Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Two Days to Fix the Feedback Loop
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Michael stared intently at the monitor screen.
"Is all this real road data?"
Lisa, the MIT data engineer, pointed at the screen and said,
"Yes, it's a week's worth accumulated. The model is taking signals from the traffic department sensors in real-time and generating predicted paths on its own."
On the screen, the city streets were slowly changing colors.
The red sections were gradually shrinking, and green spread all the way to the city center. The movement was so precise and natural that it felt like watching the actual flow of traffic on the roads.
"It's impossible to believe this is an algorithm written by a human. How is it so..."
Lisa nodded in agreement.
"I get it. I felt the same way. Seo-ha wrote all this code himself."
'All this volume by himself? No division of labor?'
"Incredible."
"There are parts even we don't fully understand yet. Whenever we think we're caught up, he changes the code. It gets updated every week."
"From what I see, it already looks perfect."
Lisa shook her head.
"I thought the same last week, and the week before. But every time Seo-ha updates the algorithm, the traffic flow improves dramatically."
Michael was genuinely impressed.
"It's astonishing that such thinking is possible. Large-scale models like this are usually left alone once they're stabilized."
Does the word 'compromise' even exist in his head?
"Stabilization doesn't seem to be Seo-ha's goal. He keeps paths open even while updating. Thanks to that, this system evolves every day."
Lisa gazed at the code with an expression of awe.
Seo-ha's algorithm wasn't linear like typical code. Every function influenced the others, interlocking in an artistic weave.
'How far will he go before he's satisfied?'
"Huh?"
An accident occurred in the simulation. When the signal at the accident site stopped, five nearby traffic lights reacted simultaneously. The accident scene was a mess, but the impact didn't spread across the entire city.
A chill ran down her spine.
It was as if an exceptional operator, with their brain wired directly to the network, was coordinating the situation in real-time.
'If he had malicious intent, how much chaos could he unleash on humanity?'
An image of a mad scientist from a sci-fi movie flashed in her mind.
"How's Seo-ha been lately?"
Lisa asked Jason.
He had been in the lab since morning, organizing supplies.
"He's spending more time sitting with his eyes closed in deep thought. This is just my opinion, but he seems much more sensitive lately."
Lisa nodded.
Every researcher goes through such a phase. Knowing even that genius wasn't an exception brought her a sense of relief.
Another accident happened in the simulation.
An exceptional situation.
The system tried to recover from the chaos. But then a massive accident struck again.
A chain collision. The city center turned into a mess.
"Huh?"
"What's going on with this?"
Commotion broke out here and there.
Startled, Lisa rushed to the monitor.
Suddenly, the screen froze and flickered.
The city, which had been bathed in green, turned gray in an instant.
And warning windows popped up one after another.
"Stopped?"
"What's happening?"
Lisa rapidly typed on the keyboard.
"Sensor data is normal. Network's fine too."
She zoomed in on the city center.
Red dots spread out from the central intersection.
A few seconds later, the lights on surrounding roads all went out.
The engineer in charge of the simulation stared blankly at the screen.
"Uh... Response has stopped across all sections."
What in the world was this situation?
Lisa bit her lip.
The engineer tried to recover by opening the logs, but he couldn't make sense of anything.
"This can't be happening? We tested this version perfectly!"
Everyone panicked at the unexpected error.
"What's going on?"
Deputy Director Alan's voice came from the back.
He checked the status board immediately upon entering.
"Lisa, prepare to roll back right away. To last week's version."
Lisa nodded.
For a major error like this, it was better not to even attempt fixing it.
Tap tap tap.
"Loading the backup model."
Then, someone shouted urgently from behind.
"Wait a minute!"
It was Yoo Seo-ha.
He was panting heavily, as if he had run over in a hurry. His hands were covered in chalk dust.
"Deputy Director, if you roll back now, we won't figure out the cause of the error. Give me some time."
Alan quietly shook his head.
"Seo-ha, I'd like to, but we don't have time. If we don't finalize the model by the end of the month, the entire traffic department pilot schedule gets pushed back."
His voice was firm.
But Seo-ha didn't back down.
"Two days..."
"What?"
"Just two days. If I can't fix it by then, roll back by all means."
Alan stared steadily at Seo-ha. In his stubborn eyes, he could see unyielding determination.
Alan sighed and nodded.
"Sorry to put this burden on you."
"No, thank you."
Seo-ha apologized to everyone for the trouble and hurriedly left the office.
Thud.
Alan slumped into his chair, clutching his head with his hands.
This project had many people whose necks were on the line. The pressure made him feel like vomiting.
"Deputy Director, shouldn't we start ordering the equipment?"
The desk was cluttered with contracts and schedules.
"I know, Tom."
Signal controllers, data servers, and countless pieces of equipment and sensors were still waiting to be ordered without finalized specs.
Everything was on hold because the firmware couldn't be written until the algorithm was set.
Boston City hadn't approved the budget needed for the project yet.
