Whiiiiir—
The lab was sweltering with the heat pouring out of the workstations.
On several screens, different simulation seeds were running, spewing logs like sheets of rain.
Lisa stared at the monitor, chewing on a chocolate bar.
On the desk, a half-eaten bag of Cheetos, cold coffee, and empty pizza boxes lay scattered in a mess.
[Case 4172 : Fenway-LMA event/rain/emergency vehicle multiple entries]
[Case 5849 : Back Bay construction/pedestrian congestion/truck breakdown]
“The CPU load has risen a little.”
Perhaps nervous, Lisa held a pen in her mouth and chewed on it.
But soon the incident was brought under control, and the load stabilized. The curve on the graph also began to descend gently.
Around 2 a.m., a case marked Difficulty S appeared.
[Case 7311 : heavy snow assumption/visibility impairment/sensor drop rate 18%]
“These are the figures from last January. It was the heaviest snow in ten years.”
Tom moved closer to the monitor. The memory of the city center paralyzed by the blizzard came vividly back to him.
At first, it had only been light flurries, but by evening, the whole world was a white snowfield, to the point where it was hard to tell the roads from the sidewalks.
‘Back then, the traffic department situation room looked like it had been bombed...’
Tom held his breath, eyes fixed on the screen.
The graph on the monitor suddenly lurched violently, and red dots began spreading outward from the heart of downtown.
“Visibility impairment rate, eighty-two percent.”
“Three sensors went out at the same time. This looks extremely dangerous.”
Gulp.
Tom swallowed.
Last year, it had started with three sensors going out like that too. After that, the signals had failed in a chain reaction, and the city had simply come to a halt.
Cars had fought to move first, all honking and snarling, while the malfunctioning traffic lights had shown red in all four directions.
But this time was different.
Centered on the three intersections where data had been cut off, the surrounding nodes began changing color all at once. When one side went blind, the other side secured visibility in its place.
“The surrounding intersections are calculating that section’s flow in reverse.”
Michael enlarged the screen, eyes wide with astonishment.
“It’s predicting vehicle density in the sensorless section using surrounding speeds, arrival intervals, and queue lengths. Its mutual correction ability is incredible.”
Tens of millions of traffic patterns accumulated in the system over the past several weeks, flows by time of day, even responses according to weather and temperature. The algorithm had learned all of that data.
And when the sensors disappeared, it had corrected each node’s movements based on that data.
The red glow on the graph gradually shifted to yellow, and then to green.
The city regained its function.
“Sensor-deficient section recovery complete. Estimated error rate, 2.1 percent. It’s nearly perfect.”
“At this level, it’s far better than a human controlling things in real time.”
Tom stared at the screen in a daze.
“Is this really possible? You’re saying it can automatically resolve this mess without human intervention?”
Someone tapped Tom on the shoulder as they passed.
“We call that science, buddy!”
4 a.m.
Every time the second hand of the wall clock ticked, the researchers’ hearts pounded with it.
But Seoha got up indifferently and pressed the button on the coffee pot. Soon, the sound of bubbling water boiling filled the air, and white steam puffed out.
Glug, glug.
It was Seoha’s emergency cup ramen.
Slurp.
Ellie and Jason looked at Seoha with hungry expressions. When he offered out of courtesy, both of their eyes lit up at the same time.
“Can we really eat some?”
“Yes. I have plenty at home.”
Seoha smiled as he handed out chopsticks.
As the smell of ramen spread through the lab, everyone began taking out snacks of their own.
The tense atmosphere softened considerably.
“It feels like we’re camping.”
At Ellie’s words, Jason nodded.
As the sky outside the window began to brighten, one of the simulators sounded an alarm.
[Case 9998 : end of sports game/subway delay/taxi surge/jaywalking pedestrian model inserted]
But the system handled it without difficulty.
At 7 p.m., the simulator threw in the most vicious S-rank scenario.
[Case 12000 : large-scale blackout/earthquake, fire outbreak/emergency vehicle accident/network delay 40%]
“What is this, the apocalypse?”
Someone muttered in disbelief.
Red spread across the screen in patches. Congestion that began downtown spread throughout the city.
Power was cut off in the hospital district, and a fire truck and an ambulance collided in the middle of an intersection. As parts of several roads collapsed due to the earthquake, network communications were severed.
If it had been reality, the entire city would already have fallen into panic.
“No sensor response! Network packet loss, thirty-seven percent!”
Lisa shouted.
“Central communication is delayed! It can’t withstand this.”
“I don’t think it would be this bad even if a war broke out...”
The researchers worried that perhaps the test was too excessive.
But the system did not stop.
Within the severed nervous system of the city, the nodes that were still alive began to shine on their own.
Hospitals, fire stations, police headquarters, underground substations, major bridge control centers...
Seoha’s algorithm began searching among them for infrastructure that was still operational.
“It’s scanning the remaining power and network signals right now.”
Everyone held their breath and stared at the monitor.
“Is this self-reconfiguration?”
Inactive sections were all marked in gray, and usable nodes were being connected in blue.
Dozens of blue dots rose from the center of downtown.
“What the...”
The system was diagnosing the state of the city and drawing the most efficient traffic circuit.
Tap.
Tap.
Seoha tapped the desk with his finger. Then, as if this were the exact moment, he opened his mouth.
“Begin topology reconfiguration.”
As soon as Seoha spoke, the screen heaved.
Thousands of nodes reacted all at once, and the entire downtown area glowed as if it had come alive. The system erased the collapsed signal network and combined the remaining circuits to create a new network.
“What? What’s happening right now?”
Lisa looked at Seoha.
“I modified the algorithm so the city can maintain at least minimal functionality even in an emergency. Though if all the power and roads are cut off, there’s nothing we can do.”
