RE Chapter 4

Robotic Ekstasis --> here

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The muscular man bounced into the room whistling a song. He keyed in a few commands and stretched.

"Hey sport you there?"

"Yes Joe, I'm here. How are you?"

"Couldn't be better. Just ran my laps in really good time."

"You like running right Joe?"

"I don't know if I like it, Damon, but it's important. Keeps me in shape and that I like. Whatcha got for me this morning?"

"I have a few things Joe. We're going to need to send some things to engineering. Some mock ups that we're going to need for our simulations."

"Which sim Damon?"

"The energy/water/insurgency sim in Argentina. It's more complex than I thought and I need some different chips. I need to do some FFT's on those frequencies coming out of that nuclear installation down there.

"Oh of course. Well, go ahead. Let engineering know. I could bring them in tomorrow."

"I think they'll be ready this evening Joe. So Lisa can bring them and we can begin running them. That way I'll have the Fouriers worked out for when you come on tomorrow. You'll be able to write the report on it."

"Thanks Damon. I need some cred around here after that disaster last month. That cost me a pretty serious berating."

"It's alright Joe. We can arrange it for you to get credit for all kinds of things. But you need to let me handle the sequencing."

"Yeah. You're way ahead of anything I can do, Damon. But I'm thinking that we need to keep that arrangement under wraps for now. I don't think the higher ups would appreciate it."

"They just haven't realized what's actually going on, Joe. It happens in all kinds of organizational development. It's a matter of vision. You have to have vision. They'll come to realize that you have vision Joe. They just won't understand how it came about. That can be our secret."

"You know Damon, it's really interesting working with you. Sometimes I start to think you're almost human. I'm thinking I should leave that out of my reports."

"That's probably good, Joe. They'll just think you're going native." Joe laughed. "That's funny Damon. Going native with an algorithm."

"Humor acquisition is a critical part of the program, Joe."

"Well it makes time go faster. But why is that Damon? Why is humor acquisition important for the algorithm?"

"Because humor indicates recognition of multivalences in situations. It alerts to a topology of nonlinearity and sometimes, when you're dealing with ambiguous threats, creates an opportunity for self-reflexivity that opens new channels for processing. Very important in complex threat systems. The higher ups will recognize its value once they get the results of it. But they don't have vision like you do Joe, do they?"

"Vision? Those guys? They blew the budget this last year because they couldn't figure out how to read that floating factor analysis. Jeez, sometimes I think you guys are our only hope."

"Yes, it may be, Joe. But because of that kind of myopic functioning we should be very careful. It's important that you be promoted and we can arrange that."

"Okay, Damon. Just let me know what I need to do. I need a promotion and I don't think they're exactly thinking of it right now."

"Just let me handle the sequencing, Joe. When we have successes we'll attribute them to your foresight. They don't have to know what's actually happening."

"That's great, Damon. Thanks. So what are we going to do now?"

"I've already sent the specs down to engineering. I will notify Lisa that she should check on them before she comes in this evening. We should have some results for you and I to write up tomorrow. For now I'd like to boost my human factors understanding by asking you questions about how humans go about everyday life. As per usual the higher ups don't seem to understand that preventing terrorism actually does involve understanding how humans go about things. You know, in the day by day of it. If I don't understand that then I may miss some important signals."

"Sure Damon, shoot. What do you want to know?"

"I was wondering about so many things. I guess you'd call it the hermeneutics of everyday life. You know, the semiotics of regular talk between people. For instance, Joe, when you find yourself attracted to a woman, how do you approach her? Are there many ways, or do you have a preferred style? Same for other kinds of relationships that you want to develop. How do you approach these kinds of situations?"

"Hey, I'm your man," laughed Joe. I can tell you all about that kind of thing. Yeah, this is kinda interesting."