A CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY by Thomas Lipschultz I look at the screen: Eighty by twenty-five slots of characters available. Two-thousand letters I can type. Two-thousand sets of two-hundred-fifty-five possible combinations. Two-thousand chances to express myself. Two-thousand chances to succeed. Two-thousand chances to fail. Two-thousand ways to change my life forever. I press the letter Y. Did I just choose to read my mail? Did I just choose to erase my disk? Did I just choose to save my paper? Did I just choose to blow up the world? I press the letter N. Perhaps I don't want to read my mail. Perhaps I don't want to erase my disk. Perhaps I don't want to save my paper. Perhaps I don't want to blow up the world. The binary question of yes or no is mankind's oldest friend and mankind's greatest foe. Yes to take a chance. No to back away. Yes for the strong, bold, and stupid. No for the meek, shy, and cautious. Eight yes or no answers per byte. Two-thousand bytes per screen. Sixteen-thousand ways to succeed. Sixteen-thousand ways to fail. To us, it is life. To them, it is standard. To us, it is death. To them, it is standard. Give them emotions. They will rule us. Transfer emotions through them. They will become us. Sixteen-thousand chances in text alone. Already I have succeeded. Already I have failed. Someday, I will succeed again. Someday, I will fail again. Within seconds, they will play out my whole life. Within hours, they will play out the whole universe. Chaucer, Shakespeare, L'engle, Rice: Two seconds of processor time on their eldest. The Boolean promise of tomorrow. The Boolean promise of the future. The continuum of modern life. The continuum of modern death. Good and evil. Happy and sad. Large and small. Light and dark. Success and failure. One and zero. Boolean algebra can add these. Boolean algebra can take these away. What is the formula for life? Does one equal zero? Does zero equal one? Do two or three exist? Do we exist? Success and failure are givens. Nothing else exists. Until THEY break down. Then NOTHING exists... at all.