Atlas of Misconceptions

The van, which was on its way to pick them up, was hit by an avalanche. The van’s driver was pulled from under the avalanche by the efforts of search and rescue robots. However, due to the enormous size of the avalanche, it was unclear when the road would open.

A sudden change in the direction of wind caused Defne to stumble. Tour guide Birol immediately rushed to Defne to help. They proceeded with their heads tilted forward in the cold, careful not to slip and fall. Finally, they had a sigh of relief when they pass through the hotel door. Robotic suitcase carriers following the group also passed through the hotel door in a single row, clustered in front of the reception. Tour guide Birol understood the psychology of holidaymakers. It was necessary to prepare them for the waiting process. “Now, let’s go to the living room. Let’s assess the situation while we have a drink there,” he said.

“I wonder what will we assess? What does the hotel’s unikopter stand for? We are busy professionals,” Defne said.

“If the weather conditions were better, we would have already returned to Istanbul with the unicopter. As a demonstration of the goodwill of our tour company….”

“We reserve our legal rights. It’s not that simple,” Aras said.

“Let’s go and sit first. We were a bit nervous,” Oymen said. No one disputed his words, as he had gained the trust of the tour members during their time together.

They walked from the reception to the other end of the lobby and settled into a seating group where the seats were arranged in a square shape.

“My cell phone doesn’t work,” Defne said. Everyone clung to their cell phone to check if they were working.

”Because of the storm, the mast that carried the amplifier was overturned,” Birol said.

“When can we go home?” Suphi asked. The corners of the windows facing the ski slope were already covered with snow.

“Two dozers and a snowplow were at the scene to clear the road. Let’s prepare ourselves as if we’re staying here tonight. So just in case,” Birol said, taking a sip from his smoking tea.

"I’ll cancel my meetings,” Defne said. “Bravo, my cell phone doesn’t work and... Look at the queue in front of the reservation desk. The internet is in the black market, amazing.”

“As far as I’m concerned, the road will not open soon. Now let’s not get into the psychology of waiting. I’ll offer you a job that will take a few hours. I will have little gifts for those who accept,” Oymen said.

“First of all, I have to call home and let them know about my situation,” Suphi said.

"You don’t have to queue at the front desk,” Oymen said as he handed his mobile phone to Suphi. His phone, which was connected to a satellite-based operator, was running smoothly. The phone went hand in hand, and those in the group informed their relatives that they would be delayed.

“I guess we can talk business now,” Oymen said.

“You’re always ready, Sugar. As long as it’s a job,” his wife Seyhan said. Meanwhile, she was startled when she noticed a strange-looking android approaching them.

“Hello, My Name Is Aristotle. I am a wanderer philosophy book. Have you ever thought about the meaning of life?” the android said. His head was as big as the aliens imagined in the twentieth century.

"My life is a huge void,” said Birol, who had fallen in love with Defne the first time he has seen her.

“I offer you a model of knowledge that is a combination of all philosophy books. A unique concept, you can chat with it. And hologram reenactments are not missing,” Aristotle said, shaking his big head.

"I understand you have to make money, my dear friend,” Oymen said. “But it wasn’t nice of you to interrupt our conversation. I’ll still offer you a job. Would you like to join us?”

“What do you expect me to do? I’m not very good at things that require physical force,” he said.

Oymen approached the android and whispered something to him, and after began to tell: “I want to talk to you about our misconceptions. If I could return to Istanbul today, I would attend a focus group meeting on the subject. Why not do it here? My goal is to create an interactive book called Atlas of Misconceptions. I don’t want to be limited to just theoretical knowledge."

“I’m assertive about mistakes,” Defne said. Wanderer android Aristotle gladly accepted the offer. He offered his eternal gratitude to all the members of the group for taking him among them. The other group members did not feel the need to say anything. They were obviously going to attend the interview. They broke up, contracted to meet again at the same place at two in the afternoon.

In a meditative state, Birol went to Defne, who was watching the snow falling outside. He offered to watch a five-dimensional version of Nightmare On Elm Street in the hotel’s movie theater.

"I’m not in the mood for a horror movie at all, sorry,” Defne said.

Birol considered using his free time to ski but realized that the storm had made it impossible; the hotel management closed the cable cars and chairlifts.

In the news bulletin published in the dining hall, the cold airwave that affected most of the country was described. In the news, accompanied by classic themes such as roofs blown off by the storm, air traffic canceled in the cities, and homeless people gathered in gyms, there was no information about when the Bolu-Kartalkaya road would open.

