Encounting

Aya went for her daily walk around the reservoir. She calls it carp counting, even when she would not see any. Aya went in any weather, but carps only liked a warm clear day for being visible from the shore.

Aya walked by the water, looking into the wet field. It was a sunny and warm day, July 17, 2026.

“Here is the first carp! He does not see me, but I do see him. It is not really a full encounter — it is just me looking at him. I am not sure how to count him in my sincere way.”

And then she saw a little one right next to the big one. The little one only looked at the parent, trying not to get lost in the waters of the reservoir.

“Here are two of them. I see them. My attention is divided by two carps that do not see me. I think I can count them as one divided by my attention for two — 1/2. Yes. This is a good count.”

Aya kept walking. A dark spot in the water was moving in the deep. Could that be a carp? Or only half of a carp?

“What if it is also 1/2 — but not because I am looking at two carps? What if it is because I am not sure what I am looking at, and I have two options? My attention is divided by two options, not by two carps.”

Mathematics was becoming very obscure, thought Aya.

“1/2 can mean totally different observations. Okay. I will decide later how I am going to count that moving water.”

And Aya kept walking. Suddenly she saw a big old carp, looking so wise that Aya thought he must be a mathematician of the reservoir. The carp mathematician looked right at her.

“He counted me! We counted each other. That is a real encounter! That is 1! Yes. I have one whole encounter, and that 1/2 from seeing a parent with a child in the distance. This is clearly 1 1/2. In total, I saw 3 that I count as 1 1/2, but I did see three real ones and one dark spot moving. I did pay attention to all 4.

My one attention could be divided by everything I saw as carp or possible carp. I think that dark moving spot is 1/4. But if I see one more carp, that moving spot would be 1/5.”

The moving spot kept moving with her walk.

“The more real carps I see, the smaller his significance. A dynamic carp!”

Aya smiled. She had discovered a possibility of a carp that gets smaller.

“This means that on the days I did not see any carps, I had the biggest one for the encounter. How strange math is.”

And Aya kept moving.