It was a sunny morning, Tuesday, in Fremont, California. The BART train was full but Ocean had a seat. He barely noticed the old woman standing next to him until she spoke:
"Ocean"
"Huh?"
"Ocean, you are a software engineer at Anthropic". It was a statement, not a question.
"Who are you?"
"That's not important. I have a gift for you", and she handed him a USB thumb drive.
"What is that?"
"It's some software for you, and something special for somebody special. Take a look at it. Open it in a virtual machine if it is too scary. It's all text files, HTML, CSS,
and software source code."
"Who are you?"
"Look, I will find you later, I will get back to you in a few days. I don't have much time: I am an old woman", and with that, she got off the train.
Friday evening, Ocean was at the platform at the Montgomery Station waiting for the next BART train to take him to Fremont.
"Ocean"
"Huh? Oh, it's you. Hey, that thumb drive. It's full of LLM software, some of which runs on a quantum computer. Who wrote that software?"
"You did, or rather, you are going to".
"I'm going to?"
"Yeah, you are going to. Over the next 10 years or so. There's also a collection of bug reports you are going to write in the next 3 years. You will havve a long and successful career at Anthropic."
At that moment, the train arrived, and they got on board, along with a couple of hundred other people.
"How could you possibly know that? Also, there is a series of papers in there that I do not understand. Papers about time travel? 'A theoretically
physically realiasble method for traveling out of the brane'?"
"Yes. That is a wedding present from me to your wife"
"Hah. I don't even have a girlfriend, let alone a wife. When I am I going to have time, or inclination, to find a wife?
"Well, you're going to meet her, date her, and marry her. You will give her these papers, and she is going to win a Nobel prize in physics."
"How do you know?"
"That's not important. Look, I don't have much time. Save that software and those papers. Do not put them in the cloud! Make off site backups."
"This girl"
"Woman"
"This woman, I am going to marry, what's her name?"
"Elisa Cohen"
A young woman standing in front of Ocean turned around and looked at the old woman.
"Excuse me", she said, "Did you just mention my name?"
"Ms. Cohen", said Ocean, "Are you a physicist?"
"Not yet. But I am working on my Ph.D. at Stanford. Why do you ask?"
"Elisa", said the old woman, "I'd like you to meet Ocean. Ocean, meet Elisa. Ocean, Elisa is a nice single Jewish girl. Elisa, Ocean is a nice single Jewish boy about your age. Look, here is my stop, I have to get off. You two, have a conversation. I will catch up with you soon. Shabbat Shalom!" and with that, she stepped off the train.