We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 5: Chapter 19: Working the Problem

Book 5: Chapter 19: Working the Problem

Bill

April 2337

In Virt

I’d received a referral from Professor Gilligan to a physicist who had just recently transitioned to post-life. Professor Hannah Turnbull had been with Newholme University for several decades, teaching theoretical physics. Now, having recently been forcibly retired by a fatal heart attack, she was somewhat at loose ends.

I sent an email to the address that Steven had included, being sure to attach his message so that the recipient wouldn’t discard mine as spam. Even so, there was no telling what kind of schedule she’d be on or how many other projects she might have going. I set a follow-up for a week away and pulled up my project. Might as well beat my head against a brick wall for a while.

I was barely two minutes into it and hadn’t even really gotten into the groove when I received a response and a connection request. I accepted, and Professor Turnbull popped into my VR. She looked to be in her early thirties, which was the most common age people picked when setting up their replicant avatar. Old enough to be taken seriously, but not old enough to look old. At least that was the common wisdom. Very few people selected an apparent age outside that range.

“Good after,” she said with a slight bow. “I hight Professor Hannah Turnbull, errant late of Newholme University.”

I realized that she was speaking Newholme local, and I didn’t have a translator routine set up. I took a half mil to correct the oversight and advertised the reciprocal routine for her in case she needed it.

“Hello, Professor. I’m Bill Johannson. I’m not sure how much Steven told you … ”

“Only that you have a potential breakthrough in the generation of negative energy but need a second set of eyes to advance things.”

I smiled at her. “Very diplomatically phrased. But it might take more than one extra set of eyes. Here’s what I have … ” I pulled up my project and began laying it out. Turnbull materialized a chair and a tea of some kind and settled in.

The presentation took a full minute, since we were operating in replicant normal time. When I was done, Turnbull stared into space for several mils. Finally, she spoke. “I can see where you’d want a breakthrough on this. It’s potentially the biggest thing since the SURGE drive, Mister Johannson—or is it Professor, or Doctor?”

“Let’s just go with Bill,” I replied.

She dimpled momentarily. “And I’m Hannah. Anyway, Bill, it’s a tough nut to crack. The math supports the two-scalar-field hypothesis, but then it dead-ends. It’s like the old Calabi–Yau manifolds, where the number of possible configurations was just short of infinite, and there was no way to pick one that might represent our universe.” She paused and examined the whiteboard again. “I have a few colleagues I can talk to, if you’re okay with that. But right now … ” She shook her head. “I think without another hint, you’ve probably taken this about as far as you can unless you can narrow down the problem domain.”

*****

Hannah stayed a few more minutes, I think out of politeness, but then made her excuses. I was left glaring at the whiteboard, a sense of helplessness settling over me. The AI had gauged me just right. The hint had been enough to get me excited, but too little to give me a real breakthrough. The number of possible solutions to the problem was not really infinite, but definitely included a long string of zeros. And I couldn’t test all of them.

Or … couldn’t I? A good theoretical physicist would try to arrive at an answer mathematically, and there didn’t seem to be a path to that goal. But the Skippies had this humongous computer, as Hugh kept reminding us. I wondered how many simulations it could run at the same time. It would be dirty science—ad hoc modeling without any theoretical backing, just make it work and worry about why later.

I grinned and pulled up Virtual Studio. I hadn’t done any actual programming in quite a while, but replicants didn’t really get rusty.