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Chapter V The Rosetta Stone
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In a short time, they were walking on the beach. Both Dave and Irwing had put on bathing suits, and they wore shirts to protect themselves from the strong sun. Susan wore a pair of old jeans. All three wore caps and they'd left their shoes in the bungalow. While they walked, Irwing, as the team leader, chose to touch on the subject of their upcoming meeting in veiled language.
Irwing turned to walk backwards and look at his footprints in the sand for a few moments before he pointed at some stones rising from the water a hundred meters away, “People, suppose I'm stranded on that small island over there. And let's suppose that I know the island will sink in a short time, and that I will die.” He paused meaningfully, then continued. “Let's suppose I have an empty bottle, a piece of paper, and a pencil. What should I write on the paper that I'm going to put into the bottle and send out to sea? My life story? Why I'm stuck on this island? Why I will die?” He stopped a moment and asked them, “What would you do?”
Susan and Dave walked in silence beside Irwing, waiting for him to finish his analogy. They knew Irwing was hoping to prompt some kind of answer from them.
“Let's suppose that I've found gold, a treasure hidden on the island. Would I reveal this secret in the message I put in the bottle, even though I now have little time to live, and knowing that it will not be me who will enjoy that wealth?” He stopped in the sand, removed his glasses, and said, “I've been asking myself this question for so long, and I still don't know what I would do. I will only know the answer to my question the day I'm stranded on a deserted island, ready to die. Then, I'll—”
“There is a feasible shortcut,” interrupted Susan. “An easy way to decide what to do.”
“What shortcut?” Dave asked.
“You write all the things you could say on a piece of paper, then you toss a coin for each thing. If it's heads, you put it in your message; if it's tails, you don't.” She smiled slightly and continued. “For example, you make a note to say something about the treasure. If heads, you say something about the treasure; if tails, you don't say anything about the treasure. And you continue this way for each of the subjects you can write about.”
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