Mr. Mann

What?

No, I wasn't paying attention Miss Billingsworth. Terribly distracted - I'm having trouble focusing on anything.

Really? It doesn't seem like an attention deficit is something that could be caught, but I will take you at your word.

There's no reason, no root cause - at least nothing I can point to. Things have been proceeding as well as they ever have...

Like Winnipeg street in the spring yes. Guess I've used that one a little too often. Consistency, habit is everything, so the minor disruptions are the norm. Can't say that the disruptions are more or less "normal" - I don't have some kind of crisis bell curve that I can pin things to. No, it is a general feeling of unease. But why would anyone else be experiencing the same deviations? There must be a common thread...

No Miss Billingsworth, I don't think that you are the source. I thought my calm demeanor would point to the opposite conclusion. Excellent idea to search for simplest commonality. No, it has to be something else. I suspect it is something more ephemeral, something like the great conjoining of coincidence, of relationships and news stories, things with no really business being in common...

I am not paranoid!

Yes I sound paranoid, but I'm not! This is not some delusion, some conspiracy theory. It is a different kind of sensibility. The human mind can behave as a giant filter, something that most call "intuition". Intuition is the result of filtering new experience through the canvas of experience. Since it is an emergent property of the mind, it is impossible to point to a simple conglomerate of facts as the cause of any output.

Well, do you?

So, if I'm not crazy and you still don't agree, what is the basis for your disagreement?

But the mind is an evolving thing. It has a purpose, if not a life, of its own that is in constant flux. Not that everything is changing all the time, but that any change is possible implies that novel abilities emerge.

This isn't some Marvel universe where magic DNA alterations lead to special powers. Powerful new properties could emerge at any time. They may never be recognized or repeated, so that makes it difficult to prove my point. I think...

Well, if someone could possibly relive our conversation in the roiling future-now, I'm sure they'd agree with me.

No it isn't fair, but I've already asked them and they agree.

Well, I have a number I can call....

No you may not have it! It violates several of the classical laws of space-time so...

I don't know some kind of cellphone. All I know is that it is wireless.

Motorola?

I can't believe you thought it was true! You're so naive Miss Billingsworth!

No, it's a compliment! If you aren't naive, I should go into politics. Some kind of post-Einstein intergalatic communication platform - "Everyone must be able to communicate across the cosmos before we can solve our problems here!"

Alien Phil - very funny. Who would want to talk to that - it probably tell you to stop calling and solve your own problems.

So, do you still think I'm off base with the idea of emergent mental properties?

All it took was some time and a gravitational cell phone to convince you!

Gravitational - bends the fabric of space time...

Guess that is too much of a leap. Still haven't figured out what is bothering me though...