Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things Read Online Free Page A

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    “ That should keep him busy. If anyone has the patience to actually
count to infinity, it’s Achilles. Thank you for your assistance, Miss Ipsum.”
    “You’re welcome, Mister Tortoise,” said Laurie. “I didn’t know
something so big could be so small.”
    “That’s the Power of Two,” said Tortoise. “If you cut a number into
two halves, then cut it in two again, and so on, very soon it will be too small to see. But there
will always be something left over.”
    “Mister Tortoise, do you know how long this road is? It feels like it goes on forever.
I’m trying to get to Symbol.”
    “This road is quite long,” he replied. “In fact, it is
infinite.”
    “Oh, no! How do I get to the end?”
    “You can do it in two simple steps.”
    “How?”
    “How do you think? A step with your right foot, then a step with your left foot,”
said Tortoise. “Your point of view is what’s important. It’s
integral.”
    Of course! If an infinite string could be less than two inches long, then an infinite road
could certainly be less than two steps, if you looked at it in the right way. Laurie closed her eyes
and took a deep breath. She tried to imagine an infinite road. That was a little too much to handle,
so instead she imagined a really, really, really, really long road. Then she imagined folding it in
half. Then she folded it in half again, and again, and again, and again . . .
    When Laurie opened her eyes, Achilles and Tortoise were gone. The infinite road was a tiny,
short thing now, hardly more than a stepping stone. She stepped forward with her right foot. Then
she stepped again with her left foot. In front of her was a road sign that read . . .

Chapter 5. Welcome to Symbol

    The town of Symbol was surrounded by high, perfectly smooth walls. A large stream split into
two and flowed around either side of the town.
    “Do you know anything about this place?” Laurie asked.
    “The people are kind of strange,” said Xor.
    “What does that mean?”
    “You’ll see.”
    The path led to a gateway with a turnstile. It looked like this: ╞
    Two boys about Laurie’s age were guarding the gateway. One wore a bright white suit and
a black shirt. The other had a bright black suit and a white shirt.
    Maybe they’ll ask me a riddle , Laurie thought. Or
I’ll need to figure out which one is a liar and which one tells the truth! Laurie
had read a lot of fairy tales, you see. She believed she was figuring out how this place
worked.
    “Name?” asked one.
    “Laurie Ipsum.”
    “Password?” asked the other.
    “Why, I don’t know the password,” Laurie said.
    “Then you may not enter!” the boys said in unison.
    “That’s not much of a riddle.”
    “A riddle? Ha ha, no, begging your pardon, miss. That’s not how it works. There
are no riddles, no bets, no liars, and no truth-tellers. We’ve read those books too,
haven’t we, Tollens?”
    “Yes, we have, Ponens. There’s none of that mythic fairy-tale stuff in our System,
miss. Word games and clever riddles, ha! That’s just bad security!”
    “But that’s not fair!” cried Laurie. “How do I get
inside?”
    “It’s very simple,” said Ponens. “If you have a password, then that
means you can pass through the semantic turnstile.”
    “If you can’t pass through the turnstile, then that means you don’t have a
password. It’s only logical,” Tollens said. “Do you have a password?”
    “No, I don’t know what it is,” Laurie said.
    “Then you may not enter!” they said again, together.
    “Can you give me a hint?” Laurie was sure she could guess the password, given some
kind of clue.
    “Yes, hints are part of the System,”