A Beginning

(I've based this scene on a re-imagining of a scene from the story of Ernest Shackleton, and the loss of the Endurance, brought into the present day)

"We're fucked!" said The Boss glancing around the group. He seemed to pause at each face, and each person felt they were addressed individually.

"So that we are all clear on the situation, and no-one is in any doubt: the ship's fucked, the comms are fucked, and, as far as I can tell, the greater part of the stores and the equipment are fucked as well." He paused for breath and surveyed the faces watching him expectantly.

"There is no prospect of completing our mission, so that's it. We might as well go home!" There was no whisper from his audience. They waited for the next statement.
"We may be fucked, but we're not finished! If we're to get home, then I need to know in detail what our situation really is." He paused and began handing pieces of paper around.

"I'm giving you a list of what I want you to do. All the pages are the same. You can see what I want you to do, and you can see what everyone else is doing too. Basically, it's all the same. I need to know what the situation really is. What resources do we have? What is broken? What is fixable and what is beyond repair? Concentrate on your own task, but don't hinder other people with theirs. If we are going to succeed, then we will succeed together. You can see that I will be busy too. Off you go. I'll see you back here in 3 hours." There was a brief murmur and they turned away.

(And this bit owes something to some of the lines from Aidan Dooley's "Travels with Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer")

"And you ask 'why on earth are you going back?' But you've never been there, so how could you understand? First of all, there's the silence, when for the first time in your life you can really hear yourself think. But it isn't always silent, oh no! Sometimes there are sounds which I cannot describe and you would not believe, even if I could. And then there's the smell. I've never experienced anything like it. Not unpleasant, but different. I know you won't understand that either, but it's true."

TB the dog

TB the dog. – Espedair Street by Iain Banks – p84 

I just like this. Simple dialogue and a humorous situation. You learn a lot about the characters.  

Dramatis personae

Tommy is 17 or 18, has a shaved blonde head, and is dressed all in black. He was fired from his job in a furniture factory for sniffing (water-based) glue.

McCann is a 50-something widower. He is an unemployed docker. He has been in a fight earlier in the day.

TB is Tommy’s Uncle’s dog. It looks “like a cross between an alsatian and a wolfhound … or maybe just a wolf”.

The writer is about 30 years old, 6 foot 8 inches tall and dressed in a scruffy trench-coat. It would be telling to say quite what he is.

They have all been drinking heavily, and TB has passed out.

Tommy’s mother expected him and the dog home for their tea. She lived about a quarter of a mile away, on Houldsworth Street. McCann was nursing his grazed hands, and limping. Tommy took TB’s front legs, I took the rear. The dog was a limp as a sack of potatoes, but heavier. We tramped through the darkening street, getting the occasional funny remark, but nobody stopped us. McCann sniggered every now and again.

“Must have been the curry,” Tommy said. “He was obviously hungry or he wouldnae have eaten the wee fork as well.” The dog grunted as though in agreement, then resumed its snoring,

“Aye,” McCann said. “Some dug that. Can ye rent it oot? Gie it tae people ye dinnae like?”

“Never thought of that, Mr McCann,” Tommy admitted. My shoulders were getting sore. I took a better grip of the animal’s legs and looked down distastefully at it; the dog was quietly pissing itself.

The urine was soaking into its belly hair and running down its flanks and round to its back, to drip off there, onto my latest new pair of trainers.

“What does ‘T B’ stand for anyway?” I asked Wee Tommy.

He looked at me as though I was an idiot, and in an almost resentful tone said, “Total Bastard.”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “Of course. Obvious really.”

“Ye mean there’s nothing wrong wi its lungs after aw?” McCann said disgustedly.

“Not compared to its bladder,” I muttered, trying to keep my feet clear of the dribbling canine pee.

“Naw, it’s perfectly healthy,” Wee Tommy said. “It’s just…” he shrugged, shaking the totally relaxed and snoring hound “…it’s an animal.”

“Fair enough.” McCann said.

The Black Cube

The Black Cube

Tom shuffled his papers, glanced at the screen of his laptop and then around the empty conference room. Everything was ready. Behind him the screen showed a slide with the single word “Cube!” in the centre. He took a sip of water from his cup and stared at the table in front of him, where a neat white cloth was covering something.

Beth was the first to arrive. She was always early. He gestured towards the coffee and biscuits sitting on the side table and she poured herself a cup before sitting to his right and beginning to work with something on her mobile phone. Pete was next. He took a cup of coffee without being invited and sat opposite Beth. He opened a foolscap notebook and laid a pen across it.

“Well?” He asked. “What have you called us here for? Your note said that it was important and urgent.”

Tom looked at him, raised a hand and shook his head.

“I’d like to wait till Mark gets here before we start, and yes, it is both important and urgent.”

Just then the door burst open and Mark came running in. He was sweating profusely and his shirt was untucked from the front of this trousers. He had probably been running, which did not suit his 

physique at all. He poured himself a cup of coffee, put a handful of biscuits on a plate and sat beside Beth, who shuffled uneasily in her seat.

Tom coughed, looked around the room and began.

“Thank you all for coming at such short notice. I expect you are wondering what this is about.” There were nod and affirmative grunts from around the table.

“Mark, would you mind closing the door. I don’t want anyone else to overhear us” Mark rose and shut the door, and then asked:

“What’s all this about Tom? I had to rush to get here”

Tom waited until Mark had returned to his seat before he continued.

“Rather than explain, I’d like to show you something. Pete, would you mind helping me?”

“Of course,” Said Pete “But I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“It’s simple enough, “ said Tom ”I’d like you to lift the cloth in front of you. Remove the over underneath and then pick up the object you will find there. That’s all. I think it’s safe, but I would prefer you to wear these gloves, just in case.”

