“Cohen maneuvering Bennett onto the Congressional Defense committee” is a dramatic-sounding move…with absolutely no dramatic fallout.
They do talk about it again, way off in chapter 20. At that point Bennett is out of Congress, and Cohen kinda acknowledges his goal was “keep the potentially-dangerous applications of my research under wraps, until I have a sympathetic voice in the part of the government that’s probably going to respond.”
If Bennett got into that role, great! If not…there’s no rush. Cohen can wait.
If I’d had more urgent/plot-essential authorial plans for the idea, Bennett probably would’ve won that re-election. But, well, I didn’t. So that whole plot avenue got blocked, and the traffic re-routed.
Cybele: Now, Mr. Cohen, I get why you’re upset, but try to look at the big picture. Having someone in Congress who’s in your debt could be pretty useful to you, I bet! And my Master can help you in other ways, too. For example: boss, I think Cohen’s had enough to drink by now, don’t you?
Bennett: She’s right. I’m cutting you off.
(YOINK)
Cohen: Hey!
Okay, so he’s in Congress now. He’s up for a tough election next month. What if he loses?
Cybele: That wouldn’t be so good for you, huh? But I bet a big enough donation to his campaign could fix it!
Cohen: This is sounding like a better deal for you than it is for me.
Bennett: I’ll make up for it by being the best corporate puppet ever, I swear!
Cohen: Hmm . . .
Can you get yourself on the subcommittee for Defense?
Bennett: Yes! Of course! Definitely! Well, maybe. Why?
Cohen: I’ll tell you if you get there.
Why is it when people talk about quantum superposition, they always talk about it being two states at once?
Oh, right, most people can’t handle trinary, let alone decimal or whatever natural base the universe is in.
Most of the time, anyone who insists that there are only two options for a question they ask doesn’t really understand the question they’re asking. Note that this is still applicable to at least some true/false questions.
To be clear, I’m not saying that the appropriate type for booleans should be enum(false, true, file not found). I’m just saying that’s an option.
“Have you stopped beating your wife?” enum(No, Yes, I’m not married)
That said, it’s also, as I alluded above, also generally not a three state situation. The world is more complicated than I can imagine, so I’m incapable of expressing in words how complicated it is. But it’s also a lot more complicated than most people think it is.
… yes. In quantum superposition, it’s rarely two states outside theoretical models. Three states, about the same. The actual quantum superposition would most likely be about infinite number of states.