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all-purpose view cube as they quickly left the office. With the Chancellor he
crossed the main square, fan Specials in an inconspicuous formation fore and
aft. A crowd of well-dressed men and women trained 3D cameras at them, one
panning up and down to get the full effect of the Streeling blue-and-yellow
swirl-stripes.
"Have you heard from Lamurk?"
"What about the Dahlites?"
"Do you like the new Sector Principal? Does it matter that she's a
trisexualist?"
"How about the new health reports? Should the Emperor set exercise
requirements for Tranter?"
"Ignore them," Hari said.
The Chancellor smiled and waved at the cameras. "They're just doing their
job."
"What's this about exercise?" Hari asked.
"A study found that electro-stim while sleeping doesn't develop muscles as
well as old-fashioned exercise."
"Not surprising." He had worked in the fields as a boy and never liked the
idea of having his exertion stimmed while he slept.
A wedge of reporters pressed nearer, shouting questions.
"What does the Emperor think of what you said to Lamurk?"
"Is it true that your wife doesn't want you to be First Minister?"
"What about Demerzel? Where is he?"
"What about the Zonal disputes? Can the Empire compromise?"
A woman rushed forward. "How do you exercise?"
Hari said sardonically, "I exercise restraint," but his point sailed right
past the woman, who looked at him blankly.
As they entered the Great Hall, Hari remembered to fetch forth the view cube
and hand it to the hall-master. A few 3Ds always made a talk pass more easily.
"Big crowd," he noted to the Chancellor as they took their places on the
speech balcony above the bowl of seats.
"Attendance is compulsory. All class members are here." The Chancellor beamed
down at the multitude. "I wanted to be sure we looked good to the reporters
outside."
Hari's mouth twisted. "How do they take attendance?"
"Everyone has a keyed seat. Once they sit, they're counted, if their inboard
ID matches the seat index."
"A lot of trouble just to get people to attend."
"They must! It's for their own good. And ours."
"They're adults, or else why let them study advanced subjects? Let them
decide what's good for them."
The Chancellor's lips compressed as he rose to do the introduction. When Hari
got up to talk, he said, "Now that you're officially counted, I thank you for
inviting me, and announce that this is the end of my formal address."
A rustle of surprise. Hari's gaze swept the hall and he let the silence build.
Then he said mildly, "I dislike speaking to
anyone who has no choice over whether to listen. Now I shall sit down, and
anyone wishing to leave may do so."
He sat. The auditorium buzzed. A few fat op to leave. The other students booed
them. When he rose to speak again they cheered.
He had never had an audience so on bis side. He made the most of it, giving a
ringing talk about the future of...
mathematics. Not of the mortal Empire. but of beautiful, enduring mathematics.
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8.
The woman from the Ministry of Interlocking Cultures looked down her nose at
him and said. "Of course, we must have contributions from your group."
Hari shook his head disbelievingly. "A ... senso?~ She adjusted her formal
suit by wriggling in hi« office's guest chair.
"This is an advanced program-All mathists are charged to submit Boon Behests."
"We are completely unqualified to compose ' "I understand your hesitation.
Yet we at the Ministry feel these senso-symphonies will be just die thing
needed to energize a, well, an art form which is showing little progress."
"I don't get it."
She begrudgingly gave him a completely unconvincing, stilted smile. "The way
we envision this new sort of senso-symphony, the artists the math-ists, that
is will transmogrify basic structures of thought, such as Euclidean conceptual
edifices, or transfinite set theory fabrications. These will be translated by
an art strainer "
"Which is?"
"A computer filter which distributes conceptual patterns into a broad
selection of sensory avenues."
Hari sighed. "I see." This woman had power and he had to listen to her. His
psychohistory funding was secure, coming from the Emperor's private largess.
But the Streeling department could not ignore the Imperial Boon Board or its
lackeys, such as the one before him. Such was boonmanship.
Far from being relaxed, meditative groves of quiet inquiry, research
universities were intense, competitive, high-pressure marathons. The
meritocrats scholars and scientists alike put in long hours, had
stress-related health problems, high divorce rates, and few offspring. They
cut up their results into bite-sized chunks, in pursuit of the Least
Publishable Unit, so to magnify their lists of papers.
To gain a boon from the Imperial Offices one did the basic labor. Filling Out
Forms. Hari knew well the bewildering maze of cross-linked questions. List and
analyze type and "texture" of funding. Estimate fringe benefits. Describe kind
of lab and computer equipment needed (can existing resources be modified to
suit?). Elucidate philosophical stance of the proposed work.
The pyramid of power meant that the most experienced scholars did little
scholarship. Instead, they managed and played the endless games of
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