Hal and Pemulis on DMZ and quitting
‘You use your goddamn imagination, Inc, plus a couple prescribed limits. Which they won’t fuck with you on limits on the general test, trust me. This is a big pink titty compared to an Eschaton calculation. You move the two points you’re doing Rise-over-Run on infitesimally close together, you end up with a plug-in formula.’
Context
Pemulis tutoring Hal in differentiation for the Boards, four days after I-Day. Board calculus rated as trivial against an Eschaton calculation: even with the game banned and its map in debris, Eschaton's math remains Pemulis's gold standard of difficulty and rigor. ("infitesimally" as the text has it.)