Pete looked at Tom quizzically, took the white cotton gloves Tom handed him and removed the cloth. Underneath was a clear glass dome, of the kind used to cover cakes, beneath that, on a china saucer, sat a small, soot-black cube.

Pete removed the cover and reached out with a gloved hand. He touched the cube gently with his forefinger and then grasped it with his finger and thumb.

“It’s enormously heavy!”

“You may find it easier to lift the saucer.” Said Tom, helpfully.

Pete pulled the saucer towards him and peered down at the cube. “What is it?”

“That, ” said Tom, “is the problem! It arrived in a parcel addressed to me yesterday morning. I didn’t get round to opening it until today. Inside the package was this note  ” he lifted up a piece of paper in enclosed in a plastic cover, while displaying a new slide on the screen.

“As you can see, it doesn’t say much.” He flicked forward to the next slide.

“I’ve done some very basic tests. Conveniently, each face measures 1 centimetre. It weighs about a kilogramme, 980 grammes to be a little more precise.”

“That’s not possible.” Said Mark.

“I know! That’s 50 times the density of uranium! But there’s more. As suggested in the note, I measured its specific heat capacity. Nothing fancy. I used the ‘method’ of mixtures.”

“I don’t understand what that is.” Said Beth.

“It doesn’t matter.” Said Pete “High school physics. Go on Tom,”

“Well, the first time I did it, I frightened the life out of myself. I boiled a beaker of water. I thought I had a run-away chemical reaction. I didn’t. The specific heat capacity of whatever that cube is made of approximately, and I emphasise approximately, 3000 kilojoules, per kilogram per degree C.”

Mark and Pete looked at Tom oddly, and Beth said “You’ve lost me with the numbers I’m afraid”

Mark peered across at the object and then turned to Beth “What Tom seems to be saying, is that this object, this black cube, has properties which are not physically possible.”

Tom nodded. “Pete, would you mind sliding the saucer across to Beth. And Beth, would you mind scratching the surface of the cube with your engagement ring?”

Pete did as he was asked and, while holding the cube between the finger and thumb of her right hand, Beth drew her ring across the object. She peered down.

“I don’t seem to have made a mark. Shall I have another go?”

Tom looked around the table. “No don’t bother Beth. I’m not surprised you didn’t mark it. I tried already. The object you see in front of you was sent to me, without anything to identify the sender. It is 50 times the density of the heaviest metal, it absorbs many times more heat than any substance known to man, or woman, without apparently undergoing any change, and its surface is harder than diamond. As Mark says, its properties are not physically possible, and I have absolutely no idea what it is, or where it came from!”  

(26th March 2017 – 923 words)

Arrival at the Island (8) – Afternoon – Island tour (1)

Jim was deeply engrossed in what he was doing and did not notice that Anastasia had come into the room until she was standing in front of his desk and casting a shadow.

AL: “Would you like to take a break from what you are doing?” She asked with a smile”.

Jim gave himself a shake, like a dog after a swim, and after he had gathered his thoughts answered:

JG: “Yes, I can break now. I’m not actually doing very much” He put emphasis on the word ‘doing’ “I’m familiarising myself with what you have here.” He continued: “Your systems have been very professionally organised and maintained”.

AL: “I’m glad things meet with your approval. We can talk about it over lunch, but first I’ll take you on a brief tour of the island. I didn’t want to do that last night. I will show you where you are going to be staying too.”

Jim picked up his jacket as they went out and Anastasia reminded him that he would need the code for the door to get back in when they returned. In the stable yard, they climbed into the Landrover and Anastasia left along the drive, past dense rhododendron bushes.

They turned northward along the road. As they drove along at a leisurely pace, Anastasia pointed out landmarks as they passed the village, the hotel-cum-pub, the road down to the ferry slip and the island shop “It’s the only one!” she said with a grin.

Further north they passed several small farms and then the island narrowed and the sea was clearly visible on both sides. At the same time the road narrowed to a single track, “with passing places” said a road sign, punctuated by cattle grids clattered as they drove over them. The road rose steeply and the hills became noticeably more rugged.

Quite suddenly, the road came to an end. The road itself seemed to terminate suddenly at  a rocky outcrop above the sea, and just before that was a with a fork to a rough turning area. Anastasia parked and indicated to Jim that he should get out.

“This is the called the North End.” She said. “It’s obvious why!”

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 9th February 2017 – 367 words)

Arrival at the Island (7) – Office

Jim spent the morning exploring his new workplace. In the physical world that didn’t take long. The room was simply, almost austerely furnished. It contained three desks and Jim chose the one which faced the door and the courtyard. There were three doors in the end wall. The one closest to the garden (which Jim thought of as “the front”) led into a small kitchen which was supplied with a deep Belfast sink, a kettle, a coffee maker, a microwave oven and what Jim had called a Baby Belling cooker in his student days. Most of the cupboards in the kitchen were empty, but there was crockery and cutlery for four and one of the cupboards contained tea, coffee, sugar and a few basic ingredients. The door towards the rear of the room led to a shower-room and lavatory. The middle door led into a walk-in cupboard which had shelves from floor to ceiling but was otherwise empty. Jim made himself a jug of coffee and settled to explore the computing systems.

There were network and power cables dangling from the suspended ceiling above each desk. Jim plugged in the laptop he had been supplied with and opened the folder which lay on the desk. Anastasia had suggested that he start with that. Someone with a sense of humour had written “Start here” and a hand-drawn Windows icon on the front of the folder.

