Yesterday a girl I know well called me. I hadn't talked with her for almost 3 weeks so she wondered what I was up to. Had I gotten a girlfriend? I said no, I was away for a few days and was feeling antisocial after that. “So you didn't go out then?” she asked, “I was hoping you would have, you need a girlfriend”. I said I had been thinking - about my stuff – and that I just need time to do that sometimes. She said that I do that a lot and that other things are important too, probably more important even. I know she has a point.

I'm quiet so she asks me what was so important this time. I start telling her about Freeman Dyson, about the Orion project, 800 nukes, how they in the 60s were convinced they would travel the solar system in spaceships for thousands of people. Then I feel I have to explain why this is important so I start talking about how I think the future is going to go in a certain direction and that there is something called “The rule of falsifiability”, and I end up explaining about the white and black swans and she gets to stop me. She says men never grow up and insists I need a woman.

She's one of the shiny ones, the kind who seem to be born with a perfect social pitch. She can light up the room she walks into and change a shitty mood to a good one by raising an eyebrow at the magic moment. She can maim too, just as easily, if a man lets her. I used to wonder how come I seem to keep ending up with her kind. But fuck that now. Fact is, this moment, if it wasn't for her, I'd be a robot.

-Splicer

Sounds like she's good for you.

Darwin built her well.

(she disagrees with that of course)

-Splicer