The Orthogonal Galaxy (32 page)

Paol nodded facetiously.
“Great… why weren’t you on my jury?” The quip was received with
more robust laughter from the veteran inmate.

With a deep voice, Blade
responded half-seriously, “They don’ let convicted felons serve on
juries.”

Paol actually weighed the
irony here. Rubbing his jaw he thought out loud. “You know, they
probably should. I mean, who better to spot a criminal than another
criminal. If I would’ve had a panel of felons on my jury, I bet
they get the case right!”

“
I dunno, Paol… sounds
like yer plan has a logical flaw.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Well, it’s
chicken-‘n-eggish, ain’t it? A real Catch-22. I mean, how d’ya ever
convict a felon, if ya’ already need twelve of ‘em to judge ‘em
by.”

Paol weighed this for a
moment. In a fresher state of mind, he probably would’ve made quick
sense of Blade’s logic, but in a few seconds the proverbial light
bulb came on. “Oh, right. You’re talking about the very first
criminal. In that case, there would be no previous criminals to
create a jury out of, since this was first person accused of a
crime. That’s downright sensible of you, Blade… very
rational.

“
Well, to solve that
problem, I suspect you could wait for the first thirteen accused,
and then have them sit through thirteen simultaneous trials, each
one serving as a defendant in their own, and then as a juror on the
other twelve.”

Blade frowned and shook
his head. “Now what’s gonna happen in that case, Paol? They’ll all
acquit each other, because they’ve all served as a team of jurors
with every other accused criminal. They’re all cronies together,
and they’ll all let each other off nice and easy. Then you’re just
back to where ‘ya started—with no convicted felons to serve on yer
jury. Don’t’cha see?”

“
Yeah, yeah,” Paol brushed
aside the criticism. “But, what if the judge mandated that at least
seven of them—over half—had to be convicted?”

“
In that case, I can
assure you that they won’t convict seven… they’ll convict thirteen,
sure enough.”

“
How can you be so sure?”
Paol drilled. “That wouldn’t be in their collective best interest.
They would need to determine a solution that would let six of them
off, while the other seven serve.”

“
Paol, d’ya go to
college?”

“
Well, yes,” answered
Paol, who was rather interested to see where his colleague would
take him with his reasoning.

“
D’ya study
math?”

“
Sure.”

“
Well, if you’d’a paid
attention, ya’ might’a learned ‘bout game theory, boy?” Blade was
starting to get rather animated, pacing up and down the cell
throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head.

At this revelation, Paol
was rather dumbfounded. He was actually enjoying the logical
exchange with his partner, but he assumed that it was his
street-smarts that gave him his ability to solve the problem. At
this statement, Paol realized that his cellmate actually knew the
mathematical branch of logic to which they had been addressing this
hypothetical situation they had created.

“
You know about game
theory?”

Ignoring the question,
Blade continued with his tirade. “Why in game theory, ya’ see one
of the prototypical case studies is the non-zero sum game called
the prisoner’s dilemma. In the dilemma, prisoners are given a
chance to cooperate with each other, or to defect against each
other. They all serve a lighter sentence if they all cooperates
together, but the cooperative prisoner who is betrayed by a
defectin’ prisoner will receive the harshest penalty, while the
back-stabber gets off free and easy.”

“
And if they all defect
against each other?” Paol admired as he appraised the
problem.

“
Stiff sentences all
around.”

Paol weighed the outcomes
out loud. “So the best solution for any prisoner is for him to
defect while all others cooperate, because he’ll be able to walk
without any jail time, right?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
I think you mean, yes,
Paol.”

“
Yes, Paol.”

“
So, the solution is
simple! You have to join a pact with everyone to cooperate and make
them understand that together, they will serve the lightest
combined sentence. Then, in private, you turn against the others
and defect, right?”

“
No!”

“
What? Did I look down
again?”

“
No,”
Blade attempted to clarify. “I didn’t mean ‘No, look up’, I meant
‘No, you’re wrong.’ Ya’ see, every mathematician understands that
the best
collective
solution is fer all to cooperate. But the best
individual
solution is
to defect.”

