"Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself."
(Mark Twain)
Twelve hours. That's how much time I was going to spend alone with a man who was a complete stranger to me. That's how much time we were being given to make some kind of erotic connection with one another. I silently wondered (yet again), if my performance would be judged adequate by those who would be observing...
THE FIFTY
From my perspective, the year was 2005. Things were pretty strange for most everyone on Earth, to say the least. A few months earlier, a small group of people publically announced that they had traveled backwards through time from about a century ahead in our future.
This unlikely sounding proclamation was initially met with a great deal of skepticism. But, our descendants had anticipated this reaction, and arrived armed with plenty of information that would enable them to convince most people on the planet that their story must be true. There were a total of 50 people who had arrived from the future, and the group was quickly given the designation "The Fifty."
Their methods of proof were simple. Every other day, one of them would write about an event that would occur the next day. The text would then be sealed in an envelope, and locked up in a safe that was heavily guarded at all times. Two days later, this envelope would be removed, opened, read out loud to the media, and the accuracy of the contents of the letter would be quickly verified.
At the same time that the safe was opened to remove the letter with information about the previous day, a newer envelope containing future knowledge about the *next* day would be placed into the safe. So, every other day, yet another prediction was verified.
The predictions were never wrong. Over time, the sheer volume and incredible variety of these predictions led most people to accept the claim that the individuals belonging to The Fifty clearly had knowledge of our future, and therefor must have actually traveled back from the future to this time frame.
The Fifty claimed that they had returned to 2005 to perform some unusual research. They never explained fully why certain aspects of our history were not adequately documented in the books available 100 years hence. However, they made it quite clear that they considered the information they were gathering very important to them.
Once their research was complete, they explained, they intended to return to their correct place in time. There was no intention of providing us with specific future knowledge or any new technologies – this was merely an information gathering mission.
Not every single person on the planet was expected to participate in one of the various research projects that were being organized. However, about 0.1% of the population would be asked to become a research subject. No one outside of The Fifty knew exactly how many different research projects were planned, but the public was told that around 1000 different types of studies were expected.
Most of the studies involved tasks and behaviors that were quite routine to regular life in 2005. However, it was quickly revealed that a few of the studies would be about sex and sexual behavior.
When I received the letter in the mail that indicated that I had been chosen as a potential subject for study protocol RS204, I had no idea what that meant. Individuals chosen as study subjects were instructed to report to a specific study location on a certain date, and it was not until that time that the subjects would be told the nature of the study, and what was expected of the participants. The letter told me that I should plan for a 2-3 day absence from my normal routine, and to pack clothing and essentials for 3 days. Food would be provided.
The Fifty had explained to the public at large that the people who were randomly chosen to participate in a study would be expected to participate, period. However, to reduce public apprehensions about the studies, we were all reassured that every participant would be able to choose an alternate study protocol if they strongly objected to participating in the first protocol.
Of course, everyone realized that it was possible that some people would be forced to choose between two options that were both objectionable, but it was hoped that these situations would be rare.
STUDY PROTOCOL RS204
The morning I arrived at the research center, I was somewhat nervous. After a friendly greeting, I was escorted to a small office where two researchers waited. They introduced themselves as Rick and Sue.
"Good morning," Sue began. "You've been chosen to participate in study protocol RS204. Our role today is to explain this study to you, help you understand your role in the study, and prepare you for your day tomorrow." Both researchers smiled and asked me to please sit down.
Rick began speaking. "When we planned protocol RS204, we anticipated that some study subjects would object to participating. To be direct, this is a sexual behavior study." He paused, making eye contact with me, then continued by saying, "We want you to know that the information we are trying to gather is considered to be of critical importance. Therefore, we really do hope that you will agree to participate."
Sue continued, "As we have promised, you can refuse this particular study and be assigned to a different protocol, but I'd like to take a few minutes to try and persuade you to agree to RS204."
By this point, my palms were starting to sweat a bit, and I rubbed them on my pants to dry my hands. "I'm listening," I said in a neutral voice.
Sue spoke again. "One of our big concerns is that allowing too many people to opt out of any particular study will make our study sample much less random. As a result, the data gathered from that subset of the population may be less representative of the full population than a truly random sample would be. If the behaviors we are studying in RS204 vary greatly between people who want to refuse the study versus people who readily agree to the study, our data will be a lot less meaningful."
I knew a bit about statistics, so I understood what she was saying. "Right, you might end up with selection bias."
