Daria and Elena had been sharing a hotel room in Manhattan while getting settled. For them, getting settled had meant getting men.
After the nice hotel room in which Daria had been staying the smaller and rather shabby one in the Connected College building was something of a letdown. However, it did contain a bed, and that bed regularly contained her lover, Nisanir Ebanti. The two were so compatible that being together seemed a dream.
When Elena Antoniev obtained her own man, Chen Wen Lang, from China, she had two reasons to be happy. She was no longer under the thumb of Daria and she now had someone to love, a man of her one. No longer would she have to wait most of a month until Ken Green again had time for her.
A nursery and daycare had quickly been set up for children, and would take care for Ken’s infants by these two mothers during the day, when they were at classes. At other times the young women would have to care for their own babies themselves, but their lovers had been selected with great care. Each would be content to share in the raising of another man’s child.
Neither of the young women appreciated just how difficult it had been to find their new lovers, because most of the work had been done by software. Getting the software to handle this sort of problem had been hard, but Drake Phillips had been up to it. Of course he had plenty of help since programming abilities were not in short supply in the Tech Fantasies community.
Finding students with fewer constraints had been easier. Whereas Daria and Elena needed men to share not only their beds but the raising of their children, finding them best friends of their own genders was relatively easy. Daria was matched with a girl named Bira, from the Kashmir, while Elena had been matched with a girl named Anita from Mexico city.
The tall blonde Elena and the short Anita with her Mediterranean complexion were both shy by nature, but together their confidence and ability to put themselves forward in public grew strong.
In the social context of her lover Nasanir and best friend Bira, Daria seemed to better channel her natural aggressiveness into more productive roles. She quickly became less demanding and more cooperative, or at least made demands on behalf of other students instead of herself.
The college was new and growing fast. It needed someone like Daria to take on an advocacy role for those less confident or more confused students arriving from distant places. Though she laid too many problems in his lap, Drake was glad to have someone like her helping out.
“Dr. Phillips. The students need more income. You are hiring staff from outside when you should be paying students to work in the college.”
“Dr. Phillips. As long as we have more rooms than we need, please move us around so that the rooms we are in can be cleaned up and painted.”
“Dr. Phillips. We are changing class composition so fast that many of the others can’t keep up. I do not have that problem myself, of course, but look at poor Elena and Anita. They thought things would have settled down by now.”
Well things would not settle down for a long time yet, Drake was sorry to tell her. This first year was going to be a bit chaotic, but everyone would learn more because of it. The charter students, as they were called, would not only be the first, but the best.
The building that Drake had selected from those nominated by Sarah Rivers had been divided into an old hotel and what had been office space. Residences and classrooms were held at first in hotel rooms needing little renovation, while the office space in the building was converted for the same uses.
Before the winter holidays came, all the students from afar who lived in residences were moved into newly converted rooms, which were comfortable and attractive. Not all of the offices had washrooms in them, so they had been added. All that plumbing had taken a lot of time, but was worth it. Daria was almost satisfied.
Class compositions would continue to vary as new students arrived, but classes would now take place in attractive rooms, each with a built in video wall opposite the students’ desks.
Upgrading the old hotel section of the building would take a while and not be cheap, but Ken Green had promised to pay for it. Its cost would be insignificant to a man of his extreme wealth. Because of Ken’s use of professional personnel for these tasks, there was less need of volunteer work, but volunteers did help moving in faculty, staff and students, as well as unpacking and setting up laboratory equipment.
Kelly Phillips was only nine the year the college began. She eagerly accompanied her father to his college building on weekends, doing whatever she could to help out. Kelly enjoyed working beside others in the building. It gave her a good feeling and helped her find friends. Too young for the only school based on compatibility, her mother’s Social Tech High, she did not have many friends at school. Naturally gregarious, she wanted and sought out the company of others. Volunteer work helped a lot.
There were recent graduates of Social Tech High in the new Connected College, but under the agreed upon rules, all such students had to demonstrate acceptance by another school in the city and plead their individual cases before being permitted to enrol in the college. Drake’s wife, Sally Aston, principal of Social Tech High, was doing everything she could to push her graduates towards other colleges and universities. She actively opposed their admission to Connected College, but some did get in. Their experiences at Social Tech High made them familiar with the general idea behind both institutions, so they could be a big help in getting the college organized.
“How big do you want this college of yours to be?”, Sally had asked suspiciously when she had first seen the selected building.
“Isn’t there a natural limit to these things?” Drake asked. “Why did the school settle down to about 4200 students?”
“You know the answer to that as well as I do. We filled the building.”
“More than one building. The main one full of classrooms, plus various residences scattered around on various floors of nearby buildings, in whatever space you could find. Well, we don’t want things split up like that. Everything will go in our one building: residences, cafeterias, daycare facilities and of course classrooms.”
“You must have an estimate, Drakie. Out with it.”
