“O—oh! That’s, um, really cool!” Martin turns a different shade of red, but he’s smiling now.

Bounce bounce bounce.

"You have no idea what that means probably! But it's awesome! We just solved one of the longest-standing problems in philosophy of mind!"

Oh good it’s not weird that he doesn’t know what that is! “Y..ay? I’m... glad? That’s— really impressive that you just did that, I... guess...? I’m sorry, I’d probably be reacting better if I knew anything about what you’re talking about.”

"--oh, I'm sorry, I'm being an asshole-- so there are things that, like, reality is basically made of? Like, in standard physics there are-- I don't know, quarks or something, and you can't get smaller than quarks, and everything is made up of them? Asher could tell you that better than me, I'm not a physics. So quarks are ontologically basic, and lots of people think they're the only ontologically basic thing? Except they can't be because the kitchenware that makes you want to pick it up makes you want to pick up this specific piece of kitchenware. And the gun that makes you violent doesn't just elevate your sympathetic nervous system or something, it actually gives you the urge to be violent. So it has to be interacting with minds as a thing separate from, like, quarks, because minds are the thing that know what violence and kitchenware are. --I guess it could be wrong, it could be categories that are ontologically basic, like maybe the universe knows what kitchenware is separate from minds-- but we can do empricism to philosophy this is so awesome. --Did I do a bad job of explaining things. I think I am too excited to be good at explaining things."

“No, no, I... think I got it? That’s, that’s really neat! You’re good at explaining things.”

(It is very hard to pay attention to Lev’s words when he is smiling and bouncing but Martin is making a valiant attempt.)

"I think it's minds though because a lot of the artefacts are mind-affecting and none of them seem to be, like, category-affecting? --I guess the one that makes you think you're a trivet could be, like, ontologically causing you to be in the 'trivet' category? Although in that case I'm not sure why it wouldn't make other people think you're a trivet. Maybe people know what categories they're in, at least sometimes, but observers can be mistaken?" Bounce bounce bounce! "And if minds are ontologically basic then dualism has to be true! The mind is something different from the brain! Maybe consciousness is so hard to explain because we aren't talking about minds! --I wonder if we can do tests to figure out which animals are sapient. This is so cool."

“Yeah!” Words are also very hard when Lev is bouncing and smiling (at him, smiling at him!) but it is very important. “That’s really cool, that’s— wow, I wouldn’t have thought of any of that, but— wow.”

"...I wonder how many hours I have to work a week before I can claim that reading philosophy of mind is work, I haven't done any of it since undergrad."

“No idea! Guess we can find out?”

"Yeah!! I mean it is not like I have literally anything else to be doing with my life."

“That makes two of us, then! Between us we will have so much time to test philosophy.”

Bounce bounce.

"I am going to make Sasha tell me all about the mind-affecting artefacts. --And the category-affecting ones."

“Yeah!” He hesitates then for a moment. “I... don’t think Sasha likes talking about Artefact Storage much? Which, like, obviously if it’s important, just...”

"...oh that makes sense. Damn. I will have to figure out something else to talk to her about."

(He does not look terribly enthusiastic about this prospect.)

“...sorry. It’s nothing personal? She just, had a rough time of it there is all.”

"...yeah, that makes sense. Dunno why Elias didn't point me to someone else to ask questions of. Maybe he thought I'd be less curious."

“Probably? Most people are less curious than you are, I think. And I mean, she is the only assistant you have who worked there. He might not even know why she transferred out.”

"Well, they should be more curious, because this is all incredibly neat. --At least until I get devoured by an evil spirit."

“Well, let’s just hope that the reason most people are less curious than you isn’t just survivorship bias, then.” A weak smile. 

Bounce bounce. "I like you."

Blushing!!!! So much blushing!!!!!!! “That’s probably a good thing, if we’re working together!”

"Speaking of working, I should probably actually do some of that."

“Yeah, probably. ...I maybe should too.”

With that, Lev returns to studying library science!

The next chapter that seems at all relevant is about the importance of universal design. 

Universal design! It is important to design things so that everyone can access them, regardless of age, disability, etc. Even ignoring how important it is to make information free and easy (the core principle of libraries!), it is often easier and cheaper to build this in from the start, rather than clumsily trying to do it only once it is required. The author clearly has OPINIONS on this subject.