As Jim proceeded he found that the further he looked, the more there was to find. There were obviously several systems involved and there was documentation for a number of SQL and other databases. Almost to his surprise, everything seemed to be well maintained and documented. As he worked systematically through his work, he wondered if he was being observed. He remembered the test in London when the Doctor had been watching what he was doing from another screen. He was aware that might be happening and he might not even be aware of it. He looked at the laptop ahead of him. It was fitted with an integral web-cam, but after all that was not at all unusual these days. He glanced over his shoulders and then at the corners of the room. He did not notice any cameras, but that did not mean that they were not there! Chiding himself for being paranoid he took a sip of coffee.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 7th February 2017 – 395 words)

Arrival at the Island (6) – Moving In

(Another change of tack)

Jim was finishing his breakfast when Anastasia walked into the dining room. She was wearing jeans and a sweater which showed off her figure. She took a seat opposite him at the dining table and waited until he had finished eating. He had seen nobody since he got up and had been surprised to find a cooked breakfast had been prepared for him and had been left keeping warm.

“Good morning Mr Gray. I Trust you slept well.”

“Very well thank-you very much. What with the travelling, good food and the country air, I slept very well indeed. It’s very quiet here.”

“Excellent! When you have finished I will take you to where you will be working. It’s not in the house itself, but only a short walk away. This afternoon I will show you the cottage we have selected for you. I hope it will be adequate. Being on an island means that we really have to consider accommodation and of course that tends to limit the options we have as well.”

“I’m sure it will be excellent. Everything else is much better than I expected. I’m ready now, if you want to lead the way. Will I need a coat?”

“Oh good! No, I don’t think a coat will be necessary.”

The office where Jim was to work was in an outbuilding which was reached by a short gravel path. The office was in a range of low buildings which formed one side of a walled garden. The garden looked tended to, but the flower beds were occupied only by a few bare stems and were covered with some kind of dark mulch material.

Anastasia unlocked the door by entering a passcode on a keypad. At the same time she handed Jim the pin-code hand-printed on an index card.

“I know that none of the residents would interfere with our property and the island does not get many visitors but we like to keep the place secure. Please try to remember to lock the door whenever you leave the office, even for a short while.”

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 6th February 2017 – 347 words)

Arrival at the Island (5) – Evening Meal - Night

(Another change of tack)

Anastasia showed Jim to his room in the big house. The house had been built in the Scottish baronial house built towards the end of the nineteenth century. Jim had never stayed in a room like it. The room was spacious with a large four-poster bed and the window overlooked the garden at the front of the house.

Jim ate alone in the dining room. The food was simple: cold poached salmon and a salad, but plentiful and beautifully prepared. A card on the table told him to leave his tray on the table when he was finished, so he did, even though it seemed slightly impolite to do so.

After finishing eating he put on his boots and went for a walk in the garden. It was a strange experience. He was living in a country house, a minor mansion, on an island. He felt like pinching himself because of the unreality of it all.

The paths in the gardens in front of the house were raked gravel and crunched beneath his feet. He knew that the sunset was behind him and it lit up the mainland opposite making the purple of the heather darker. Around the house rhododendrons provided shelter. The earlier wind seemed to have abated and I had become calm. The sky overhead was clear. It was going to be a chilly night.

Eventually Jim decided that he wanted to sleep. He was tired from the travelling and although the strange surroundings excited him, he wanted to be at his best. On his way to his room he looked into the dining room and found that someone had cleared away the tray with the remains of his dinner. He realised with a start that he had not seen a single person since Anastasia had left him.

On the locker beside the bed was a card written with a flowing, cursive script which informed him that his breakfast would be ready at 8 o’clock next morning and wishing him a good night. He washed in the wash-basin in the room and then dressed for bed. When he turned out the lights the quietness was almost tangible. It felt like he was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. He was aware that he dreamed of voices in the night, and he thought that he woke once in the darkness but there was no sound at all.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 5th February 2017 – 402 words)

Arrival at the Island (4) – Ferry Slip – Meeting Anastasia

Jim walked down the loading ramp, keeping to the right-hand side to keep clear of the traffic. There was a fresh breeze blowing across the bay from his left. He pulled his wheeled suitcase behind him and carried a rucksack containing two laptops on his back. At the top of the concrete slipway a few cars were formed a queue. On the other side was a small car park which was almost empty except for a long-wheelbase Landrover. Standing in front of it was Anastasia. She waved towards him.

The sun was setting behind the island as Jim walked across towards the Landrover. Quite suddenly the wind felt a little colder.

“Welcome to Eilean Banrigh! Did you have a reasonable journey?” she asked. “Please put your luggage in the back and then get in the front with me.”

Jim muttered something about it being a long journey, closed the back door, walked to the front and climbed up and seated himself on the passenger side. The interior was clean but Spartan. Anastasia joined him.

“Yes, it is a long way from Birmingham” she said, responding to his earlier comment. “You are probably tired.” You will sleep in the big house tonight. Tomorrow we will show you round the island, explain your duties and arrange for you to move into your cottage.”

“I didn’t expect to see you here” said Jim. “If it’s a long way from Birmingham, then it is even further from London”

Anastasia hesitated and seemed to glance upwards as if searching for a suitable response and then said “Yes, it’s a long journey, but we have become used to it. Naturally we try to limit the number of times we move to and fro.” With that, she started the engine and the rattle of the diesel inhibited further conversation.

On their journey, Anastasia pointed out a few landmarks but all Jim felt he could do was acknowledge what he was being told.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 3rd February 2017 – 325 words)

Arrival at the Island (3) – Ferry

(Another change of tack)

The ferry was not quite as Jim had been expecting. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but this wasn’t it. It didn’t have a distinct front or back, or stem and stern. Instead, both ends of were ramps which could be lowered. Along one side there was a cabin in which passengers could shelter. There were only a few cars and vans an most of their drivers stayed in their vehicles. Jim noticed that they all seemed to know the crew.

