Jake went to the TED website.

A quick search took him to Dr. Blackbridge’s famous lecture. He clicked play, and the video started streaming. Soon a very distinguished, silver-haired man in an open-collar white shirt and black suit strode onto a stage. He was wearing a microphone looped over his ear. The audience applauded eagerly.

After the ovation ended, Dr. Blackbridge went down the list of things he had successfully predicted in the past. Smartphones. Touch-screen computer control. GPS navigational devices in cars. Computers in classrooms. Intercontinental video calls over the internet. Toll gates where you didn’t have to stop to pay.

“So, what is my next prediction?” he asked his audience with a sly twinkle in his eye. “Well, it’s just that. A prediction. I’m nearly eighty years old, so I won’t be around to see it, because I am convinced it will take thirty, maybe forty, years before someone figures out precisely how to do it. But, my friends, the future will be all about IK. It will revolutionize everything. And what, you might wonder, is IK? Simple: Ingestible Knowledge.”

The crowd gasped. Jake did, too.

“For centuries, we humans have consumed information through our eyes and our ears. By reading. Or listening to lectures like this one. We can also learn a lot through our senses of smell and touch—like why one should avoid boiled cabbage or climbing thorny rosebushes.”

His audience chuckled.

“But our senses may not be the most efficient channel for learning. So here is my prediction: In the not-too-distant future, we are going to ingest information. You’re going to swallow a pill and know English. You’re going to swallow a pill and know geometry, trigonometry, and quantum physics. You’ll take another pill and instantly speak Swahili.”

Jake’s jaw nearly fell to his sneakers when Dr. Blackbridge said that.

“This will all happen,” the professor continued, “through the bloodstream. Molecules of knowledge will float up to your brain and deposit themselves in all the right cells and synapses. You won’t need to read a book or attend lectures to understand Shakespeare. The chemicals in these pills will do your learning for you.”

The crowd in the TED Talk audience looked stunned. Dr. Blackbridge smiled when he saw their reaction.

“I suppose these smart pills might put a few of our top colleges and universities out of business.”

A nervous titter ran through the crowd.

“But don’t panic, fellow professors. We’re talking about the future. Ingestible Knowledge can’t be done. Not yet, anyhow. You still have thirty or forty years of job security.”

Jake’s fingers were trembling when he tapped the screen to end the video.

Had he somehow accidentally ingested knowledge last night at the hotel?

Impossible. He’d had the chicken and the beef and a couple slices of cake. None of those were pills.

Besides, Emma had eaten the cake, too, and she hadn’t become an instant genius.

That was when he remembered the jelly beans.