Research list:

  ● intelligent design

  ● evolution

  ● random

I tried to stack the flashlights in inventory, but they would not stack. I did not understand why, since they were the same size, the same shape and the same color. But they took two inventory slots regardless.

Husband said it was because they were "wear items," like tools or armor. "The bulbs age, the batteries run out of charge and so on, just like our gear has to be repaired after we use it. So they're not identical things."

"Charge?"

"Yeah, the batteries contain electric charge, which makes the bulb glow. When the charge is all used up the flashlight doesn't work until you get new batteries or charge the old ones."

"So, like ammunition for the flashlight."

"Exactly."

"So many things run out of things. You said cars use...?"

"Fuel, yeah"

"Why do people not make things that do not run out of things?"

"They claim they're trying to, or at least make things with more charge, or things that use less charge. But if they did, people who sold charge would make less money. If you had a flashlight that lasted forever, you'd never have to buy another. Or more batteries."

"So I cannot stack the flashlights because they are different? But I stored all those apples we bought in Stillwater, and they were all different."

"No, you stored a bushel basket full of different apples. If you'd stored both baskets it'd've taken two slots"

I began to appreciate Husband's "kits." In Eorzea he would sometimes make boxes that he would fill with different things, such as a complete set of Paladin gear, which would be a "paladin kit," or all the ingredients for a Culinarian quest, which would be a "cooking kit." We cannot see each other's inventory, but I sometimes imagined his as full of boxes.

His thinking must have come from this world. He still made kits, like the "camping kit," a large box for the tent, sleeping bags, water jugs and so on. Perhaps that is why he is trying to make more "ammo boxes" out of steel, to make more kits. I could store the flashlights in one.

Were all things different in this world? We harvest fruits and grains and ore here, and they are all the same. The apples we harvested stacked in our inventory, even though we harvested them in this world; I set five of them on the kitchen counter and they were all the same. I then went to May's and bought two different-looking apples, and they would not stack, yet I could make pies with both of them.

Apples come from trees. I walked through some woods on the way back home and looked at trees. They were all different in some way. I later searched wikipedia for apples and saw they come from flowers on the trees. Pictures I could find of apple flowers showed they might be all different. So not-identical trees made not-identical flowers that made not-identical apples.

"word for things all being different": "disparate, uniqueness, dissimilar". Other words seemed to talk about people.

"word for everything being unique": "uncommon, idiomatic, individual, alone". These did not feel like what I was looking for.

A related question got my attention. "what's the word for making everything the same?" "uniformity."

The Garleans liked uniformity. They wanted everyone to be the same, with the same uniforms, the same weapons, the same ideas, serving under the same flag. They said they were trying to save us from chaos by imposing order. But that was people and politics and perhaps society. It would not make all apples the same, would it?

Husband thinks we crystallize aether when we harvest. So perhaps all our harvested apples look the same because we have an idea of what an apple is, and we use that idea to make all our apples. But I can stack Husband's apples with my own, which would mean we are using the same idea. So where did that idea come from?

"word for making many of the same thing": "standardize, regularize, duplicate"

"duplicate": "make an exact copy of, reproduce, replicate"

But copy what, duplicate what, replicate what? Google was not answering my question. Or I was not asking the right question.

I could have discussed this with Husband. He likes to theorize. But he does not like to say how things are. He wants to observe his test subject showing him how things are.

We harvested faerie apples in Eorzea. The idea of a faerie apple was not new. I could buy them at the Bismark. So Husband and I both had that idea in the world before we harvested them.

But we had the idea of sunset wheat and moko grass and faerie apples in this world, yet we could not harvest them here. Where did the ideas of prairie wheat and okie grass come from? Google only comes up with businesses named Okie Grass, not okie grass as a thing. I do not remember whether Husband or I were the first to harvest in that area. Did he get the idea first and cause it to be what we harvested?

"where do ideas come from?": "Ideas often originate from dialogues in which an individual hears about a challenge and recognizes a new path for solving it. It is therefore crucial to create a space in which challenges are discussed openly and without fear, stimulating new solutions."