The loading ramp was raised and the ferry set off with a lurch. The sound of the diesel engine was noticeable in the cabin. Jim was approached by a young woman wearing waterproofs and asked what ticket he wanted. Jim showed her a printed document he had been sent, she nodded, gave him a ticket and said that it would be charged to the company’s account. She asked if Jim knew where he was going on the far side, because it was “a canny walk and the weather’s not good”. Jim said that he had been told that he was being met at the ferry slip. She said that in that case it would almost certainly be a green Landrover. Jim thanked her and continued looking out of the window.

There was a swell on the sea and the beginnings of white-horses on the wave tops. From time to time the ferry would give a lurch in response to the waves. The sky was grey and clouded over and droplets of rain or spray ran down the outside of the window. Jim could see the island getting closer. The seemed to be entering a small bay but Jim could not look directly ahead.

Suddenly there was a change in the diesel note and a new sound which Jim associated with the loading ramp being lowered. They had arrived!

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 2nd February 2017 – 385 words)

Arrival at the Island (2) – Retrospective (2)

The contents of the envelope were a surprise, several surprises really. The main thing was an offer of a job for Medinger and Litvenyenko. He had needed to review the amount they offering him several times before he convinced himself that he had understood it correctly. They were offering him almost twice what he had been expecting, and they said that “for practical reasons” they would provide him with accommodation and food while he was on the island. They had also included railway and bus tickets and travelling instructions. This was extraordinary. They seemed extraordinarily keen to have him, and he still felt that he didn’t understand exactly what it was they wanted him to do, except that “he had demonstrated his suitability”.

One reservation he had about the whole thing was the remoteness of the work location. He had looked up Eilean Banrigh first in an atlas, he hadn’t found it, and then on Google which had found it, but confirmed that it was remote. If it was necessary for him to work there, then he could understand why they felt that they needed to provide accommodation.

The other reservation was that he needed to depart the day after tomorrow. Not much time to set things in order for several weeks away from home. Still, the pay being offered was extremely good and he had nothing to tie himself to where he was living, not even a pet cat!

So, after a long railway journey to Glasgow, and a long coach trip he had arrived at a tiny village post-office cum shop. His instructions had said that he was to ask at the shop about a transfer to the ferry, and to say that the shop was to charge it to the Medinger account. He had been surprised when the shopkeeper had asked him to wait and had then delegated his wife, a taciturn little woman, to drive him over a mile through the sand dunes and coarse grasses to “the ferry terminal”. The ferry terminal turned out to be a car park and a shelter in the middle of nowhere. His driver had told him that he had half-an-hour to wait for the ferry and had suggested that he use the tearoom, which had been built with the intention of “fleecing the tourists”.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 1st February 2017 – 385 words)

Arrival at the Island (1) – Retrospective

(Another change of tack)

Jim looked out of the window of the small coffee shop and nursed his cup. A lot had changed in the past week. He had been looking for a new start. This was certainly as new start, but was it what he wanted. Only time would tell. One thing was certain – the money would be very welcome!

JIm looked out of the window and reviews the last week. He had returned from the interview with Litvenyenko and Medinger feeling slightly unsettled. It wasn’t that things had gone badly it was more that he came away feeling that he hadn’t really understood what had happened. The location had seemed so strange. It was almost as if the two people were using rooms in an empty building. That was odd in the centre of London.

The following day he had started thinking about how long he should wait for a job offer and what he should do if one did not come? He found himself fretting, and had gone out for a walk to take his mind of things.

One day later he was checking his eMail when the doorbell rang. That surprised him. He did not receive many visitors and he was not expecting anyone. When he opened the front door he was met by a courier holding a flat rectangular box. That was even more of a surprise. He had not ordered anything. Having checked the name and address, he signed the courier’s tablet device and took the package inside. It contained what appeared to be a brand-new laptop! On the top of the laptop was a large brown envelope addressed to him.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 31st January 2017 – 273 words)

Interview (11) – The Test

Medinger gestured towards one of the desks.

GM: Please sit there.

Jim sat down.

GM: In front of you, on the laptop you will see there is a terminal emulator. I would like you to log on to one of our servers. The userid and password you need are on the file card to your right.

Jim picked up the card and did as he was asked. He was about to ask something when Medinger continued.

GM: I will ask you to look at some things and perform some tasks. There is no need for you to tell me what you are doing. I can see everything you do on the screen in front of me. It is as if I was looking over your shoulder.

Jim nodded that he understood and then the test began. It was strange. Jim was aware that he was being observed. At first the tasks were simple. He was simply finding things in the directory structure. As time progressed he had to concentrate harder because the tasks became more involved and required more thought. He started using different application programs, some of which were entirely new to him.

Jim became aware that he was looking at data too. He suspected it had been obfuscated in some way. He seemed to be getting glimpses into what this company was doing but it wasn’t at all clear. He was curious to look at some things, but was reluctant to stray from the path of exactly what he had been asked to do.

From time to time he glanced across at Medinger. Each time he did, he say Medinger leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head, staring intently at the screen in front of him.

Quite suddenly, there came a pause. Jim looked up again. The doctor was leaning forward, apparently focusing on something on his screen. A brief smile seemed to flicker on his lips and then he turned to Jim.

GM: Good! That will do for now.

He paused, and looked up towards the ceiling, as if he was listening to someone else.

GM: Yes, I agree. Entirely satisfactory.

Then looking towards Jim,

GM: You will be hearing from Anastasia in due course.

JG: Is that all? Do you need to know anything more?

Jim glanced at the time in the bottom corner of the screen. Nearly 2 hours had passed since he had started the exercise with the Doctor and he had hardly spoken a word.

GM: No. We already know everything we need to know. Anastasia will contact you shortly.

And that was it! A few minutes later Jim found himself, with his suitcase, standing in the road looking back at the dilapidated house and wondering, what on earth has just happened? And what is going to happen next?

