The air in the conference room changed.
No one said a word, but everyone could feel it: the road ahead would not be smooth.
Seoha spoke in a quiet voice.
“If my hypothesis is correct, complexity theory will change drastically. Time will no longer be the only standard.”
He wrote words on the board.
Node.
Path.
Branch.
Extinction.
It sent a chill down their spines, as though they were looking at something alive.
Seoha smiled as if it were nothing.
“Of course, I’m not trying to deny the Turing machine itself. I merely want to point out that, just as Newtonian mechanics did, it cannot explain the next stage.”
Sri looked around.
Cold sweat broke out on his skin.
He was the only engineer in this room. To pure mathematicians, the Turing machine might be a logical limitation to overcome, but not to engineers.
He knew better than anyone how beautiful and solid the world built by the giant named Turing was.
‘Everything humans can compute can be implemented by a Turing machine.’
The Church-Turing thesis. It was not a proven theorem.
But for nearly a century, no counterexample had appeared, so in computer science it was accepted almost like an absolute axiom.
“This sounds interesting.”
Theo said, stroking his chin.
‘It’s not that simple!’
Sri wanted to scream.
The reason Alan Turing was worshipped was because time had proven him right. Over that long span, the Turing machine he devised had become the one and only yardstick dividing what humanity could compute from what it could not.
Computers, smartphones, semiconductors, programming languages, even artificial intelligence. All computation in modern civilization ultimately led back to the machine Turing had drawn on paper in 1936. There was a reason the term “Turing completeness” was so widely used in engineering.
“Um, I have a question.”
Sri mustered his courage and raised his hand.
“Yes!”
Seoha smiled brightly and nodded.
“A Turing machine is a deterministic machine that reads, writes, and moves across symbols written on a tape. But if, according to your hypothesis, a certain path annihilates itself, that’s less like a machine and closer to a living being with a will.
From an engineering standpoint, is it really possible to build such a device?”
A pure question as an engineer.
Theory was not something that existed only as a concept; it had to be applicable in reality.
As if delighted by the question, Seoha’s eyes sparkled.
His voice rose an octave.
“That’s exactly what I wanted all of us to try from now on!”
At Seoha’s guileless answer, Sri’s mind went blank.
“Ah…”
‘But what if it’s completed?’
Many fields of study would have to be rewritten.
He felt as if he could see a vision of millions of engineers collapsing while clutching the backs of their necks.
“But verifying the theory comes first, of course. This is only an outline. Starting today, let’s each develop our ideas! The conceptual diagram I have in mind looks like this.”
Excited, Seoha picked up the marker again.
Ssssk.
Sri gazed at Seoha with distant eyes.
‘How can this be?’
He had thought he knew him well enough, but he had been lacking.
Every mathematician and engineer he knew was someone who found the optimal solution within the constraints of reality. The limits of axiom systems, the wall of computability, the gap between the continuous and the discrete.
But Seoha was different.
As if gravity alone did not apply to him, he drifted freely in and out of the limits of reality.
From the standpoint of an engineer who worshipped the god named Turing, it was a lecture bordering on blasphemy. Yet paradoxically, Sri could not take his eyes off the strange diagram Seoha was drawing.
It was an ideal he had never once dreamed of as an engineer. And yet it was a new world he could only instinctively feel was beautiful.
* * *
[Tier Zero Trend Report]
-To David, Senior Researcher, NSA
Korea is in late autumn. How is the weather over there?
Korea at this time of year is like paradise for someone like me who enjoys hiking. It is the season when the autumn leaves have just passed their peak and begun to fall.
After struggling up the mountain and standing on the ridge, you can see in every direction at once.
Korean mountains in autumn are a little excessive. Of course, I mean excessively beautiful. The leaves blaze in reds and yellows, rippling along the ridgelines like waves, and beside them clear streams flow. The sight of colorful leaves drifting along on transparent water is truly as beautiful as a painting. If you ever get the chance to come to Korea, you and I should…
Ah! My apologies. I did not open this email to talk about hiking. I opened it because an anomaly has appeared in Tier Zero’s trends.
Team Apex’s movements have been unusual lately.
One day, Theo called me aside. I was nervous, wondering if I had perhaps been exposed as a spy, but he handed me a file and said,
“Joseph, it seems it will be difficult for us to devote ourselves to Utopia for the time being. Could you take charge of it?”
Inside the file was a confidential update roadmap.
My God! They really do believe, without a doubt, that I am one of their colleagues!
My responsibility has become extremely heavy. I would like to attach the file, but I trust you will understand my need to maintain security.
After returning to Korea, the entire team appears to have entered a new project.
I tried to find out by buying Sujeong tteokbokki, but unfortunately, I could not pin down the subject. The papers they are reviewing are all over the place, so I could not even discern the direction.
Computational complexity theory, Turing machines, cell biology, evolutionary theory, incompleteness theorems.
The fields are far too broad. What on earth are they trying to do?
I know, David!
I am the best spy, after all. I will never take my eyes off them. If I learn anything new, I will send another email.
* * *
“Miss, it is time to get ready.”
Morris, the butler, knocked carefully on the door.
“I know.”
Cecilia yawned and rose from her desk.
Alan Turing’s 1936 paper and diagrams depicting the complex energy metabolism of mitochondria were scattered across it. To her, who had lived her whole life in the world of numbers, biotechnology made of sticky protein bonds was truly a language from another world.
