The Set Theory Guide for Artists

The Station

Carmody had picked out her outfit for that Friday at the beginning of the week. Grey on grey on grey. And no not like that stupid book from the 90s. She was trying a new outfit-planning schedule and it was going pretty well. Carmody was artistic. Almost everyone in the station was artistic. Except for a few people, like Fleet. Thankfully Maggie had a particular interest in understanding and talking to non-artistics, and spent a lot of time with Fleet so that Carmody could have the office to herself. That’s what I get for signing up late for offices. While Carmody was bothered by her office assignment she was very happy with her job assignment. She got the job she wanted: delivering mail to all the student offices by hand, on a cart, just like in the 90s.

The station was built in the late 2020s and even then on Earth the numbers messed with people’s sense of time. Because it was awkward to say “the nought noughts” or “the teens”, the trends, songs, books, and even events that happened during these decades were assigned in people’s minds to either the 90s or the 20s. Though, most of the time it got put in the 90s; the higher the decade the more fun stuff must have happened. The 90s really meant anytime between 1972 and 2019, and even into the 20s and 30s. All of the media in the station was reproduced and repackaged by the station, and when Y2.1K happened a lot of the real publication dates were lost and replaced and now incorrectly stated a 1990s publication, further solidifying this mindset. Because the station was so beautifully designed in the first place and every detail was carefully selected and because the population grew so slowly year to year, the culture at the station was happily stuck in the 90s.

This was Carmody’s second week of school and second full week of her job. She loved the job. Her job was to walk to the 8 graduate student offices and deliver the mail. She could decide the order and how she got from one set of offices to another. There were many ways to get from one office to another. Even though graph theory is for babies, Carmody liked to look at her map and count all the different ways she could do her job. The first year offices also had tunnels that led to all of the other offices except for the 5th year offices. It was best if the 1st year students left the 5th year students alone because they were said to be a little frazzled and had their own tunnels to the other offices for support. Carmody walked across campus to drop off the mail to the 5th years. In the middle of campus were the dorms where all of the graduate students lived, while everyone else lived outside of the equivalencies. The equivalencies were where all of the graduates worked. Most of the adults at the station are research professors working in the equivalencies, so that no one had to teach very often, and most work was done in independent study. Very often the graduate students taught the grade school, high school, and undergraduate classes. But since basically everyone was able to teach, no one spent much time teaching. There were people that chose to teach more than others, and were highly regarded for making this choice (their coffee cups were always full) and would teach in big lecture halls.

Outside of the equivalencies was the bowling alley, bookstores, coffee shops, and even roller coasters. Carmody also liked to plan what she would think about during her mail route, and today she wanted to think about a perfect day after graduation. She would wake up in her house next to the roller coasters. Every morning she would ride one ride and then head to her research position in the garden. After work every day she would walk back home and spend 2 hours with the roller coasters. That will be the life. The offices and equivalencies were designed after a large cardinal. It is said that this large cardinal united mathematicians in the 90s because of its wide variety of equivalent definitions: one flavor for every mathematical interest. Not that the mathematicians needed any further reason to bond or unite, they were always a tight-knit group like a beehive, but this large cardinal had that star quality that brought everyone together.

“Hey Carmody! Beautiful day in the station!”

“Yes indeed. Can’t wait to hit the big swings this weekend!”

“Me too! See you!”