The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Lady Justice

I took the kids for the rest of the day. Angel, Helen, Mike, Janie, and Morgan went into session to dig more deeply into the plans. Flesh them out. Price them. Start looking for locations. Rachel joined me with the kids since Helen is hip-deep in the activities. In the Rachel/Helen relationship, Helen has always been the numbers person. Rachel, as a reporter for the Times, is a researcher. In her next human-world career, I imagine she'll join Olsen and Sagan if she wants.

Or not. She may want to do something new too. Either way. It would be fun to work with her.

Rachel and I do not get to spend nearly enough time together. Ever since the Conclave, our relationship has been good. I'm even the one who proposed to her. But: there is also a thing hanging unspoken between us now. The one I worried about. Sex changes things. It does not matter that I put zero pressure on her for a repeat. Never even reference our intimate moment because I don't have to. Helen brings it up enough for all of us. I think Helen would like another go. Having all her lovers together. I avoid all comments because I do not want us to have a 'Marybelle' moment. Marybelle also similarly pushed Rachel for group sex with men. It is not exactly the same, as Rachel is engaged to us, but it close enough I am not comfortable with it.

Rachel is too important to me to fuck it up with sex. In a wild moment at a Conclave, we had sex anyway. Now we have to deal with that.

With the little ones in tow, we went over to the park at Ninovan to let them play in a new location. A different one than the house. There is absolutely nothing about Ninovan on the surface that would betray it as being a central community for the intersection of the Vampire/Astral/Siren/human worlds. No one is going to run up to Paul and ask him which subspecies he is either.

Laura, as usual, is less interested in playing than reading. Her current book is 'Parallel Worlds, by Michio Kaku'. Like any printed science book, it can't update as new information comes to light. It was written in 2004 and therefore before the LIGO gravity telescope first picked up gravity waves, before the Large Hadron Collider found the Higgs boson, not to mention some later thinking on M-Theory. It's a good read. Very accessible, and Dad can update Laura on things that have happened and theories that have been updated or changed since the book was published.

That idea of updating is useful. We are trying to be sure all our kids understand you have to change your point of view as new data comes in. The book underscores that when it talks about Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy being superseded in certain realms (like Mercuries orbit) by Einstein's General Relativity. Things that Newton left to 'God' being explained later by Einstein.

I am never comfortable with the 'philosophy' portion of science. I prefer to call it 'theory' or 'hypothesis' and quantify how speculative it might be. M-Theory, discussed in Laura's book, no matter how explanative it may be is speculative. Laura, despite her age, understands that line of thought.

My daughter Rachel could not care less so far. Until science tells her how to run faster, jump higher, or be 'best', it's ancillary to her world. She is smart though, and when she gets older and starts to care about other things, she'll be glad she was exposed to it now.

Diana views science as a means to an end, not intrinsically interesting. She'll deep dive it when it matters to her. Science night in the observatory gives her what she wants: Time with Grandpa and her sisters.

Nakoma, deep into pre-med, understands science but thinks the idea of always updating your point of view is patently obvious. Her chosen field is very practical that way. Nakoma lives by statistics: How effective any given treatment is for a chosen population type of thing. That means as new data comes in she is always ready to revise her point of view.