Touch, Season 1

Jake:
[voiceover] The ratio is always the same. 1 to 1.618 over and over and over again. Patterns are hidden in plain sight, you just have to know where to look. Things most people see as chaos actually follow subtle laws of behavior; galaxies, plants, seashells. The patterns never lie, but only some of us can see how the pieces fit together. 7,089,360,000 of us live on this tiny planet, this is the story of some of those people. There's an ancient Chinese myth about the red thread of fate, it says that the gods have a red thread around everyone of our ankles and attached to all the people whose lives are destined to touch. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it'll never break. It's all predetermined by mathematical probability, and it's my job is to keep track of those numbers to make the connections of those who needs to find each other, the ones whose lives need to touch. I was born 4,161 days ago, on October 26, 2000, I've been alive for 11 years 4 months 21 days and 14 hours, and of all that time, [whispers] I've never said a single word.

Martin:
[cautioning Clea about not touching Jake] I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not unless you want to spend the next three hours peeling him off the ceiling.

Arthur:
The whole cosmic wheel of humanity comes down to just electromagnetic energy and connections. There are those among us - mostly kids - whose sole purpose is to act as air traffic controllers for that interconnectivity.

Martin:
My son doesn't even talk.

Arthur:
Unnecessary, outdated. An evolutionary speed bump, like your pinky toe.

Jake:
[voiceover] The ratio is always the same: 1 to 1.618 over and over and over again. The patterns, mathematical in design, are hidden in plain sight. You just have to know where to look. Seven billion, eighty-million, three hundred sixty-thousand people, and only a few of us can see the connections. Today, we'll send over 300 billion emails, 19 billion text messages, yet we'll still feel alone. The average person will say 2,250 words to 7.4 other individuals. Will these words be used to hurt or to heal? There's an ancient Chinese myth about the red thread of fate. It says that the gods have tied a red thread around every one of our ankles and attached it to all the people whose lives we are destined to touch. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

Jake:
[voiceover] My name is Jake, I was born 4168 days ago, October 26, 2000, live on this small planet with other people 7.080.360.000, this is the story of some of them. On average, a person will say 2250 words per day to 7.4 other people. We send over 300 billion emails, 19 billion text messages in addition to this giant mosaic of patterns and proportions. The diagrams, mathematical models, are hidden in plain sight, you just need to know where to look, but only some of us see how the pieces fit together. It is all predetermined by mathematical probabilities, my job is to connect those numbers to those destined to meet, those whose destinies are touching. I was born October 26, 2000, I am alive for 11 years, 4 months, 28 days and 15 hours and all this time, I never said a word. But no matter, now I have someone who can hear me.

Jake:
[voiceover] 7 billion people on a small planet, suspended in the vastness of space and we are alone. The meaning of all this is the great mystery of our fragile existence. Perhaps the fact of being alone in the universe unites us, makes us depend on each other for small things, creating a quantum correlation between you and me, between us. And if this is true, then we live in a world where anything is possible.

Jake:
[voiceover]There are 3 million species of animals living in tropical rainforest, and one of them, the redfire ant, lives underground, under constant threat of annihilation from flash floods. Nature doesn't care, if a species wants to survive, it has to prove it deserves to. When the floods come, fireants hold on to each other, creating a living raft that could float untill the water recedes, months if necessary. So how does the species figure something like that out? Instinct? Trial and error? Was there one fireant that was being swept away by the rushing water, and grabbed on to another ant, only to find that together, they could float? What if you were that one who knew what needed to be done, but you had no words? How do you make the others understand? How do you call for help?

Jake:
[voiceover] Human beings are not the strongest species on the planet. We're not the fastest, or maybe even the smartest. The one advantage we have is our ability to cooperate... to help each other out. We recognize ourselves in each other, and are programmed for compassion, for heroism, for love. And those things make us stronger, faster...and smarter. It's why we've survived. It's why we even want to.

Jake:
[voiceover] Human beings are hardwired with the impulse to share our ideas, and the desire to know we've been heard. It's all a part of our need for community. That's why we're constantly sending out signals and signs, and why we look for them from other people. We're always waiting for messages- hoping for connection. And if we haven't received a message, that doesn't always mean it hasn't been sent to us. Sometimes it means we haven't listened hard enough.

Jeweler's Clerk:
Normally we wouldn't hold an item for so many years, but… it was a wedding ring, after all.

Martin:
It's my wife's ring. That's why she wasn't wearing it.

Jeweler's Clerk:
She couldn't wear it while it was being engraved.

Martin:
[looks inside the ring] "1+1=3" [chuckles] That's what she used to say when our son was born. Jake made us a family; "One plus one equals three."

Jeweler's Clerk:
Sir, do you still want this ring?

Martin:
Yes, please.

