the coin flipper

fiction 3/6/0

I am a professional coin flipper. It all started when I was pondering, of all things, having children, and how I would stay with my wife even if we weren't able to have children of our own.

Okay, it actually started when I was pondering psychic reaching. How one can mentally reach out to make a connection with another human being. Or, more appropriately, one that you want to get naked with.

From there, I thought about whether it was okay to date other people, or more particularly, why it was not okay. It was okay, up until the point where I dated someone that I would rather be with, or so I thought. Of course, that was a situation entirely lacking in perspective. You have to understand. Okay, you don't. But one of those things that the 'recovery types' will tell you about is infatuation. Love at first sight. They say it's a warning sign. Something you should stay away from. I have to reluctantly agree. Loss of perspective is the most beautiful thing there is. But with it comes the risk of attachments and aversions. When you become so attached, you have an aversion to separation, you lose. Are the druglike moments together worth the fear, uncertainty, and doubt? The bad craziness?

But I digress.

If we were unable to have children of our own, we could adopt. But I'd prefer to have my genes go on. Which brings us to the scenario: the deal is two kids with the same surrogate mother. (This is completely ignoring the case where I'm the weak link, but it can be viewed by looking at the scenario from the other side.) Who gets the first child is up to a coin toss. (Might be more workable to have the first child go to the sperm-provider, as there's a means ((via freezing a sample)) for the woman to go ahead without the man, but the point is a lead-in to the job of coin-tossing, and not of cooperative nonfamilial procreation.

So we may have to come up with another lead-in situation, but that was the real one.

It is possible to 'fix' a coin toss. Scientific American had an article on it years ago. They're not the kind to run unadorned spoofs. So it must be true. For background, pull the article, run it as an endnote.

How it works:

Step one: how regular coin-tossing works.

The prep: The coin is balanced on the tip of the index finger in such a way that the tip of the thumb (thumbnail) is pressed against the underside of the index finger. Much like the way it is with the middle finger when snapping your fingers. (Of course, there are other ways of doing both of these things, and I'm reminded of one character, who learned an incredibly loud snap of the fingers while on his Mormon Mission to the Dominican Republic.) Anyway, the release of the thumb then 'flips' the coin up into the air.

The flip: An impulse is provided to the coin off-center. If it were on-center (plus or minus english from the impulse being non-perpendicular), the coin would rise straight up into the air. If it were completely off-center, the coin would make one half of one rotation. It would be flipped over. (I suppose if it were completely off-center, the coin would not turn, because it was only grazed by this moving thumb.) (If the force were too small, no turn would be made either, since the coin wouldn't make it all the way over.) Maybe I should define some terms. Could go all physics-ey, but that would be against the point, unless it could me made to be humorous, but the cost-benefit of it would probably not make the cut.

Mental note: edit out: call/email for prospective commissioning of sculptural racks.

Note: mental tangent about VT's, linux, dark-boot bios, dictation systems, paper-stack/teletype interface.

Back to the flip: by adjusting dx and dy of the flip (height and spin), the number of half-turns may be adjusted. (side note about breathing through the ears) (side note about personal everything/zigzag/visual thesarus )

The assumption that the flip is random comes from the fact that not many people know about this, and even fewer people have taken the immense amount of time to practice this. In short, it's agreed to be highly improbable.

This story is about getting a fair bit in a world where these people exist. In fact, you might only get a really fair flip from one of these people. (Side note: low-end coin-flip cheats)

Whether or not you need to go to one of these people is irrelevant to this story. Or maybe not. Would probably make good background information, build some intensity, some involvement from the reader.

This is a story about trust.

And what happens when trust is abused or neglected. Maybe. It's about trusting oneself. Whether the flipper trusts himself, and whether the parties involved trust themselves. Bidding war between parties. Death threats. Hostages. Bribes. Loaded coins. Cheap end-flips. Second-guessing "red wire or green"? Could go into any of that or leave it at this. Do any of the enticements make a difference to the bit man? No. He's an agent of chance. He has a reputation to look out for.

Should he let people back out of the deal? Of course. Maybe the big thing would be counseling services. Maybe this guy is just another kind of shaman. Maybe more than I think. Thing is, unless he runs double-blind, he's making a vote. You're asking him to judge.

And that's where the training comes in. That's where the counseling comes in. The monk-like existence for the workers. I mean, you can have the man flip your coin, but don't pretend you're getting something random. Don't fool yourself for a second.

The specially prepared perfectly flat coins. The blindfolds. The assistants pre-randomizing the coin. All this is for naught. Vanity. Folly. If you really don't care, flip your own damned coin. Or even better, just let the other person have their way. If they don't care either, then maybe they should all go find something they do care about.

Is it about expediency? Surely you wouldn't go through all that trouble if it were to save time. Unless it were something that big, and then I'd suggest that there are more important things to do than pay someone else to leave it to chance.

Maybe this goes into some introduction to Quantum Physics. Or taoism or some other talk of God.

Couldn't do this job without being honest. Without having faith in my own honesty. That means mile-long disclaimers. That means actually making sure the client reads and understands the disclaimer. Maybe I should just get over it. What is the service I'm providing? Is it worth the grief? Am I doing this just to learn things about myself?

Would it be wrong to take jobs without knowing them? Is it even avoidable?

How to keep a low profile, while maintaining public integrity? (Oof: reference the Postman, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, Sparticus)

Failure mode: badness (double bind, false dichotomy). Heads, I shoot you, tails, I shoot someone else.