“
Why?” Paol
prodded.

“
Because, ya’ can’t make a collective bargain with a bunch of
prisoners and expect them to not turn and stab ya’ in the back,
just like you’re doin’ to them. There’s only one state of
mathematical equilibrium to the problem… everyone defects, because
it’s in everyone’s
self-interest.
”

Paol was impressed. “So,
tell me. Where did you learn about game theory?”

“
In that seat right over
there,” admitted the convict as he motioned to the seat that Paol
found him sitting in when he first entered into the life of this
enigmatic character.

Paol cocked his head and
raised an eyebrow.

Blade understood the
question.

“
Have a seat, Paol.” Blade
motioned to another hard wooden chair, sitting by the cot on the
opposite wall of the cell. He returned to his seat as well. With
the pair of odd-fellows seated, Blade continued.

“
I grew up right here in
Atlanta, Geo’gia—on the south side, in the ghetto… or I guess I
should say, the ‘inner city.’ Momma raised me and my two sisters
and two brothers in a small one-bedroom apartment. I dunno what
happened to my Pa… Ma never would tell us kids. I remember wakin’
up in the middle of the night with the sounds of gunshots and
sirens. It wasn’t much less rough durin’ the day, while we kids was
outside playin’ in the alleys. Ya’ couldn’t make it on yer own. Ya’
needs support, ya’ needs to rely on each other. So, by the time I
was ‘leven, I hooked up with a gang. I was pretty small fo’ my age,
so I wanted some personal protection too—had my eyes on a long
blade I saw in the window of a pawn shop just down the street from
where I lived. But I had no money… couldn’t steal it, ‘cuz it was
locked up in a glass case. Thought ‘bout breakin’ the case with a
rock or somethin’, but I figured I’d never get away, and the ‘ol
man in the shop was a big’un who’d give me a bruisin’ fo’
sure.

“
Well, I’d heard some of
my type in the gang was sellin’ drugs, so I figured I needed to
also, so I could get me that blade. Well, it was darn easy money,
so even after I bought it, I kep’ sellin’ the goods. Problem was,
there’s this other gang who thought we was workin’ too close to
their territory. So I had to use my blade to cut someone
up.”

“
How old were you?” Paol
asked, fascinated at the tale.

“
Fi’teen… and then I’s
real scared when he got himself outta the hospital, but he never
came after me. He had lots of problems with his Daddy beatin’ him,
and finally, he was just gone.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Disappeared. We suspected
that he done run off, but nobody knows fo’ sure. Anyway, there’s I
was in a real mess, sellin’ drugs and gettin’ in trouble. Ma knew
what I was doin’, but she never said nothin’ ‘cuz I gave her some
of the money she needed to help with the family.

“
When I turned seventeen,
my main bro’s on the street had this real dumb idea. They’s said,
‘Blade, get yo’ Momma’s car tomorrow fo’ some real business.’ I was
the only one who could drive, ya’ see. Well, we was drivin’ along
when Xavier tossed a handgun in my lap. ‘Fully loaded’, he said.
‘Just in case.’ He still never told me what was goin’ down when he
had me stop the car along a store front. They strolled into the
store, and was gone fo’ ‘bout two minutes when I’s heard some shots
and then they come runnin’ outta the store. They jumped in the car
and when someone else came limpin’ outta the store and started
firin’ at us, I took off… a little too fast.”

“
What
happened?”

“
The light at the
intersection was red, but I was lookin’ back in the mirror at the
poor foo’ who my bro’s shot up. He was still firin’ at us, when I
heard and felt a crash. We was hit on the passenger side by another
car. My buddy, X, couldn’t get out, but me and Kojo, who was in the
back seat, got out and ran off. Runnin’ down the street we heard a
voice yell, ‘freeze!’”. I looked and saw two plain-clothes types
runnin’ down the street towards us with their guns pointed at us.
Without thinkin’, I raised my arm and shot while runnin’. I never
used a gun befo’, so I was surprised when I saw one of ‘ems go
down. We kept runnin’ but we was stupid, ‘cuz we’d never get
away.”