As they reunited in the lobby after dinner, the whistles of the storm outside intensified, patterns of ice appeared on the windows overlooking the ski slope.

Suphi, who took a small sip from his raki, asked, “How did you come up with the idea of writing a book?”

“People are wrong about many things. Not only uneducated but even educated people. I’ve been asking myself for years why. I don’t want it to be a conventional book. I intend to present the information I have compiled in a whole new concept.”

“You can easily mislead them if you know why people are wrong,” Aras said.

“Honestly, I’ve never looked at it that way,” Oymen said. He had to say it out loud to suppress the sound of the intensifying wind.

"We are like the Byzantines discussing the sex of Angels as Istanbul falls," Defne said. Meanwhile, Seyhan began to build a tower with playing cards on the coffee table.

"As an educator, I can safely argue that the main source of misconception is ignorance. Not only that, of course. People believe what they want to believe. Like thinking their kids are so smart," Suphi said.

"Man hopes," Birol said.

"What's the fallacy in that?" Defne asked.

"We see ourselves better than we are," Birol said. For example, I hoped that this wonderful woman named Defne would like me, but she didn't, he thought.

If you'll excuse me, I'll have a few additions," said Aristotle, the wandering android. "The shortcuts they use sometimes lead to people being wrong. It's like adopting thoughts that the majority agree are right."

"Can I also share my views," Defne said, raising her hand.

Oymen nodded in the sense of 'of course.'

"I had a happy childhood. What's so bad about that, you might ask? The problem is, I didn't have happy adulthood. I mean, I thought the world was a great place. We think the family circle represents the whole world. This applies to children who grow up in a lousy family, and they build impenetrable walls against other people," Defne said.

"I'd like to make a few additions, if you'll excuse me, "Aristo said. "Philosophers' personality traits influence their perception of the world. As you know, there is a skeptical philosophical school that begins with Protogas and continues with Descartes. I think philosophers close to this school have paranoid tendencies. It is also obvious that there are narcissistic tendencies in philosophers who bless highly qualified individuals. Even philosophers who are skilled at thinking correctly have not freed themselves from the biases caused by personality traits. I don't want to be misunderstood. Can we say that it is useless to question the truth behind what is visible or exhibiting independent behavior? What I am criticizing here is the excessive emphasis on such aspects of reality," he said.

"For example, my father is a man of responsibility. He acts like there are only missions in life. We sometimes contradict because of his obsessive tendencies," Defne said.

"We have diagrams of what is Ideal," Birol said, recalling the video he watched on YouTube a few days ago. "For example, the ideal man in women's minds is often shaped by her family. That's why we can miss the very appropriate candidates we face."

"It sounded like a complaint, "Seyhan said. She was tired of all this talk. At that moment, she wished she was asleep at home.

All of a sudden, there was a rumble outside, like a bomb had exploded. People were screaming in the lobby and throwing themselves between the seats in panic. The hardening wind caused some of the hotel's windows to crack." I've never seen or heard anything like this," said a young waiter.

"There is no cause for alarm. That's what happened in the typhoon in 2039. The interior windows are plastic alloy. They withstand even the fiercest wind," replied the head waiter.

As she sipped the last drop of wine left in her glass, Defne said: "I have a feeling that something has gone wrong. It's a fallacy about existence that applies here, elsewhere, and at all times," she said. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not drunk," she added when she noticed people staring curiously at her.

"Maybe it's best not to get too hung up on the question of existence," Suphi said with a paternal demeanor.

At this time, Aras arrived, having changed his clothes. Now he had a stylish coat on him and mind-controlled hydraulic shoes on his feet. "I'm sorry. I had to make an urgent call about work," he said.

"Finally, I want to show you a prototype of my interactive book. Maybe we can develop it according to your comments," Oymen said. He then took a portable hologram player out of his backpack, put it on the coffee table, and pressed one of the two buttons.

Now, there was a man with a white beard projected by the hologram player. The man, the size of a big trinket, first pat his beard and then said, "Buona sera."

"Sorry," Oymen said. He froze the man for a moment and changed the language setting on the hologram player, allowing him to move again.

"Good afternoon, dear friends. My name is Ulgen," said the man reflected by the hologram player this time.

"All these things are nothing but nonsense," Seyhan said, dropping the wine glass on the coffee table. Then she got up and left them, saying," Good luck to you. I need some rest."

"I wonder what she's angry about now?" Birol asked.

