Sales are particles! They’re the end result. Track the origin of the sales.”
“Which would be…?”
“Interest. No, not way you pay on a loan, but consumer interest. Long before the wave begins to swell, consumers start paying attention to certain things.”
“You mean like knowing a new album from their favorite singer is coming out, so they preorder and buy merchandise, right?”
“Wrong! Their favorite singer is just another particle. What is courting their interest is something deeper, more meaningful to them than just the popularity of a single performer. There’s something tapping deep into their psyches, and that’s manifested in their interests, and those interests translate into sales.”
“You mean like when we pitch a cleaning product to homemakers by saying it makes them feel better about their home after they use it?”
“Grossly oversimplified almost to the point of absurdity, but, yes. That’s the atom of the basic idea.”
“So exactly what do you plan to do?”
“I want to launch a research program. I want to track everything our customers -- “
“All of them?”
“All of them. I want to track where they go, what they see, what they listen to.”
“So if they look for cleaning products -- “
“Wrong! That’s particle thinking again! I want to find what it is that puts a void in their lives that they seek to fill with products and services. I want to backtrack each individual’s personal history as far back as possible, see what it is that shaped their whims and desires.”
“Everybody?”
“Everybody.”
“As in the entire planet?”
“Eventually, yes. You see, Newtonian physicists got it wrong. They thought by knowing the exact location, direction, and speed of every atom in the universe they could predict the future. We can never do that, the mere study of such particles influences the outcome of the observation.”
“Well, isn’t that what you’re proposing we do?”
“No. The particles and their individual particulars are unimportant. The wave that moves them rules all. If we focus on the waves, the currents, the patterns of human desire, we can more accurately sense where it’s heading and be there ahead of time ready to fulfill it.”
“Un-huh. And how much do you want for this project?”
“To start, five billion. More as needed.”
The CEO studied the researcher carefully. What an utterly insane idea, the CEO thought. Is this a con job or some crackpot delusion? Even if it could work, the amount of resources needed would be astronomical. I should boot this clown out of my office and fire them, shutting down their entire research lab, which never contributed anything worthwhile to this company anyway.
But…if I’m wrong…if I turn this down and it winds up with a competitor…
“Take ten,” the CEO said.
© Buzz Dixon