The drizzle had stopped and the day was clearing. Puzzled, he made his way towards the hotel he had booked for the evening.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 29th January 2017 – 494 words)

Interview (10) – The Doctor’s room

 (Change of tack – I’m going to write this piece of conversation as a play. Little description, no “he said – she said”, no stage directions – This is just to see how an approach works. A lot of this is experimentation.) (Continued)

Jim found himself nodding, but he was also a little confused at the way the conversation was going. This did not feel like a conventional interview at all, and the interaction between GM and AL was distinctly odd and rather unsettling.

Suddenly the Doctor got up

GM: Would you mind doing a little test for us? Rather than ask you lots of detailed questions, I would like you to show us what you can do. Would you mind?

JG: No. Of course not. What do you want me to do?

GM: Just follow me. Leave your bag here. It will be perfectly safe. There is nobody in this building except Anastasia and me and, of course, yourself.

He got up abruptly and walked to the door.

GM: Bring your coffee with you.

Outside on the landing, the doctor began climbing the stairs to the next level. Jim followed, not really knowing what was expected.

On the next level, the doctor paused to unlock a room and then paused at the door to usher Jim inside.

The room was a surprise to Jim. As far as he could tell, it looked out on the front of the building, overlooking the road. Sunlight streamed in through the window, but all Jim could see was sky and clouds, because between the window and the room proper a partition had been erected with upward sloping slats, like an enormous, rigid, Venetian blind. Jim surmised that this construction would prevent anyone at street level having any awareness of what was going on in this room, even at night. Jim remembered the Doctor’s earlier comments about “privacy”

The room was furnished smartly in a sparse functional style. There were three desks arranged in a loose “U” formation, each with an expensive mesh-backed chair behind it. On two of the desks sat laptop computers. Jim noticed that each computer was connected to power and network tables which descended from a tiled suspended ceiling. In the corner of the room stood what was probably a networking cabinet, with lights flickering behind a smoked glass door. (continued)

(Part of the “Tyson” project: 26th January 2017 – 347 words)

Interview (9) – Conversation Three

 (Change of tack – I’m going to write this piece of conversation as a play. Little description, no “he said – she said”, no stage directions – This is just to see how an approach works. A lot of this is experimentation.) (Continued)

AL: We consider it highly desirable. We got to great lengths to keep our business and the information about it secure from the outside world.

JG: If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly is your business? I realise it isn’t strictly necessary for me to know, but I’m curious. I tried to do a little research myself, and I found surprisingly little. You’re obviously technically aware and yet you have a remarkably sparse digital footprint.

DM smiled has he spoke. He had large white teeth. The effect was unsettling.

DM: We don’t mind you asking in the least. If we are to do business together, then we don’t think we need to have any secrets from you, but we do value our privacy. Our business is in two areas: biotechnology – specifically research into cell replication and cancer and what might loosely be called computer networking and the transmission of incremental changes to dynamic datasets. If you are interested, you will have opportunities to learn more during your work for us.

JG: I think I see. The computer networking is closer to my expertise than biotechnology. It seems an unusual mixture of businesses. I don’t altogether see how the two businesses fit together, but then, it’s not my business, it’s yours” He said with a smile.

AL: The two different business lines are the results of a past merger between two entities. We find there is a useful symbiotic relationship between the two which although it may not be obvious, is extremely useful to us.

JG: I’m not sure I understand, but I don’t think it has much bearing on what you want me to do for you. Again, for my curiosity, why have you based your business in such a remote location? I don’t think you’ve mentioned where it is.

AL: The location is an island called “Eilean Banrigh”, which means “Queen’s Island” in Scottish Gaelic. The painting above the fireplace is the view from the highest point. (She said, indicating the picture)

We use that location for a number of reasons: An important, though perhaps not the most important, is that the island belonged to one of our main investors, that of course was a considerable help when we were starting our company. The second reason is that operating on an island is a help for research into both of our areas of interest. Using an island makes it easier to manager bio-security and the remoteness reduces the stray electromagnetic radiation we have to deal with.

 (continued)

(Part of the “Tyson” project: 20th January 2017 – 418 words)

Interview (8) – Conversation Two

 (Change of tack – I’m going to write this piece of conversation as a play. Little description, no “he said – she said”, no stage directions – This is just to see how an approach works. A lot of this is experimentation.)

AL:       . (continued) You see, while ‘there being only one of you’ obviously imposes limitations, it has distinct advantages for our company.

GM: Our company places a very high value on confidentiality and employing a single person means that only one outsider has to deal with sensitive information.

AL: And we know that you have a reputation for integrity in handling confidential information.

Jim found himself looking from person to person, like a umpire at a tennis match.

GM: And there is a further practical advantage,

AL: We would want you to work and live at our premises for a while. Having only one person to accommodate will obviously be easier for us.

Jim did not know who to look at or who to answer. He spoke looking straight ahead and then glancing from one to the other.

JG: You want me to work here?

AL: Oh no. Not here. Our base is a long way from here, in the North West of Scotland. We use these premises when we have business to transact in London. Would you be prepared to move to the North of Scotland, an island in fact, for 2 or 3 months?

(Jim turned to face Litvenyenko – He felt uneasy turning his back on Medinger)

JG: Is that necessary? Surely the work you need could be done remotely. I could access the server, wherever that is and perform the configuration from somewhere more convenient. I might need to visit your place in Scotland a couple of days should be sufficient, it’s hardly likely to take months.

(Once again the conversation is bounding from one side of Jim to the other)

GM: We could prefer the work to be performed on site. We are prepared to pay generously for the right person. We believe you are suitable and we will give you an opportunity in a moment to demonstrate that you are capable of doing what we require. Are you at least sufficiently interested to continue?

JG: Well yes, of course. I suppose I would be prepared to commit to 2 or 3 months if you really think it is necessary.

