The code between researchers is that we tacitly agree to be allies. We know that talking about our projects helps everybody find better solutions and make better connections. When you have a lot of different knowledge sets working together, it’s easy to see how a problem in one area can create a solution in another.
But we don’t tell each other things just for career advancement. Sometimes it just sucks to know some of the things we know, so we have to unload to someone who understands. Everyone maintains their balance differently. Personally, I do a lot of side-projects, I talk openly with other researchers, I go to therapy, and I take a lot of walks.
Today I’ve walked to the park to meet my research buddy, and we’re on the bench where I’ve just confessed about the poison.
“The poison is over the top. That stuff is garbage. Really bad stuff. You know that.”
“Yeah. So my new idea on the rats is to use tracking devices, instead. Check this out:”
My buddy adjusts himself on the bench.
“Just feed the rats a little tracking device. Micro. Super easy to control a population that way, right? You control a population, you just know where everybody is all the time, and then you can just, you know, genocide. Boom. And you can pick them off individually if the group disperses. Just a little rat genocide, and you can do it any time because you always know where they are. Even if you did use poison, you could still track down each fatality to make sure its remains didn’t commingle with the next generation. Super convenient, contained rat genocide with no poison spill-over.”
“Don’t think that hasn’t been done.”
“Which part? We fed tracking devices to rats?”
“Not rats.”
He says not rats a little too heavy, and when my buddy’s tone shifts like this, I know he’s talking about work without saying he’s talking about work, and I know this game. It’s a thing he does. He wants to tell, and he wants me to know about his work, but he won’t ever quite say.
Not rats. What other kind of group is a–a group the likes of which our employers would think need to be tracked? The group, like the rats, would be perceived to be a nuisance of some sort, a group whose population could cause problems if it got out of hand, a group that couldn’t control it’s own food source, necessarily, so maybe there’s some forced migration in there because of food or–
Holy fuck, I think. “Refugees?” I ask.
“What do I know.”
“Well, I still want feedback on my rat-tracking idea,” I say, but it comes out awkward, self-centered and not funny.
“It’ll work,” he says.
*****
Current Sh*t 