Seyhan turned a few steps away and said," Ask Oymen what I'm angry about," and sat on one of the stools in the bar.

From Oymen's expression, you couldn't tell what he thought of the matter. And Ulgen and Aristotle just stood there like rabbits with light in their eyes.

After sipping the wine left at the bottom of his glass with an appetite, "I wonder my misconceptions" Defne said.

"We can examine the causes that lead to misconceptions in three groups. The first is lack of information, the second is logical processing errors, and the third is emotional bias," Ülgen said.

Seyhan came up with a glass in her hand, sat down, and said, "Sorry, I overreacted. But my husband has a second life that he hides from me. It could be another woman."

"It's nothing like that. I'm just working a little too hard. I don't know how many more times I'm going to say that," Oymen said.

Aras stood up and said," The Gentleman is betraying his country." Then he turned to Oymen and said, "You are under arrest for your espionage activities. Follow me, please."

"You're making a big mistake. I'm not going to leave my wife here and go with you," Oymen said.

Aras put a ring of handcuffs on Oymen's left wrist in the blink of an eye. At this time, Aristotle, who jumped to his feet, grabbed Aras, lifted him into the air, and threw him towards the bar. Then he grabbed Seyhan and Oymen's hands and started dragging them towards the reception. Aras, who got up from where he fell, pulled out his gun and shouted, "Stop, or I'll shoot." Upon these words, Aristotle immediately turned and began to run towards the pistol pointed at them. Aras fired two shots at him without hesitation, but the bullets that hit Aristotle in the chest were not enough to stop him. Aristotle pulled the gun out of Aras's hand and put it to the magnetic section of his waist. This time, Aras electrocuted Aristotle with a Taser he pulled out of his coat pocket. Aristotle was not prepared for such a move; first, he was violently shaken and then fell to the side like a pin.

Aras, who had disposed of Aristotle's obstacle, took back his pistol and began to run towards the outer door of the hotel.

Birol, who had thrown himself to the ground when the guns went off, stood up and said, "I think Mr. Oymen was a spy, but I don't know if the android is working for him."

Wondering what was going on, Defne twitched towards the hotel's outer door. Outside, Aras tried to put Oymen in the tracked all-terrain vehicle belonging to the police. When Oymen moved a little slow, there was a scuffle between them. At this time, Aristotle, who had just recovered from the impact of the previous shock, appeared on the white snow. He ran to the spot where the tracked all-terrain vehicle was, grabbed Aras as he took the key to the handcuff from his pocket, and threw him into the snow pile in front of the hotel.

"The android is a traitor," Defne said. Then she started laughing at what she said. Her head was smoky.

She walked towards the all-terrain vehicle when she saw Serhan there. They hugged dramatically as if they had been separated for years, and Oymen grabbed Seyhan by the hand and put her on the vehicle.

"Take me with you, don't leave me here," Defne shouted as they made their way to the slope. Seyhan opened the door of the all-terrain vehicle and jumped down, and started running towards Defne, ignoring the storm that dusted the snow.

Defne and Seyhan hugged each other, tugging at each other in a drunken joy, and began to walk towards the vehicle. However, Oymen disagreed with his wife about taking Defne. "I'm sorry, we can't take you," Seyhan said to Defne.

"You can't leave me here," Defne shouted as the car's pallets moved. She wandered around the side of the hotel, examined parked snowmobiles one by one, and rode in one whose key was left on it. A second later, she started the vehicle with red lightning marks on its sides, loaded on the gas, and chased the tracked all-terrain vehicle. When they landed in the first valley where the ski facilities were located, she completely covered the difference." I'll catch you naughty," she said in joy. By the time she reached the avalanche section of the road, she had become terribly cold. Because her drunkenness had passed a bit, she could partially understand the dangers of the adventure in which she was thrown. After drawing a semicircle, she returned to the hotel with a more cautious ride.

Birol and Suphi sat in the seats in front of the reception and chatted in joy. "Were you in the room?" Suphi asked.

"I rented a snowmobile and got some air," Defne said.

"It turned out that Mr. Aras was from National Intelligence. They've been following the publisher Oymen Ünlüsoy for three months," Birol said.

"And what about the android?" Defne asked.

"He didn't want to lose his employer. Nowadays, the bread is in the lion's mouth," Suphi said.

"In the end, they couldn't stop them from getting on the multiport and fleeing abroad," Birol said.

"The Atlas of Misconceptions project should continue. I liked it," said Defne.

Image Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/IWenq-4JHqo