"Okay," I said. "The next thing we need to cover is entropy. Do you know what entropy is?"
Zac scrunched up his face in thought. "I vaguely remember something in high school science class. It's to do with order and chaos, right?"
"That sounds like a steamy erotic novel," I said. "Like Fifty Shades of Grey, or something."
Zac picked up his phone. "How much do you wanna bet there is a steamy novel on Amazon called 'Order and Chaos'?"
"One bite of my Weiss bar! But I'm betting that the novel actually exists."
"Okay," Zac agreed. "But it has to exist on Amazon and be steamy."
"Define steamy."
"Oh, you know. Some kind of romance scenario."
"So it has to be steamy, but not necessarily erotic? Like, Fifty Shades of Grey erotic?"
"I haven't read Fifty Shades of Grey," Zac said.
"I guess I'm trying to assess the degree of steam required to win this bet. Are we talking a light shimmer on top of your morning coffee, or a full-on steam train exhaust pipe? And how would one assess the steaminess of said novel?"
"Whatever, Nikki. If there is a novel called 'Order and Chaos' on Amazon, then you get a bite of my Weiss bar. We will not create a steam-o-meter for this challenge. And now, drumroll, please…"
Zac typed the title into his phone, and we waited.
"Dammit!" He turned the phone around. "You win."
I punched the air in triumph.
Zac began reading the description in an alluring voice.
It’s a race against time for the teenagers in Shadow Hills. Jazmine is in a coma, Jayden’s been kidnapped, and Robyn is trying to figure out how to help them both.
Meanwhile, the spiders are swarming the neighborhood, getting ready to make their move.
Will Robyn save Jayden in time?
Will the killer strike again?
Zac sighed. "I love human creativity. The fact that someone can sit in their bedroom writing this story about spiders and kidnappings, and then someone on the other side of the world who wants to read about spiders and kidnappings can buy it in one click off Amazon... Isn't it marvelous?"
"Yeah, it's marvelous," I agreed. "I'll tell you what's even more marvelous, though?"
"What?"
"Collecting my winnings."
Zac begrudgingly opened his backpack. "A Borrowdale always pays his debts." He pulled the Weiss bars out of the insulator and opened the inner container, which was full of ice cubes.
I opened a bar up, took a large bite, and then handed it back to Zac. Then I opened my own Weiss bar.
"Black hole," Zac muttered.
"I'm sorry?"
"I said black hole. I was referring to your mouth."
I rolled my eyes. "Are you ready to begin?"
"Bring it."
"Okay, so, before we jump in, I want to outline what to expect on the next leg of this adventure. I'm going to conceptually derive the answer to life, the universe, and everything — completely from scratch. My model will start out incredibly abstract, and then I'll layer on more and more detail as we connect the dots. That way, the algorithm will make logical and philosophical sense when you finally come across it in a published scientific paper."
"What do you mean, 'When I finally come across it in a published scientific paper?' Haven't you formulated the algorithm yourself? I can just imagine you drawing numbers and equations on glass windows, like in A Beautiful Mind, and then yelling 'Eureka!' when you figure it out."
I doubled over in laughter. "Oh God, no. No, no, no, no, no. I'm an artist, not a mathematician. No. A renowned neuroscientist in England — the man responsible for most of modern-day brain imaging, and a serious contender for a Nobel prize — has been working on this algorithm his entire life, thinking he was uncovering the organizing principle of the brain. I don't know if he realizes that it's the organizing principle of everything."
"Oh yeah," Zac said. "It's like you said before: as above, so below. As below, so above. The organizing principle of consciousness is the organizing principle of the universe."
"Yes!" I grinned. "The scientific community already has the answer in their possession. They just don't know it yet because they completely misunderstand the nature of this riddle. I'm going to derive this algorithm philosophically, and then show you how it matches up perfectly with the published science. I'm also going to show you how to leverage this algorithm to sculpt your reality like clay, and effectively play this game called 'Life.'"
"That's a pretty bold promise," Zac said.
"Have I failed to deliver on my bold promises so far?"
"No. You've already shattered my world view."
"And now I'm about to build you a new one, so I suggest you pay attention. It's time to get our nerd on."
Zac pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'm ready."