(continued)

(Part of the “Tyson” project: 19th January 2017 – 354 words)

Interview (7) – Conversation One

 (Change of tack – I’m going to write this piece of conversation as a play. Little description, no “he said – she said”, no stage directions – This is just to see how an approach works. A lot of this is experimentation.)

GM:     Well, Mr Gray, thank you for coming to see us.

JG:       That’s perfectly alright. I am looking for work and I like to respond to enquiries quickly.

GM:     Anastasia Petrovna gave you a very limited outline of what is required. We want someone to join us to help us to renovate some of our computer systems.

JG:       Renovate? What do you mean by “renovate”?

GM:     Over an extended period our company has accumulated a number of computer systems which we use to run our business. They were developed to serve particular needs and at different times. While they continue to work in a satisfactory way, their maintenance takes more effort than we would like. We would like to “renovate” or “modernise” and at present we do not have the expertise ourselves and we do not wish to expend the effort developing that expertise ourselves.

JG:       I think I understand. You want to replace some old systems. I have been worked on projects like that in the past. Can you tell me what these systems are and what they do?

AL:       Without you being aware of it, we have researched what you can do. You have a good reputation. We have discretely checked certain references and performed some background checks. What we want you to do is well within your capabilities. You do not have to be concerned.

GM:     The systems are mostly concerned with the administration of the transactions which support our business. They were originally created by our staff using the technology available at the time. Much of what they do is little more than “accounting” and the other general things a business requires. Rather than continue to expend the effort maintaining it we have decided to move a great deal of what these systems do to a modern software package” (he mentions a name) “I believe it is known as an ‘ERP’ package and you are familiar with it.”

JG:       Yes – I’ve worked with that. But that particular package is usually supplied through consultancies who sell set-up and training services along with the package. I don’t understand why you are coming to me? I’m an independent consultant and there is only one of me.

AL:       You’re correct. And you have touched on some of the reasons why we have come to you. (continued)

(Part of the “Tyson” project: 18th January 2017 – 385 words)

Rate of Change

(This starts in the middle of a discussion – ramblings which form part of a personal letter)

I’m not necessarily arguing that all these things need to be included or that they all have to be combined in some way. Some seem more appropriate for different historical periods and societies.

Rate of change - Power

Rate of change: (hp/head or dhpperhead/dt) I like it! At the very least it is a useful component of whatever index or indexes you might want to create. To use the George Box criteria, of course it is “wrong” (incomplete, imperfect) but it is certainly useful. You could apply this to any period from pre-1066 to the present. You can also apply it to different societies. For that matter, there must be points at which people first started to use energy other than muscle power (wind and water), and there is long lead-in with people converting heat to mechanical power, starting with Hero of Alexandria and really getting going with steam power during the Industrial Revolution. Identifying those points in different societies would be an interesting challenge in itself.

While the thing itself is interesting, the rate-of-change would certainly give one measure of technological change. Actually that seems like a good point in itself: the measure of the “thing” is useful, but so is the rate-of-change dthing/dt. I think I’ll come back to that.

Before we leave “energy” or hp, I think there is another aspect to look at. I think we need to have a measure of the ability to concentrate or harness (good choice of word) energy under the direction of one person. For example: the harnessing of animals – that increased the average amount of energy available in a society, but probably just as significantly it increased the amount of energy a single individual could bring to bear on a task. This argument extends to wind-power (especially sailing ships, but also windmills) and water-power. I’m not quite sure what the measure is, but it’s something like “amount that one person can control”, so, to pick up your Tesco car park analogy, it’s not just the power of all those cars (and everything else) averaged over society, but the average power of the individual engines and maybe the power of the largest engine. This allows you to look at the technological impact of: harnessing rowers and animals and sails and then steam engines. The concentration measure is important but becomes a bit tricky when you start trying to take into account power stations and the like.

Rate of Change – Transport

Transport is something you would want to consider as an “index”. In many ways the story of the Industrial Revolution in Britain was the story of “Transport”. You can see that in Turnpike roads, Canals, Railways and Shipping.

The measures here are the size (but average or maximum?) of thing you can move and the speed at which you can move it. You probably want to consider both people and goods too.

Here we can see the pattern repeating: the measure itself is interesting, but the rate at which it is changing at any time is interesting too. Take random points in the 15^th to 20^th Centuries and that is clear. You can also usefully indicate the dates at which technologies were discovered or applied.

Whatever the details of the design of the transport related indexes, you find something surprising. Concentrating on “The Western World” (whatever that is), I think there is a plateaux recently. This is stability not stagnation though.

(Here is one place that your “Concorde Moment” comment becomes relevant. Clarkson does speak sense sometimes)

If we look at Transport in the last part of the 20^th Century we can see a sort of stability.

·         Aircraft (commercial) fly at typically 350 knots, because that is the fuel efficient speed for current designs. That hasn’t changed for some time.

·         The size of Cargo ships is determined by “Panamax” dimensions, the size that will fit through two “eyes of a needle”. There are bigger ships but for the time being most are below this size.

·         The size and speed of trucks is really determined by the roads and the drivers. These things may change, but there has been stability for decades.

·         The maximum speed of cars on the road. The restriction is by speed limits, but they are also recognition of the competence of drivers.

·         The actual average speed of traffic is limited by congestion.

These things have not stagnated. They are improving, becoming more efficient and cheaper to run but any likely Transport indexes would probably show them as being on a plateaux, and consequently the rate-of-change being low.

Rate of Change – Communication

Communication is an area where we are seeing change. By “Communication” I mean the ability to get a message (definition problem again) from one place to another. For a long while “Transport” and “Communication” were synonymous. You gave a message to a messenger and it travelled by the appropriate means of transport until it was delivered at the far end.