That did not answer the question I think I was asking, but it was interesting. It made me think of us making steel, how Husband was trying to do it the Eorzean way in Earth, while I saw the Earth way and tried to do that the Eorzean way. We wanted steel and we got steel. We found a steel solution.

What challenge does okie grass solve? How can I openly discuss it with Husband?

If not Husband, is there someone else I can openly discuss it with?

There are often no people at the Pit in the early afternoon. Sam looked up from wiping the bar when I came in. "Hey there. Yer husband's out back."

I climbed onto a stool. "Thank you, I know. May I have a Coke?"

We agreed to work for cider, but Coke is much cheaper for him, so he is happy to give me Coke. He filled a glass and brought it to me. "Lettin' him do all the work?"

"For the moment. I have thinking to do."

"Everything okay?"

"Yes, it is not a problem. Just understanding." I sipped my drink. "Where do ideas come from?"

Sam picked up a glass and started polishing it. He does it sometimes, like an idle NPC action. "What kinda ideas?"

I looked around. There was an empty beer bottle on the bar. "Bottles. Where do bottles come from?"

"Uh...bottlin' plant? Think there's one in Kansas."

"And where did they get the idea?"

"Of makin' bottles? Guess they thought they'd make money..."

"No, the idea of a bottle. Things come from ideas. Where did they get the idea of a bottle?"

"Uh...folks've been makin' bottles for, I dunno, like, thousands o' years?"

"But there must have been a time when there were no bottles. Someone made the first bottle. Where did that idea come from?"

"I...guess he...wanted to hold water?"

I sighed. "A new path for solving a challenge."

"S'pose so."

Sam kept polishing the glass. It did not need more polishing, but perhaps his hands needed something to do. He looked a little confused. He was not really answering my questions, but he was trying to listen.

"What about the ideas for other things? Like apples. What challenge does an apple solve?"

That made him look more confused. "Apples? They just kinda happen. They grow on trees an' stuff. People pick em an' eat em."

"But what about the idea of an apple? Where does that come from?"

"You talkin' 'bout intelligent design? I never b'lieved in that crap."

"Then how did the first apple happen?"

"...Think yer talkin' 'bout evolution."

"What is evolution?"

"Uh...random stuff happens til somet'n works, and then it keeps on workin'."

"An apple works? How does an apple work?"

Sam was starting to look pained. "It...grows on the tree, it falls off the tree, it makes a new tree, new tree makes more apples?"

"Lather, rinse, repeat."

"Heh, yeah."

"And once it works, apples are all the same?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

I brought out the bag of apples from May's store and placed two on the bar. "These are both apples but they are different."

Sam glanced down at the apples. "I s'pose..."

I then took two harvested apples from my inventory and put them on the bar. "These I harvested. They are identical."

Sam smiled slightly and looked at my apples. His smile went away as he kept looking. He put down the glass and cloth and picked up the apples to look closely at them. He turned them around in his fingers, tilted them up, tilted them down, looked closely at the stems and bottoms.

He went and got a small knife from a tray at the bar. He cut the apples through the middle and looked closely at the cut halves. After a moment he bit into one, chewed slowly and thoroughly, and swallowed. Then he looked at me.

"You picked these offa trees?"

"From trees, yes."

He looked down at the apples. He looked up at me.

"That's weird."

He was not looking at the apples. He was looking at me. He was not looking puzzled, or confused, or upset. He was looking serious. I thought about some other things he had said before.

"Does that mean I should not be talking about it?"

"Maybe."

I could not openly discuss this challenge. I gathered May's apples back into the bag and got off the stool.

"Hey, look...Miz Tsu'na..."

I stopped and looked at him. He seemed to be struggling with something.

"You pro'bly should be talkin' to yer husband 'bout this stuff, but if you can't or whatever...if you need to talk to someone...can't promise I got any answers for you, or even know what the hell yer talkin' 'bout, but...I can listen."

"Thank you, Sam."

He was right. I need to talk to Husband. And not about apples.