She glanced at the clock, then hurriedly stripped off her clothes.
“Miss, please come this way.”
Emma, who had volunteered for the Korea assignment, took her hand and led her with practiced ease.
“As dazzling as possible.”
Emma nodded with a solemn expression.
“Just leave it to me.”
She poured her heart into dressing Cecilia up.
The green dress, which could easily have looked tacky, created the illusion that a noble goddess had stepped out from the forest once it was placed on her body.
Her long neck, sharp collarbones, and chestnut-brown hair flowing down her back shimmered like silk. Cecilia grabbed her waist and frowned.
“Isn’t this too tight?”
“This is just right. Miss, you’re truly someone worth dressing up!”
Emma exclaimed in admiration as she fastened her accessories. Once she put on the handmade stiletto heels as the final touch, everything was ready.
Morris, who had been waiting for her, opened the car door at precisely the right timing.
“Whoever it is, I won’t forget this.”
Cecilia ground her teeth. Two and a half hours by car to Seoul. Normally, she would have refused. But there was a name on the guest list that should not have been there.
When she asked Seoha, an innocent answer came back.
“They asked me to explain Utopia’s operating principles. They said many influential people would be attending… And there’s also the issue of the institute’s budget, so as director, I have to do my best!”
Seoha clenched his fist.
A party celebrating the selection of an encryption standard. The list of attendees was dazzling as well. As if they would have called him to such a place just to explain mathematics.
“You…”
It was obvious without looking.
Zero experience in high society.
Seoha would be no different from a single rabbit thrown among beasts. That was why she had hurriedly decided to attend the party.
The car was crossing a bridge over the Han River. The nightscape of Seoul flowed past the window.
“I will brief you on today’s gathering.”
Morris spoke while looking ahead at the wheel.
“The host is Seonyeong Group, ranked second in Korea’s business world. However, lobbyists and Silicon Valley companies are involved. There are also members of the National Assembly’s Science and Technology Committee.”
“Hmph. So it isn’t a simple celebration.”
“That is correct. Seonyeong Group’s succession structure is currently in disarray. Since information and communications is their core affiliate, they will want results.”
“And the American side?”
“Skyline. They were a major player in the Internet of Things industry, but after RSA encryption was broken, their stock price fell sharply.”
“Their expected goal?”
“Naturally, they are likely trying to gauge how to apply Utopia to their business.”
“I think their goal is recruitment.”
“That is…”
Morris paused for a moment.
“What?”
“…The youngest daughter of Seonyeong Group will be attending the party. She is studying at Harvard, but they say she returned to Korea in a hurry. Apparently, she is an exceptionally talented young woman with both beauty and intellect.”
Cecilia narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t tell me it’s matchmaking?”
“I suspect it is closer to a honey trap. The entire communications industry is currently in a state of emergency. If they could accept Director Yu into the family…”
“From their perspective, that would be the best possible outcome.”
The car stopped.
A majestic building on a mountainside that had once been used as a presidential residence. Luxury cars were lined up in front of it. Staff moved busily as they received guests.
Cecilia slowly stepped out of the car. Cold air brushed the nape of her neck.
The gazes of many people fixed on her. But Cecilia did not turn her head. If their eyes met, she would have to greet them. Today, she did not even have that much composure.
‘Why does this bother me so much?’
She disliked someone using Seoha.
She disliked those who tried to convert his purity toward truth into money.
If possible, she honestly wanted to get him out of this place.
When she asked the staff at the entrance, they said Seoha had already arrived quite early.
‘That’s strange.’
The inside of the venue was abnormally quiet. Looking to the side, she saw the musicians setting down their instruments with troubled expressions.
In her experience in high society, when something like this happened at a party, it was usually one of two things.
Either someone of such overwhelming status that they could silence everyone had appeared, or an incident so bewildering had occurred that no one could even speak.
‘No way.’
Her heart quickened.
Cecilia’s steps grew faster.
Click, click.
The sound of her heels rang out especially loudly through the hall.
People were gathered in one place. She instinctively headed toward it.
She saw familiar faces.
People she had learned were important figures to watch in Korea’s political and business circles. Ministers and officials from government departments, as well as foreigners who seemed to have come from Silicon Valley. And closest to him were the chairman of Seonyeong Group and a woman who appeared to be his youngest daughter.
‘Huh?’
Cecilia came to a stop.
The expressions on people’s faces were strange. They looked as if their souls had left their bodies. From among them came a familiar voice.
“…Within Utopia, the curvature of space changes according to the wave functions of prime numbers. At first glance, you may think it’s an extremely computationally heavy cipher, but actually, it isn’t. If we use ST Compression… Ah! I should explain ST Compression first.”
Seoha had taken off his tuxedo jacket and rolled up his sleeves.
A whiteboard and markers were there, though no one knew where they had come from. His eyes shone as he passionately explained Utopia’s principles to the audience.
“W-wait!”
Someone who looked to be from the business world hastily raised a hand, his face pale.
But Seoha did not stop.
“Hm? Was that a bit difficult again? I’ll go over it again. I can explain it in simpler terms!”
A smile spread across Cecilia’s lips.
He truly was doing his very best in this place, fulfilling his duty as director.