“Yes. We won’t be boarding out our international students much at all, because most will be in couples. Also they will have best friends who probably live in the building. Most students will probably want to be near their friends, even if they could live elsewhere. So, pretending that every student is part of a couple occupying a single room, and knowing that our class size is eight, we have estimated that we will need four times as many residential rooms as classrooms. That is a lot. In our twelve story building we won’t end up with 500 rooms, but let’s pretend we did. That would be 100 classrooms, 400 residential rooms. At 8 students per class, that is only 800 students.”
“Yeah, we get a lot more in our classroom building by having all our residences elsewhere and by boarding out a lot of students. OK, I don’t feel as threatened by 800 students as I did by the idea of more. There will still be some of mine lured away from good universities by your college, but if there is not room for too many of them, all the better for me.”
“You are an impossible woman, Sally Aston.”
“I try.”
The hardest students to get were those of a senior class. It would be a two year college at first, then would give out diplomas to those who had arrived as seniors. At that point it would become a four year college, with most of those two-year graduates staying on for a third year. In most cases the upper levels would be transfer students with some college or university behind them. Persuading them to transfer was not easy.
The only thing that the college had in its favour, the only thing that made it attract transfer students was its relationship to the now famous Social Tech High, but Sally insisted that the relationship be downplayed so that few of her students would be tempted by it. Therefore most of the recruitment was active rather than passive. There was little advertisement, none locally in New York, and students were not encouraged to apply. Instead students were invited. The various Social Technology databases were combed for students who might fit into the college, then they were invited.
These invitations were usually like those brought about because Daria and Elena had entered the college. Each young woman needed a man of her own and a best friend, so together they had generated four invitations to the college. The presence of Daria had led to the presence of Nisanir and Bira. Nasanir was now expected to find a highly compatible male friend. He had a month to do this himself, or one would be found for him. Bira had been selected in part because she would not bring with her the baggage of a marginally compatible man. She could have either been attached to a sufficiently compatible one, or free to choose one of her own. In fact she was unattached and would find someone after arriving in New York.
“Bira, you must seek a man soon”, Daria told her, “you are running out of time. If you don’t find yourself one soon, the college will act like an overaggressive dating service and push you towards various young men, until the pressure makes you pick one. You would not want a man in your bed who was not invited there at your own initiative. Let me help you.”
“Daria, you are almost an overly aggressive dating service yourself. I will do what I want. But what I want does happen do be a man. But I am from a country which will not accept sex outside of marriage. I must have a husband or no man at all.”
“Get a husband, then. Ask the system for one. Let me help you.”
“You are my best friend, Daria, and I love you dearly. But go away, please. I’ll do what I want.”
She left it almost to the last minute, but before the time came when the college would start becoming a nuisance, Bira announced her engagement to a young man she had never met. Happily they had been able to use video, so they were not strangers. Bira had to fly back to India for the wedding, which was to another person from the subcontinent, marginally acceptable to her parents. That was all she had hoped for, acceptance of the young man into the family, not enthusiasm for him. They married there, then flew back to New York, where he would become a Connected College student.
The creation of these chains would not be enough, but cross-linking became more and more frequent as the college grew. Sometimes Drake cheated. Where it was not possible to link two chains together, he sometimes found a person in another institution who could fill the gap. So some students from New York University, for example, had two friends at Connected College, and served to bind them together.
While struggling with the creation of this two-year college, Drake was working very hard to turn it into a four-year one. This was his plan all along, but could he really achieve it?
Sally and her colleague Ann Kelly placed small bets on it. Sally voted against her husband, though desperately hoping she was wrong.
One way Drake had made the two-year college attractive was with a large faculty to student ratio. Major donors to the Social Technology Education organization had given enough money to hire all the faculty members needed for the full four-year college right away, as soon as it opened.
“The faculty will all stay on”, Drake told his wife the day the college opened, “and I guess maybe 2/3 of the diploma class will stay on for a third year, so I’ll have to dig up just enough transfer students to fill the four-year college as soon as the higher levels open.”
“A year from now.”
“Yes.”
“While keeping up the compatibility requirements.”
“Yes.”
“I see. And a year from now you will have 200 students per level.”
“Right.”
“You’re dreaming.”
“Wasn’t Social Tech High just a dream when you started out?”
“Yes, but I had your help setting up my school. Now I am too busy to help you set up your college. Which reminds me. You need to get yourself a male friend.”
“I don’t get along with men. But oh, I see what you mean. I can hardly place that requirement on my faculty and students if I don’t meet it myself.”
“Yes, idiot. But more than that, you need someone to help you. Recruit a guy, a best friend, someone who can help you put together the college. I have Ellen Smith and Alma Renwick. I’m lucky. Two friends willing to help with everything. Too willing sometimes, but good people. Get yourself at least one. Whether you get along with men or not. Do it.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
After this little discussion fired them up, the loving couple found the need to couple even more passionately than usual. As they were resting afterwards, Sally told Drake how much she hoped he’d succeed and promised to help in any way she could. She didn’t mention betting Ann that he’d fail.
