Hello again! Without further adieu, here’s part two.
Don’t forget to read part one!
Stand-up
When they arrived at The Core, the rest of the team were milling around. Some stood or leaned against the support columns near the edges of the atrium, looking through their papers and briefings. Others were working to collect data from one of the secondary access terminals in the room. Some sat in quiet contemplation of some problem they were facing. Alfred allowed them to continue their work or quiet thoughts as he strolled through the atrium toward The Core in the center.
When he arrived at the main access terminal, he turned around, “Okay, everyone! Can I have your attention?”
His team, about thirty in total, closed their briefings, terminal windows, or recovered from their quiet introspection. He worked his jaw up and down, each oscillation purging his fear of public speaking. As he opened his mouth to speak, he once again felt the sudden feeling that he had forgotten something important.
Irritated by the feeling’s resurgence, he spoke with urgency, “Come on, let’s get started with our morning stand-up!”
The group of neuroscientists, computer scientists, physicists, and engineers gathered around Alfred and The Core. Some of them jostled to the front of the circle. Others were more comfortable in the periphery. Alfred tried to make a mental note to follow up with some of the folks on the outside to make sure they were getting the support they needed. Alfred waited for his peers to finish their shuffling.
“Our goal this morning is to figure out what happened between the parametric settings we applied before launch and the real time data. We must be missing some essential variable or nuance in our approach.”
He paused then to allow for interruptions. He had learned early on in his career that monologuing to groups of brilliant people would only end in disaster. He preferred to let the specialists come forward with their own ideas if they had any. Silence hung in the air. He waited another moment, surveying those in front of him for anyone looking to speak up. Failing to find anyone with a yearning to talk so far, he continued.
“Samantha may have mentioned the data she’s already collected. She’s determined that the simulation again failed during the Industrial Revolution from some type of massive energy burst. She informed me a few minutes ago that the sun parameters remain unchanged throughout the simulation. That is, it held steady at 88%. I don’t think we can rule out a glitch somewhere, but I don’t think that should be our primary train of thought.”
This time, he had barely finished his sentence before someone from behind him cleared their throat. Vlad, one of the senior computation engineers, moved around the periphery of the circle, gently pushing into the fold. Vlad had been working to diagnose the strange electrical behavior occurring in the management layer of the simulation.
Alfred was surprised to see Vlad moving forward to speak. Vlad often preferred to discuss his research and discoveries in private. As Vlad broke through the circle of his colleagues, he took a position close to Alfred.
“Good morning!”
Vlad spoke far too loudly. His pale skin shifted into shades of vermilion as he adjusted the volume of his voice.
“Sorry! Too much coffee this morning, I think,” he said, gently making a joke of his own awkwardness.
Alfred smiled widely at Vlad. He tried to continue Vlad’s self-deprecation in a light-hearted cheer.
“That’s why I couldn’t find any in the cupboard this morning!”
The group’s focus shifted to Alfred for a moment, their laughter and eye-rolls embraced him with warmth. Alfred watched as Vlad used the opportunity to re-compose himself. As the laughter and groans died down, Alfred addressed Vlad and the group.
“Please, Vlad, continue. We all know how important it must be for you to be in front of us, sharing directly.”
“Thanks, Alfred. I’m just going to dive straight in. Some of you may know my focus of research, but for those who don’t, I’m trying to identify the root cause of some of the electrical anomalies. The problem was first observed by Fatima Hassan during the initial simulation run. She, and others, documented the manner of the problem. There appears to be an uncontrolled variable, either in our approach to the simulation architecture, the weak AI we’re using for the management layer, or within the realm of our physical understanding of the world.”
Vlad paused to chuckle at his final option. He made eye contact with some of his peers nodding their heads, blushed deeply, took in a stuttered breath, and continued.
“My goal, inherited from Fatima’s work, has been to discern which of those outcomes is more likely. Our lab is one of the few in the world that can control the interference from neutrino collisions and other radiant properties of our universe. Fatima had proposed the simulation was failing due to these types of collisions.
“Fatima believed, after the move, we could conclude, if it were an understood property of radiant particles interacting with our processor and memory states, the problem would disappear. Unfortunately, we still have the problem. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a job.”
Vlad sighed, looking at the ground in front of him instead of his peers. He seemed to struggle with his words as he continued.
“I may have discovered a new variant of interaction in the management layer.”
He stopped, looking panicked about the implications of his last sentence. After several moments of silence, Alfred shuffled next to Vlad. Alfred couldn’t fathom the depths or details that Vlad operated in. He was glad of that awareness, he realized, as he looked around the room at his peers. Several of the physicists were turning crimson. One of the scientists working to bridge the gap of multi-modal paradoxes looked as if they were going to scream at Vlad. Alfred spoke to quiet the murmurs following Vlad’s declaration.
“Everyone? I’m going to begin by acknowledging that I’m out of my depth here. My first thought: Vlad, you are asking for someone to independently validate your findings. Is that correct?”
“A sanity check would definitely be appreciated.”
“Great. Who is interested in working with Vlad today to conduct an in-house peer review?”
Alfred scanned the group, about half of the physicists had raised their hands. Alfred noticed, however, that Rajiv, the scientist researching the multi-modal paradoxes they’d encountered, still looked flustered. His hands were plastered to his sides.
“Thank you for volunteering. Renee and Nat? Can you deep dive into the math with Vlad? I’m sure he’s got more than a few models for you to pry into already.”
Alfred watched Vlad closely to make sure he hadn’t misspoken. Vlad processed the words and nodded gently with agreement.
Alfred continued, “Rajiv, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to catch up with you after our stand-up. Okay?”
Rajiv looked perturbed by the public call-out but bobbed his head side to side in the affirmative.
“Yeah, sure,” he said quietly.
Alfred turned to Vlad, “Does that tackle your immediate concerns, or would additional support be helpful?”
Vlad spoke to Alfred’s shoes, “Uh, well, I would like you, uh…” he hesitated for several moments, “to join us as well, if you have the time.”
Alfred stared at Vlad, he realized, too late to not feel foolish, his own mouth had dropped at the request. Alfred thought through their professional relationship, Vlad had never requested his direct support before. Given that, Alfred understood, this must be incredibly important.
“Of course, I, hmm, I might get in the way of Renee and Natalie, though.”
“I can set them up in a few minutes with the models. They can operate independently to check the math.”
Vlad sputtered for a moment. Alfred wondered if it was Vlad’s social awkwardness of addressing “The Boss” in public or the gravity of the situation. Vlad pushed through.
“I need you to understand fully though.”
The gravity then, Alfred thought.
“Understood. I’ll let Joane know to expect a briefing tomorrow morning and then we can get into it.”
Vlad nodded again. Alfred looked over at Renee and Nat to make sure they weren’t about to boil over about not being the primary focus of the day. Scientists could have egos, Alfred considered. He was glad, however, to see the two of them were already quietly theorizing about what Vlad could have discovered. A few of the physicists who had raised their hands joined them to share their theories. Alfred realized the stand-up was about to descend into chaos.
“Everyone? Before I release you to your work, are there any other blockers, points of contention, or topics of interest for us to discuss?”
They spent another eight minutes or so discussing the challenges individuals were facing. Alfred was able to mostly observe at this point; his colleagues voiced their concerns; others spoke up in support to work with them “offline.”
Thanks for continuing to read While(True):! I hope you’re enjoying the story so far. Stay tuned for the next chapter next week!
Read Part 3 now!