Jake:
[voiceover] In spite of all our communication technology no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice. When we hear the human voice we instinctively want to listen in the hopes of understanding it. Even when the speaker is searching for the right words to say, even when all we hear is yelling, or crying or singing. That's because the human voice resonates differently from anything else in the world. That's why we can hear a singers voice over a full Orchestra. We will always hear the singer, no matter what else surrounds it.

Jake:
[voiceover] Four hundred ninety-thousand babies will be born today. Each of them unique, and each one of them a link in the greater human chain. And the moment their umbilical cord is severed, they'll become an individual with their own hopes, dreams and desires. But, in fact, each one of us is actually made up of a dozen systems which, in turn, comprise sixty-trillion cells, and those cells house countless proteins, DNA organelles. What appears to be an individual is actually a network. Each one of us is, in fact, a living, breathing community, but it doesn't stop there. Why would it? Every individual hope you harbor, every dream you attain, every desire you fulfill has an impact far greater than you can imagine. At least that's how it looks from where I'm sitting.

[Arthur Teller goes to the hospital after he sees Jake's image expand mathematically out of the computer screen]

Maggie Miller:
Dad, you're sick. Let me help you.

Arthur:
If you want to help, get me to a scanner.

Maggie Miller:
No, I've been down this rabbit hole before, and you what's there? Rabbits.

Arthur:
B-but it's different this time, Maggie. You know, they don't even know I've found the boy.

Maggie Miller:
What is it gonna take to get through to you? The last time you did this, you lost everything.

Arthur:
They took it from me!

Maggie Miller:
No, you imploded, and you dragged me down right along with you. So tell me, how is it gonna be different this time, hmm? Please, talk to Dr. Bennet. You're seeing things that just aren't there.

Arthur:
No. No. I-I'm seeing clearly for the first time in years.

[Martin is a no-show for Jake's evaluation]

Clea:
If the examiner would be willing to come back tomorrow. Jake? He's just having an off day.

Sheri Strepling:
Come on, Clea. We both know tomorrow wouldn't be any different. Jake's nonresponsive, he has difficulty following basic instruction.

Clea:
He can. He chooses not to. There's a difference. If his father had been here…

Sheri Strepling:
Look, I get it. You're pulling for the dad. We all do. But on paper, this one is a mess. Jake's repeatedly run away while in his father's care. The authorities had to be called on multiple occasions. The truth is, Mr. Bohm was part of the evaluation, just not the way you wanted him to be. I'm sorry, Clea, but from where I'm standing, you're betting on the wrong horse.

Shada:
[speaking Arabic] How could you let the car run out of gas?!

Norah:
How did I know "E" was bad? They should have picked a more threatening letter!

Jake:
[voiceover] The threads that connect us are not bound by space and time. What seems to the individual like a twist of fate, from another perspective is simply one of those threads pulled tight. How things should have been all along. And even when those threads seem irreparably frayed, they never break - not completely. But sometimes the most important connection is here and now.

Jake:
[voiceover] What beacon can we turn to to guide us from darkness to light?

Jake:
[voiceover] Numbers are constant. Until they're not. Our inability to influence outcome is the great equalizer. Makes the world fair. Computers generate random numbers in an attempt to glean meaning out of probability. Endless numerical sequences, lacking any pattern. During cataclysmic global events... tsunami, earthquake, the attacks on 9/11... these random numbers suddenly stop being random. As our collective consciousness synchronizes, so do the numbers. Science can't explain the phenomenon, but religion does. It's called prayer. A collective request, sent up in unison. A shared hope. Numbers are constant, until they're not.

Jake:
[voiceover] During cataclysmic global events, our collective consciousness synchronizes. So do the numeric sequences created by random number generators. Science can't explain the phenomenon, but religion does. It's called prayer. A collective request sent up in unison, a shared hope, fear relieved, a life spared. Numbers are constant... until they're not. In times of tragedy... times of collective joy, in these brief moments, it is only the shared emotional experience that makes the world seem less random. Maybe it's coincidence. And maybe it's the answer to our prayers.

Jake:
[voiceover] They say that the shortest path between two points is a straight line. But what happens if that path gets blocked? When sediment impedes the flow of a river, it redirects, zigging and zagging instead of following a straight course. What looks to the crow like meandering, is to the water the most efficient route from source to outlet. Nature finds a detour. When two points are destined to touch, but a direct connection is impossible, the universe will always find another way.

Jake:
[voiceover] If two points are destined to touch, the universe will always find a way to make the connection. Even when all hope seems lost, certain ties cannot be broken. They define who we are and who we can become. Across space, across time, along paths we cannot predict- nature always finds a way.

Jake:
[voiceover] The earth, as it rotates, emits a frequency - a musical note at 7.83 Hz, but this frequency alters slightly from reasons as yet uncertain. Some postulates solar flares as its cause or electrical disturbance in the atmosphere. But maybe there's a simpler explanation. Maybe the sound of the planet is influenced by the 7B souls whirring around it. Each producing their own music, adding their own harmony.