The next day, reluctantly and sceptically, Drake used his own profile data to seek a compatible person to be vice-president of the college. He went through the contact procedure and eventually reached a man named Dan Burchell.
“Let me be clear about this, Dr. Phillips. You want me to abandon my commitments to Green University to work at an unknown college in New York.”
“I know Ken Green quite well. I am sure there will be no problems with you leaving there. He is also the single largest donor to the college and he has expressed his great interest in us.”
“Well, that would make me feel better about backing out of commitments made. Tell me again why I should.”
“I need a competent vice-president. That person will have to be someone I can work with. Ideally that means someone meeting our college’s compatibility requirements. Whether we ever become friends is beside the point. We need to be able to work together. The system we use to select people recommended you.”
“I don’t think being vice-president of an unknown college compares favourable with been dean of a faculty at a first rate university.”
“It will certainly be more of a challenge. We will pay you more money. And New York City itself is itself an attraction. We shall not be an unknown college long. We have a large budget and will hire the best faculty from all over the world.”
“Good points, but still, it would be a big step to take. I’d need a better reason.”
“Do you know about Social Tech High.”
“Of course I do. I run the faculty of education here, so I know what goes on. Social Tech High is world famous.”
“Well then, let me tell you this. In everything but name we are an upward extension of Social Tech High. My wife is the principal of that school.”
“Sally Aston? She’s your wife? Interesting. Why not a Social Tech University, then?”
“Shh! Don’t even whisper that name. Sally would kill me. She hates the idea of any institution which would tempt some of her students away from existing first-class universities. But I’ll let you into a little secret. There is a website of that name, http://www.SocialTechUniversity.org/ which contains interesting hints about a possible future institution.”
“I’m interested. But I think I should talk it over with Mary Charles, the president of Green U.”
“May I make a suggestion? I assume she is independent, but open to suggestions, particularly from Ken Green. Let me talk to Ken first, then see what happens.”
“Alright. Get back to me then.”
Drake called Ken Green and explained the situation to him.
“So. You want our Dan Burchell, do you. Well, that should be possible. His job is highly sought after, Mary could fill it in microseconds. Suppose I persuaded her to hold it open for Dan until the very last minute. She could let him go to work with you for a while, perhaps. Let me see what I can arrange. She has the final decision, but I have the power of the purse.”
Soon Dr. Mary Charles phoned from Green U. “You want Dan? Are you insane? Do you really think we’d let him get away from us?”
“Well, I’d hoped so, yes.”
“Well, Ken talked me into lending him to you for a year, if he is willing to go. I won’t tell you what deeply personal favour Ken promised me in return. Dan can go. His associate-dean will be acting Dean of Education for one year, on the understanding that Dan is definitely coming back. If the fool prefers to stay at your piddling college, then so be it.”
This settled, a rather surprised Dan Burchell found himself arriving in New York, where he was met by Drake himself.
“We’ve set you up in a hotel for the moment, Dr. Burchell. We can talk about more permanent things later. Our college building was an old hotel. It had four large and luxurious penthouse suites, which have been completely renovated, though we had no clear purpose for them. I’ll offer you one, rent free, but you don’t have to take it. It would just be convenient. Maybe too convenient. You might prefer to live further away from your work.”
“I am not the least bit concerned about that right now. I’ll find something. Meanwhile, I have work to do, at least I hope I do. I’d like to get busy right away.”
“OK, we have an office set up for you in the building. You can change it later if you don’t like it.”
As it turned out, the computer was right again. Drake and Dan were able to work well together. What’s more, they wanted to. Drake had never felt comfortable around men and never had a close male friend in his life. Dan would be the first.
Eventually the fall did pass, room conversion went through, and the college settled down with a full set of faculty and two years worth of students, about 490 people in all. Ann pressed Sally to collect on their bet, but the latter pointed to the letter of law, the details of their agreement, and would not pay up for another year.
Even by cheating, Drake did not get everyone in the college linked up before spring break. To do it at all he had to bring in even more students than anticipated. He ended up with 570 students, for two years of what was to be an 800 student four-year college. But finally they were indeed all connected up. Connected College was at last fully connected.
This meant something. Information flows across connections between highly compatible people at enormous rates and they also have an error-correcting ability, as compatible people exhibit little error-covariance – the tend not to make the same kinds of mistakes. So once fully connected up, the college had powerful communications and information processing abilities.
It has been said that a single bright individual can always do better than a committee. In part this is so because of squabbling amongst members of the committee, and in part it is because of poor communication between them. These problems did not exist at either Social Tech High or Connected College. There, groups of people could function efficiently together. Most often these groups were organized as classes, which were nothing at all like classes at ordinary schools or colleges. Connected College classes were different someways from their counterparts in the high school, but worked just as well.