Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things (12 page)

“How can you have a sign pointing to Lost things? Wouldn’t that make them
Unlost?” asked Xor.

“Maybe they’re only Lost until you find them,” Laurie mused.

“That makes sense.” Xor replied. They took the left path.

“Comp . . . no,
Mostly
Lost,” Laurie decided. Left
again.

“You know, I don’t see millions of paths,” said Xor. “There’s
only ever two.”

“Not-Small!” they said together.

“Everything is bigger than me,” said Xor. “Let’s go
right.”

Not that big!
They went right again.

Laurie had seen quite enough of lighthouses, too. She tried to go left, but a Shelled Green
Round animal barred the way.

“We meet again, Miss Ipsum,” it said.

“
Mister Tortoise!
What are you doing here?”

“I’m enjoying a special treat,” said Tortoise, taking a bite out of the
greenery. “I help keep the mandelbroccoli bushes in the Garden nice and trim. For me it is a
delicious chore. And what are you doing here, Miss Ipsum?”

“I’m looking for the nearest exit so I can deliver a letter.”

Tortoise seemed to smile. Of course, he always seemed to be smiling. “There are millions
of paths through the Garden. All of them are exactly the same length.”

She tried to picture so many paths side-by-side. “I don’t understand. If there are
so many, where are they?”

“They are all around you. Every path forks off from another path,” Tortoise said.
“One path becomes 2, 2 becomes 4, then 8, 16, and so on. After 24 forkings, there are over 16
million different paths.”

“Oh! It’s the Power of Two again. But this time it gets bigger instead of
smaller,” Laurie said.

“Exactly right. You are currently on the path to Things that are Familiar, Old,
Interesting, Mostly Lost, Bigger Than You, and Smaller Than a Mountain,” said Tortoise.
“I suppose I am one of them.”

“So how do I choose which forks to take?”

“I suggest choosing wisely. Good day, Miss Ipsum.” Tortoise turned and walked
slowly and steadily down the left-hand path.

“Wait! I don’t know what you mean!” Laurie ran after him. Catching up with a
Tortoise should have been easy. But with every step he got farther and farther away. By the time
Laurie got to the next fork, he was nowhere to be seen.