They were barely holding on thanks to last year's funds and the traffic department's reserve budget.
The mayor was stepping in to persuade, but the city council stuck to their stance: "Given the scale of the budget, we'll support after seeing the pilot results."
Bang!
Alan slammed the desk.
"Damn it. We need money to produce results! Saying they'll give budget only after results—what kind of dogshit logic is that!"
The initial plan had allocated 12 weeks for algorithm development.
But now, they couldn't even afford 4 more weeks.
Alan felt guilty for being so harsh on Seo-ha.
It was one of those moments when he desperately craved the cigarettes he had quit years ago.
Click.
As soon as Seo-ha returned to the office, he turned off the lights.
The quiet lab plunged into darkness. Only the faint glow of the monitors illuminated the desk.
The screen with the frozen code was still on.
Creak.
He opened a drawer and pulled out a chocolate bar.
To last two days, he needed to refuel.
Thump thump.
Seo-ha's heart pounded fiercely.
He had already been pushing himself hard since last week. His weakened body was telling him to rest.
Seo-ha felt a sense of responsibility.
The project that started as his assignment had become the city's key initiative. He knew the budget approval issues were making things tough.
'I just need to finish it early.'
He steeled his resolve.
Click.
Pressing the CD player, a winter piano melody flowed out.
Handel's Passacaglia.
The beautiful tune softly filled the lab.
His taut nerves began to relax.
Seo-ha closed his eyes, exhaled repeatedly, and regulated his breathing. His inner companion reached out to him. Seo-ha naturally took his hand.
"Ducky! No time for nitpicking. Let's start right away."
He displayed the logs on the large screen.
Thousands of lines of code flooded the screen. Ducky began analyzing the violently pouring data.
"It started in the city center."
He whispered as if talking to someone and zoomed in on the screen.
Intersection 17 in the frozen simulation.
The data flow had cut off like a light bulb going out.
Seo-ha steadied his breath and opened the log window.
Numbers and symbols streamed endlessly across the screen. System shutdown following the chain collision.
Intersections 17, 18, and 21 were referencing the same data simultaneously. They were deadlocked, each waiting for the others' decisions.
"Feedback loop..."
It was a phenomenon from the system's overly refined synchronization.
They had meshed so perfectly that all signals issued commands at the exact same timing. Adding a slight delay between signals could fix it.
But Seo-ha wasn't satisfied with that. Compromising like that would cause delays to chain-react, slowing the entire system.
In the city center, even a 1-second signal delay could jam thousands of vehicles.
Seo-ha bit his lip and stepped up to the blackboard.
"Don't make me laugh. I won't make you slow. I'll make you faster than anyone, yet never stop."
Seo-ha decided to overhaul the entire system.
Lines formed in his mind.
One, two—hundreds, thousands of nodes connected by lines, branching out like a complex tree.
The full logical structure of the algorithm visualized in his head.
Each node's reaction time, interference directions between signals, pressure distribution at intersections—soon, a massive structure of billions of nodes emerged.
To Seo-ha's eyes, they appeared as vividly as if he could touch them. And he understood the system's limits.
"Was parallel processing too much for you?"
Scribble scribble.
Chalk slid across the blackboard.
Seo-ha redesigned the functions from the ground up.
"Then I'll give you a hierarchical structure. Lower layers read patterns, upper layers make decisions."
Before long, equations covered the entire blackboard.
But that was fine. Three walls were blackboards.
Equations and graphs tangled chaotically. Yet in Seo-ha's mind, a clear image of the completed structure already existed.
A model that wouldn't need to separate processing order even for hundreds of simultaneous accidents, processing incoming data in other layers without queuing.
The algorithm he was designing far surpassed simple parallel operations or automatic control.
Billions of nodes reacting simultaneously, each making context-appropriate judgments. Thousands of branches per node, each linked to sub-layers.
A single error or delay could collapse the entire system—a perilously risky endeavor.
'It's okay. This is right.'
Ducky nodded in agreement.
"I'm not the old me anymore?"
Since coming to MIT, Seo-ha had achieved rapid growth.
A situation anyone would call reckless, but Seo-ha's hands didn't hesitate.
His unfathomable mathematical ability made it possible. From his fingertips, the once-impossible system began taking shape.
Two days later, Media Lab E14.
The conference room air was heavy. Every time the wind rattled the windows, the researchers flinched and hunched their shoulders unnecessarily.
"Still no word?"
Lisa bit her nails anxiously.
Ellie sighed while looking at her laptop screen.
"The connection's alive. But there are no logs of accessing the main server. Looks like he's been alone in that room the whole time."
"For two days?"
"Yes."
"The light was on even at dawn yesterday. I saw his shadow passing the hallway."
The promised time was approaching.
Alan took out his phone, then put it back.
Dozens of researchers awaited his decision.
"This won't do. I need to check myself."
Alan stood and headed to Seo-ha's office.
The researchers, inwardly curious about the situation, followed behind him.