The Imaginary

The second in the three part Homo Sol series.

In the Homo Sol stories, the Galactic Federation has developed psychology into a hard science, with quantitative equations and solutions for behavior. Consequently, master psychologists are important and highly regarded.

Psychologist Tan Porus of Arcturus University has come up with a daring explanation for the mind of a particular squid species which has baffled all other Federation scientists. His formula relies on the use of imaginary numbers in its intermediate steps, which cancel out at the end and provide real answers matching the squid's observed behavior. His colleagues are outraged by this unorthodoxy.

While Porus is on leave at home, two of his students read about a series of experiments using magnetic fields and radiation to induce reactions in invertebrate animals. They devise a stimulus based on those techniques which should lead to imaginary numbers in the result of the squid equations.