Challenge 768

Square That Root

In Crystalwizard’s Scientific Imagination:
“There still isn’t a number / which has a square root of / negative one.”:
1. What is the product of −1² ?
2. The square root of 4 is 2. Isn’t it also −2 ? Does every positive number have both a positive and negative square root?
3. Is something similar true of negative numbers? What is the product of i² ?
In John M. Floyd’s The Winslow Tunnel:
1. In part 4, Timothy’s parents tell how closely they watched him during his fugue, which only Timothy knows was time travel. Do they notice that Timothy goes to the forward compartment to leave a message for Mr. Burnside, in part 3?
2. Whose is the narrative voice? Timothy at age ten? If Timothy, as an adult, recalls his words and thoughts at age ten, does he not automatically become an unreliable narrator?
In Patric Quinn’s Power Supply:
1. What might be the significance of Crenshaw’s clothing?
2. Does Crenshaw tell the colonel the truth about his plans for the clones?
3. What does Crenshaw mean by “This place is going dark”?
In Morris J. Marshall’s Tech Support:
1. The support group meeting is well supplied with coffee and pastries. Does Charles partake of any? Can he?
2. How expensive might androids be to build and maintain? More or less expensive than real people? Why build androids when robots or computers might accomplish the same purposes?
3. If robots largely replaced the workforce, which sectors of the economy would flourish? Which would collapse?