“
Why not?”

“
Xavier was trapped at the
scene, and my Momma’s car would lead the cops right to her. I had
no chance. My public defender tried to get me off as an accomplice
to the robbery, seein’ how I didn’t know what X and Kojo was up to,
but it was no use to try and lighten the sentence of an aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon against a federal officer.”

“
Federal?”

“
Yep, they was two feds
who happened to be in the ‘hood that day. What luck,
huh?”

“
So, here I am serving 3
years as an accomplice, and 20 for takin’ down a fed… good thing I
only hit him in the leg. I’d be serving 40+ if I’d’a wasted
him.”

“
23 years, huh?”, Paol
shook his head sadly.

“
Yep, and seven of ‘ems
down, but I think I’ll be gettin’ sprung in another five or so—fer
good behavior ya’ know.”

“
But you still haven’t
answered my question. How do you know so much about
math?”

“
Well, my Momma’s brother
runs a car shop, and when I was startin’ to fall away, he tried to
bring me back to an honest livin’. Told me how I was breakin’ my
Momma’s heart, and if I wanted, he’d teach me to work on cars. I
never took him up on it. I wanted to, but I was young and stupid
and made all the wrong decisions. I had lotsa time to think ‘bout
everythin’ when I was throwed in prison. After the first week, I
thought so much ‘bout how I could be helpin’ my uncle at the shop,
and how my Momma wouldn’t have to cry every day while I’m here in
jail.”

“
Then, I had an
epiphany.”

“
An epiphany?”

“
Yeah, ya’ know a
precipitous manifestation of the essence or implication of
somethin’.”

Surprised by this
intelligent definition, Paol was knocked back in his seat. “Does
this epiphany involve a vision of a dictionary?” It was an
unexpected attempt at humor that even he wasn’t expecting from
himself, but now that he was thinking more about the poor life of
this kid, and was thinking much less about his own problems, he
allowed his own cares to lapse if but for a moment and returned to
his previous, jovial self.

Blade slapped himself on
the knee and whooped raucously at Paol’s banter. “Aw, that’s a good
one, Paol… you’re a funny man. No, it had nothin’ to do with a
dictionary, but if ya’ ever need to borrow one, I got me one, right
under here.”

Blade leaned down to point
under his cot, and Paol craned his neck to discover a vast
collection of books, large and small, under Blade’s bed.

“
Have you read all of
those?” Paol asked admiringly.

“
Most of ‘ems. Ya’ see,
the ‘precipitous manifestion’ that I had was that I could either
spend a dozen or two years feelin’ sorry fer myself, or I could
make somethin’ of the time. I mean, I’ll still be young enough to
do somethin’ with my life when I bust outta here, ya’ know? So, I
decided to read and learn, and ya’ know what?”

“
What?”

“
I really enjoy readin’
and learnin’ ‘bout new things. It’s enlightenin’, invigoratin’,
exhilaratin’, ya’ know?”

“
Um… hand me that
dictionary, would you?” Paol smiled for the first time, and Blade
responded with his most hearty round of laughter yet.

After Blade regained his
breath and wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, Paol
concluded, “So, this is where you’ve learned about
mathematics?”

“
That’s right,” Blade said
excitedly. “Ooh, hang on just a moment.” He knelt down, and Paol
watched him rifle through the books under his bed and mutter
incoherently to himself. “Where is it now? I thoughts it was over
there… Oh, that’s where’s I put ‘All Quiet on the Western Front.’…
been wantin’ to read that one… some good history there, I bet, just
decent… ah, here ‘tis.”

Blade returned to his seat
with a large hard-bound text book, titled,
Applied Mathematics, Volume II
.

Flipping through the
index, his fingers raced down the page, “Aha! Prisoner’s dilemma,”
he exulted. “There ya’ is, now.”