That has changed. One lot of changes were organisational (things like The Penny Post) and another lot are technological. The technological changes might be considered starting with smoke signals and flags, but there are some really significant milestones with wired and broadcast technology: Telegraphs, telephones, the internet.

For the measures here I want to consider size of message and speed transmission (I think I’ll ignore reliability and security though they might be interesting). Of course the rate-of-change is as interesting as the values themselves.

What surprises me when I start to think about communication in this way is how “stable” it has been in some aspects. This may surprise you too, so let me explain.

I’m sending you a letter (over quite a distance too). If I had done this any time up to the 19^th (ish) Century it would have taken a long time, been expensive and unreliable. When the “Post” was established that became much cheaper and more reliable. In Edwardian times it would probably take a few days to get a letter from rural Ireland to rural Wales if it was one “gentleman” talking to another. The same letter is now delivered in less than a second, but the time is taken up by producing and consuming the content (which are probably the same as they were before). There is a hint there that we are asymptotically approaching some value.

At least two things have changed though: one is the nature and size of what I can communicate (I can send or converse with sound, video and suchlike. I can even send you whole book if I choose.). The second is the access to the communication channels. My fast mail service was only available to Edwardian gentlemen. Access was rationed by physical availability (you needed to be near a post box) and cost.

I’ve been a user of various computer networks over the years, and they have become easier to access. The internet is available to everyone I know.

This suggests to me that I want to consider some additional factors or indexes to describe access to communication.

Rate of Change – Information Storage

Information Storage is something which I think is important, but I don’t know how to characterise. As with the other things I’ve listed so far, you can trace how changes in technology have changed how we can store and access information. The base characteristic I would start with are: “volume” (number of characters of data, but I’m dubious about ‘a picture being worth a thousand words or bytes’) and I would also add characteristics based on speed of access and “accessibility”.

One way of looking at this you could say that we have access to an exponentially increasing volume of information. As a counter to that, already people argue that we have information overload. Here is the problem – the machines can store the data, the machines can process the data, but each human being can only consume so much. Viewed in a certain way I think we may be approaching a sort-of asymptote again. The restriction is not how much we can store or how quickly we can serve it up, but how quickly can we consume it. We may be approaching the situation of being in an “all you can eat” restaurant. Yes, there is more data available, but do we want to consume it? How much do you want or need to eat?

There seems to be “something to measure” here, and once it is pinned down, the way it is changing will be even more interesting. I have a suspicion that the results may spring a surprise on us, because of the limitations of human beings.

Rate of Change – Information Processing

The “volume of information” problem leads into the next area where we might need to consider some sort of measurement. If we use “Energy” as a metaphor, there was a time, in the 19^th Century, when the only computing power anyone had access to was inside of someone’s head! That is just like the “muscle based” energy economy.

This situation has changed dramatically, from the second half of the 20^th Century forward. The old “there’s more power in my phone than…” is true, but it is a challenge to decide how to measure it, and that is before you start calculating a rate-of-change. MIPs (millions of instructions per second) are useless (!) except as a gee-wizz number. Comparing different computer architectures like that simply doesn’t work.

However you consider measuring it, there you come back to wanting to have numbers for both “an overall average” (total computing power/population), and the quantity an individual has access to. I think there is a qualitative difference between, “my share” of the mega-whatever that does the weather forecasting in Bracknell, my mobile phone (which is a highly specialised computer and the PC I program (which is a more general purpose machine). What there is not in doubt is that the power of all 3 is shooting up according to Moore’s Law! You can probably also say that access to everything except the weather forecasting has been getting easier (more people have mobile phones, more people have PCs).

Summary

I think there are a number of things or “dimensions” which I think you might want to consider in your “Change” assessment:

• ·         Power/Energy – Your suggestion, and a good one
• ·         Transport
• ·         Communication
• ·         Information Storage
• ·         Information processing 

For each of these we should probably consider:

• ·         Absolute total value, averaged over the population
• ·         Amount an individual can “leverage” (ghastly phrasing)
• ·         Ease of access

·         For all of these values we are probably more interested in the rate of change than the absolute value.

Some of these dimensions seem to become more relevant at different time periods as technology enables people to use machines to do something. “Energy” seems to become especially relevant from around the start of the Industrial Revolution, and “Information Storage” and “Information Processing” became especially relevant from the middle of the 20^th Century. With all these things it is not possible to say that something starts at a particular moment, but it is possible to point at some indicative “punctuation marks” (“Stockton and Darlington Railway”).

When I started writing this, I was tempted to try and combine all these factors into one “super index”. I’ve moved away from that, because:

• ·         All the dimensions are subject to real problems with deciding what to measure and what units to use.
• ·         Combining them together would introduce weighting factors which would be suspect.
• ·         Applying any of these ideas across populations which are not homogeneous is problematic.

While writing this I’ve noticed something about the dimensions themselves:

• ·         They’re “technology related”.
• ·         Just because something new and relevant turns up, doesn’t mean the old stuff ceases to be relevant.
• ·         Predicting what they are in advance of them becoming relevant is very hard if not impossible.
• Some of the dimensions seem to have reached plateaux. This may not be due to the fundamental characteristics of the technology, but may be due to an accepted limitation (Panamax or railway bridges) or the ability of the market to consume whatever it is.

I think the criticism that these are all “technology related” is valid. There are all things which are worth exploring, but they do not represent everything. For many people they are not the most important.

(Stand-alone ramblings for a letter: 12th January 2017 – 2062 words)

Non-Technological Change

(This starts in the middle of a discussion – ramblings which form part of a personal letter)

How could you measure change in society? Is there anything you can use reliably and which is not judgemental? The things which spring to my mind are all related to population. At least part of this is influenced by my recent experiences with participating in the running of a census.