Jake:
[voiceover] The chromatic scale consists of 12 tones arranged in time and sequence. These 12 simple tones create an infinite variety of music. Harmony and dissonance. Tension and resolution. All can be described by the mathematical ratios between tones. If we could translate all ratios into sound, we can hear the Music of the Spheres. A sound as immense, as powerful as the universe itself. As quiet as a single stone. As beguiling as the human heart. For some, music elevates the spirit to a place of transcendent beauty. Others simply hear the beauty in the numbers themselves.

Jake:
[voiceover] Symmetry is the language of the universe. It is written in mathematical language and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. Without which it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. But some of us can speak it; we see the precise patterns - the tessellations. Those geometric shapes rotated and reflected, infinitely repeated. And when you speak the language, follow the logic you can predict the next step. You just have to trust in where the paths meet.

Jake:
[voiceover] We are all a part of this infinite tessellation; each a single cell in a honeycomb. And though individual pieces of this puzzle may never physically touch, they all form part of that same grand mosaic. Like bricks in a wall, the whole is made stronger by each brick. Remove one and it all comes crumbling down. Though we may not realize it, the integrity of this wall is tested daily. But the wall holds. Because of everyone's collective support.

Jake:
[voiceover] In 1992, a shipping container fell overboard on its way from China to the United States, losing 29,000 rubber ducks in the Pacific Ocean. Ten months later, the first of these rubber ducks was washed ashore on the Alaskan Coast. Since then, these ducks have been found in Hawaii, South America, Australia, and travelling slowly inside the Arctic Ice. But 2,000 of the ducks were caught up in the North Pacific Gyre. A vortex of currents moving between Japan, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Aleutian Islands. Items that get caught in the gyre usually stay in the gyre. Doomed to travel the same path, forever circling in the same waters, but not always. Their paths can be altered by a change in the weather, a storm at sea, a chance encounter with a pod of whales, Twenty years after the rubber ducks were lost at sea, they are still arriving on beaches around the world. And the number of ducks in the gyre has decreased, which means it's possible to break free, even after years of circling the same waters. It's possible to find a way to shore.

Jake:
[voiceover] There are 31,530,000 seconds in a year, a thousand milliseconds in a second, a million microseconds, a billion nanoseconds. And the one constant connecting nanoseconds to years is change. The universe, from atom to galaxy, is in a perpetual state of flux. But we humans don't like change; we fight it, it scares us. So we create the illusion of stasis. We want to believe in a world at rest, the world of right now yet our great paradox remains the same. The moment we grasp the now that now is gone. We cling to snapshots, but life is moving pictures, each nanosecond different from the last. Time forces us to grow, to adapt because every time we blink our eyes the world shifts beneath our feet. Every day, every moment, every nanosecond the world changes. Electrons bump into each other and react; people collide and alter each other's paths. Change isn't easy, more often it's wrenching and difficult, but maybe that's a good thing, because it's change that makes us strong, keeps us resilient, and teaches us to evolve.

Sheri:
You really expect me to believe you had nothing to do with this?

Clea:
Jake escaped. He's done it before.

Sheri:
If you know where they are, Clea, you are aiding and abetting. You can go to jail for a long time.

Clea:
I could go to jail? You look scared, Sheri. Whoever it is you're working for must be very unhappy about all this.

Sheri:
I want you out of here now.

Clea:
I was just on my way. You're a criminal, Sheri. I know you're working for Aster Corp, I know you had Amelia hidden in Room 6, and I know that Arthur Teller's death wasn't an accident.

Sheri:
I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.

Clea:
Then I guess you got nothing to worry about.

Jake:
[voiceover] We can't help but wonder how much difference one person makes in the world. We look inside ourselves, questioning if we have the capacity for heroism and greatness. But the truth is every time we take an action, we make an impact. Every single thing we do has an effect on the people around us. Every choice we make sends ripples out into the world. Our smallest acts of kindness can cause a chain reaction of unforeseen benefits for people we've never met. We might not witness those results, but they happen all the same.

Jake:
[voiceover] The point when all things are possible; the moment when a choice was made or an action taken; the breath inhaled before a first step forward. And the most lasting chain reactions that are started by those moments. And actions and choices are always the ones that are started by love.

Jake:
[voiceover] 89 degrees, 15 minutes and 50.8 seconds. That's the current position of Polaris, the northern star. Viewed from another planet, it's just one among many. But on earth, it's uniquely important. Fixed in place, an anchor, no matter where you are in the northern hemisphere, if you face Polaris, you face north. You know where you are. But there are other ways to get lost. And the choices we make and the events that overwhelm us, even in our own minds, what can be our anchor then? What beacon can we turn to, to guide us from darkness into light? What if it's other people; the lives that touch our own, in ways big and small? Because unlike Polaris, the light they bring will never fade.