The Chronicles of Daniel Chin

A story from the Age of Majesty series

Episode 1: First Day of School

Daniel Chin hovered over the children, gazing down at them with billions of eyes. As he floated above, he studied them and even took an occasional cell sample from their bodies when the opportunity presented itself.

It was the morning period of the school, which meant this was the first class to attend that day. He counted 33 adolescent humans, 17 female & 16 male. Of the 33, 19 of them carried books, while six opted to carry book bags instead.

Curiously, he noted that of those with books, 78.9% are females. From this, he concluded that human females coveted books more than their male counterparts did.

“That is the kind of information you must leverage,” the voice said to him.

Daniel thought that over— his mind stretching out to the numerous possible ways that such a seemingly insignificant detail could serve his purpose.

Do not overcomplicate it, the voice said. It is only one piece of data that will comprise the mission program you will execute.

Daniel felt relieved at that. He devoted a full microsecond of analysis and came up with an array of 402 ideas– none of which produced an acceptable probability of success. Only 22 of the ideas had a weighted sum greater than…

“You are not thinking like a human,” the voice interrupted, “quit being so precise— you must allow for approximation and chance in your thinking. This is an important lesson to learn.”

“Approximation and chance?” he thought silently.