Measuring population is simple: count heads in a particular area! It is what censuses do every 10 years or so. One can plot the values over time and calculate the rate of change. It is crude but effective. Population density is a useful figure. It is like an “intrinsic” property. If handled properly it can be added and averaged.

The very crudity of the figures can be an advantage. There is no sense in which they are judgemental. “Population” as such is neither good nor bad. It is only or bad relative to some external criteria, such as the number of people we think a given area should support. Population (as an absolute, not a density) also gives us a crude expectation of “how many of something” to expect (eg demand for schools, demand for hospitals, number of burglaries).

Similarly, the values “movement” figures: births, deaths and physical movements are neutral. For both the base figures and the movements, judgement only comes in when you compare against some reference figure. That is a good thing, and it also means that you can retrospectively apply different reference figures without having to interfere with the base data.

If one is looking for greater precision, then all these figures can be subdivided into different categories. These are often described as “demographics”. The only hard rule here is that the categories should be applied consistently over time, and that the different categories in each “categorisation” should add up to 100% (even if that means having a blurry “unknown” category). This gives us the familiar “Male/Female” and age-range categories.

There are problems with categorisation which appear in the long term. They are mostly to do with the way we want to change the categories we use and the way that the judgemental part of putting things in some categories can change subtly over time.

Another area where there can be problems over the long term is the subdivision of geography into “areas”. This is always a problem, and it is very hard to get away from it. Whatever you do seems to end up causing some kind of issue.

Censuses in the UK and Ireland are still done on the basis of “County-Parish-ArbritrarySmallDivision”. There are actually quite a few administrative systems that work this way. The numbers that run the world are, at least partly, being tallied up on the basis of boundaries which were drawn up before the Reformation! You would kind of like to be dealing a roughly similar population in each of the areas, but over time this just doesn’t work!

People move about with the result that what was a densely populated area in one era is an uninhabited wasteland in another. You have only to look at the bickering over parliamentary constituency and county boundaries to see evidence of the problems this causes. The only solution, long term, is to map results against base physical geography, rather than administrative areas and then map those “physical” figures onto administrative areas as required. Unfortunately this approach is unlikely to be adopted. It would be unpopular with politicians, administrators and the public. It would require accurate coordinates to be held against every address and a mapping stage to decide which house was in which area/ In any case it is currently prevented by rules about confidentiality (which may be a very good thing). As a result, you have to be aware that changes in boundaries may be distorting the figures over time. The areas covered by “Loamshire” or “Greater Metroplecester” today may not be the same as they were 10 years ago, and certainly not a century ago. There is a conundrum here, and it makes using long term historic data quite hard.

How should one interpret whatever you find?

When looking at change, one has to ask about “stability” and what one means by “change”. This isn’t just a philosophical problem. It has practical implications and it raises some new and interesting questions which can be explored with the measures I’m suggesting above.

Let me illustrate this with a crude example:

• Suppose we have a location (doesn’t matter what size, and let’s assume the area remains fixed), with a population of 100.
• If the next time we measure, it still has a population of 100, then we might say it had not changed (and indeed it hasn’t, on one measure)
• On the other hand, if I said that there had been 50 births and 50 deaths, then you might say the population (as in “the people who live there”) had changed quite a lot, but the number of people hasn’t changed at all.
• To take a different counter example, if it is _exactly the same people_ living in the location, then _they_ haven’t changed, except that they are now one time period older! So there has been a change. 

Of course, this is what is happening in some “Western” (including Japan) societies.

·         

You can extend this by comparing a small hotel with a large family living in a similar sized house. The “population” (number of people) of both may be the same over time. The house population is static (the same individuals) over a period, the hotel is constantly churning, and that is exactly what you expect.

One of the things we are concerned with is change as a cause of “stress” in the system. Particular levels may not be a problem (or they may, I suppose). One could postulate two possible indicators of problems: one is the long, slow change which builds up to a problem, the other is a sudden change in something or the rate at which something happens.

Systems may actually work reasonably well even with a lot of change. Let’s use some of the examples above:

• ·         Suppose you have a location with a stable population. If you see a sudden change in population, then you would look for the cause in one of the “movement” factors. Such a sudden change may indicate something is happening in the system. The population drops: perhaps there has been a sudden rise in mortality (“the Black Death”). You would probably want to look for the cause in a change in one of the “Movement” measurements (if you have the data).
• ·         This is not to say that a high (or low) value in “Movements” is necessarily bad. If you look at the immigrant intake areas (eg parts of the East End in London) there are high “Movement” values. They are tough places to live, but they are stable in a dynamic, chaotic kind of way. On the other hand, suddenly stick 80 immigrants in an Irish village and that may trigger “instability”.
• ·         If we avoid being judgemental, then a high mortality rate may be acceptable, providing there is a high birth rate to match it.
• ·         Problems will follow if you change one thing without at least considering the consequences if you don’t change something else at the same time. Reduce infant mortality and the population goes up (maybe exponentially) unless something else happens. “Encourage” all the young people to immigrate and the age profile of an area will drift upwards.

This is all like a lot of control systems. If you are looking ahead, you want to be looking at the 1^st and even 2^nd derivatives of whatever you are trying to control.

Summary:

• My suggestion is that “population” or “population density” are good candidate measures.
• “Rate of Change” can be calculated for both.
• Measuring the “Movements” (as distinct from calculated rate-of-change) may be useful because it:
• tells us something about causes of change
• allows us to tell the difference between static situations and dynamic equilibrium
• may allow us to spot a change happening before it takes full effect.
• Demographic subdivisions can be applied to both base measures and movements to give greater precision. 
• Demographics and Areas are subject to long-term drift and may introduce subtle distortions.
• It looks like you can have dynamic equilibrium or the same population but you cannot eliminate all change!
•  When you start changing things (and you can’t not change things) you have to watch for the consequences.

(14th January 2017 – 1428 words)