“When did you add something like this?”
Alan stared at the screen with a look of shock.
“There’s nothing new in the algorithm. I simply set guidelines so it wouldn’t lose control even in extreme situations. You could think of it as a kind of insurance.”
Seoha scratched his head as if it were nothing much.
The red light over downtown was fading. Then it gradually turned yellow before soon regaining its green glow.
The traffic network that had once looked like ruins was slowly recovering its function.
“The signals are automatically detouring around the earthquake zones.”
“The system has closed off the road-collapse areas. It’s distributing the load to surrounding roads.”
“What about near the accident zone?”
Tom, the field manager, asked.
“Traffic priority has shifted to the emergency vehicles. It’s also calculating and guiding the fire truck’s entry route.”
“The delay rate has dropped from thirty-eight percent to seven percent.”
“The congestion index is also decreasing rapidly.”
Alan was at a loss for words.
He stood before the monitor and slowly drew in a breath. He had long known that Seoha was different from others, but this performance went beyond his imagination.
‘Is he saying this much is nothing?’
Seoha looked at the screen with a calm expression. And at last, all the simulations came to an end.
[All 12,000 validation scenarios completed]
[Error : none detected.]
The researchers stared at the monitor with bloodshot eyes.
“It passed.”
Lisa said in a whisper.
“...It’s over.”
“It really passed, right?”
And immediately after that, cheers erupted like an explosion.
“Waaaaaaaah!!”
“Yes! We did it!”
“Incentives! Incentives!”
Jason spread his arms and swept Seoha into a tight hug. Horrified, Seoha tried to escape, but with his weak body, it was impossible.
“I can’t believe you actually pulled this off. From now on, I’m calling you hyung!”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
People rushed over to Seoha and surrounded him.
“Congratulations.”
“Now your algorithm’s going to be installed across the whole city.”
“Seoha! Congratulations, seriously!”
Congratulations and cheers burst out from every direction.
The inside of the lab turned festive in an instant. Faces that had looked like corpses just a few minutes ago now seemed full of life.
“Alan! There’s no longer any risk of the project being derailed, right?”
Lisa looked at Alan with pleading eyes.
“Of course not. Now the council will be the ones begging us because they need us.”
Whatever he was thinking, he gave a wicked grin.
Clap, clap!
Alan clapped his hands and drew everyone’s attention.
“Attention! Let’s calm down.
Nothing is over yet. The project has only just been allowed to take its first step. From now on, let’s each get to work.”
Tom spread a large blueprint over the table and placed red stickers on each intersection priority.
“Pilot Zone 1 is Longwood, Kenmore, and the Massachusetts Avenue interchange, right? Each intersection here has a different generation of signal controller. We’ll need to work on the firmware.”
Michael discussed the anonymization protocol with the Harvard team.
“Let’s do pedestrian detection only through heat maps. Do not identify individuals. Raise the degraded sample insertion rate to ten percent.”
Alan approached Seoha, who was sitting in the corner.
“Seoha! We’ll contact you if we need anything, so go on home now. And if you have time, could you write up a maintenance manual? So anyone can understand it.”
“Yes! Understood.”
Everything he could do here was finished.
Feeling lighthearted, Seoha left the lab.
* * *
The next morning, Seoha came down from the second floor, rubbing his eyes.
A savory smell drifted from the kitchen.
“Ah! I feel alive. It’s Korean food.”
Careless tacos and burgers.
The food at the school cafeteria always tasted as if it had been stamped out in some factory.
Seoha hurried over and sat down at the table.
Steaming miyeok-guk, grilled fish, and all kinds of seasoned vegetable side dishes filled the table.
“You seemed tired, so I didn’t wake you.”
Miyeong took off her apron and sat down.
“I’m okay now.”
“Let’s eat.”
Cheolho picked up his spoon and chopsticks and pressed the TV remote.
Beep—
[Boston Newsline LIVE]
“Today’s top story. The City of Boston has officially declared its liberation from traffic hell.
We’ll hear more about the details. Currently, Boston Mayor Patrick Stewart is with us in the studio.”
The camera panned widely across the studio.
Wearing an expensive tailored suit, Patrick smiled at the camera with a confident expression.
Seoha unconsciously stopped moving his chopsticks.
“Citizens, we are soon about to face a traffic revolution.
Boston has built the world’s first ‘autonomous adaptive signal network.’ Yesterday, I received a report that this system withstood a staggering twelve thousand extreme simulations.”
The screen changed to show scenes from the simulation.
Even as snow fell and paralyzed traffic, and even as earthquakes and fires broke out, the system did not stop. Soon, the roads were gradually dyed green.
Only then did Seoha grasp the situation.
Patrick, having visited the lab and seen the simulation results, must have gotten excited and gone on a rampage.
“This is merely a secondary effect. You might call it a kind of ‘insurance’ prepared for disaster situations. The true value of this system lies in the fact that every sensor in the city detects traffic congestion at the same time and makes the optimal decision to resolve it.
I am proud to say this is the finest signal system in America—no, in the world—achieved through collaboration between MIT and Harvard.”
The anchor tilted his head.
“Isn’t calling it the best in the world an exaggeration? I’ve heard Singapore is quite far ahead in this field. Isn’t the government-led ‘Smart Nation Project’ famous?”
At the anchor’s rebuttal, Patrick furrowed his brow.
“The system we use is on an entirely different level from that.
The designer of the algorithm is a famous genius in the mathematical world, you see. I don’t know the details, but I’m told he has already solved a centuries-old difficult problem. He’s the student who recently became a major topic of discussion in relation to the Riemann Hypothesis...”
“Ah! I know him as well. Seoha Yu of MIT!”
His own face appeared enormous on the TV screen.
Startled, Seoha nearly dropped his spoon.