Math Cat

Grading tests is a two person job in a multiple cat household. I fend off the cats while Laurie grades, but with their concerted effort, Guildenstern broke through and put himself in the middle of the grading. There must be some genetic trigger in cats that gets flipped the minute you spread anything out on the counter, giving them an irresistible urge to get in the middle of whatever you are working on. We can clean off the counter and no cats will come near it, but set a book, paper or start a project and a cat will materialize on it before your eyes.  I'll bet cats inspired the transporter in Star Trek, given their ability to suddenly appear on things.

Speaking of Star Trek, I attended a talk by Gene Roddenberry at UNM in the late '70s. I was disappointed in his talk because he thought that television was going to become the revolutionary system for communication, education, etc. in the same way that the personal computers, smart phones and the Internet have become today. I've often thought about how he completely missed the boat with his ideas on television, but if he would have placed emphasis on computers, he would have been right on and a real visionary. I guess the idea of computers becoming so much a part of our lives was still science fiction to him. Yet the original Star Trek relied very heavily on computers, more so than most science fiction of the day, and the communicators they used in the show are very much like cell phones today.  But Star Trek was set hundreds of years in the future, so to imagine that any of his science fiction from the sixties would become reality within his lifetime must of been way too far out for him to imagine. 

But that still leaves the question about how cats can suddenly materialize in the middle of whatever you're doing, or like Rosencrantz, somehow go through walls. Ronsencratz has been outside and then suddenly appears inside, vice versa, and neither of us remembered letting him in or out. His sudden appearances in places he shouldn't be and sudden disappearances from places he should be have become known as "Ronsencrantz moments" to explain any inexplicable experiences.  I believe Star Trek's transporters are still considered science fiction, but cats may just hold the secret to real transporters in the future.