Infodict, The (Short Story)

The Infodict is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in Asimov's (2001), Strangers and Beggars (2002), and Curious Fictions (Apr 5, 2019). It won second place in The Best of Soft SF, 2000, fifth place in the Asimov’s reader poll for 2001, and was nominated for a Theodore Sturgeon Award. Locus included it in their Recommended Reading List in 2001, and it received an honorable mention for Gardner Dozois' The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 19th annual collection and the 2002 Hugo Award for short stories.

Word Count: 3,375

Author's Note
From Curious Fictions

''They say that you can't know the mysteries of the heart, but that's only because you don't have enough data. If you had enough information, surely you could tell what someone else felt about you. If only you had access to all the information.''

Characters

 * Sanji - an infodict obsessing over Marlyss
 * Raymond - who'd rather not know what's on the menu until he gets there
 * Marlyss - is considering Sanji's proposal
 * A waiter at Reefer's

Summary
Sanji has proposed to Marlyss and she wants to think it over.

At work, Sanji tracks Marlyss with a program called a spider, looking at publicly available information like her heart rate, what intersections she's driven through, and whether or not she's made any purchases. Tracking Marlyss doesn't interfere with his work which he manages through specs, earbud, and a personal device called a Concierge. Raymond, a friend a coworker, invited Sanji to lunch but refuses to order ahead and insists on paying in cash. Sanji and Raymond disagree on the convenience of always wearing their specs, always being plugged into the information gathered and disseminated.

Throughout, the day, Sanji continues to monitor Marlyss, hoping something in the information he's gathering will let him know how she'll answer his proposal.

At the end of the day, Sanji and Marlyss meet at the marina. Sanji realizes Marlyss isn't wearing her specs, that he's never seen her without them. The realization prompts him to take his own specs off and he enjoys himself at the marina even without the constant stream of data. At the end of the evening, Marlyss accepts Sanji's marriage proposal.

While Marlyss goes to the restroom, Sanji puts his specs back on, speculating that it will take a lot of data to know if she really loves him.