A Glint In Time (History and Time) Read Online Free
Author: Frank J. Derfler
Tags: General Fiction
outcomes, the colored balls, develop. But when we do a backward scenario, we set up a desired outcome as a specific colored ball and manipulate the variables until the target and the predicted outcomes merge... if they ever do."
Sally sat in a comfortable chair in front of a large screen and two trackball controllers. "I'm surprised that you're not using virtual realty goggles and gloves." she observed.
"We tried that." Bill replied. "But too many people got sick from 3-D spatial disorientation. We can rotate the model and get all the dimensions on the flat screen. And don't forget, this isn't a game where things have to move fast. The researcher running the scenario in RUD spends a lot of time backing up, looking up other facts and relationships, and changing weightings. There is more finesse to this than there is frantic action. We also spend a lot of time simply researching historical databases."
"So how will you run the Vietnam scenario?" she asked.
"Right now, Janet Dwyer here is building the desired scenario -no war and no Lyndon Johnson." Bill walked over to a thin girl with stringy hair who sat lotus-like in her chair
with knees and legs everywhere. Sally noticed that she gave Bill a bright smile, but he never saw it.
"Janet, this is Sally. She is giving us communications circuits. Sally, Janet is my partner in pulling together these scenarios."
Janet offered Sally a handshake that was firmer than she expected. Sally silently thought, "You'd like to be his partner in other things too, eh Janet?"
Bill continued on, oblivious to the interaction between the women. "Janet and I will use the visual images to change the events and their relationships in order to make the predicated outcome match the desired outcome. Right now, the predicted and desired outcomes are so far apart that we'd have to scroll way over just to see them on the same screen."
"I'll be ready in a minute, Bill." Janet said with a toss of her head that got her hair out of her eyes.
"I'll bet you will." Sally thought archly. "Ack..." she thought. "Next I'll want a saucer of milk."
"Can I watch?" Sally said out loud. She caught Janet's sideways glance. It wasn't friendly.
"Sure," Bill replied. "I'll setup another console and get you a headset."
Without touching the ground with her feet, Janet swiveled her chair around so her back was to Sally. Sally could have sworn she heard the sound of a tail hitting the side of the desk.
As Bill had explained, the pace of the action was deliberate. Bill and Janet had a shorthand language that they used over the communications link and it took a determined Sally half an hour to catch on to their interaction. Bill would point to specific light bar with a colored arrow and Janet would hold it or tag it while Bill went deeper and manipulated it. Together, they were like a good surgical team. As she watched, they tried different approaches in order to get the colored ball representing the projected outcome to take a big hop toward the ball representing the desired outcome.
Suddenly, the projected outcome ball jumped and landed neatly on top of the desired outcome. "Freeze and backup the log!" Bill ordered.
"It looks like you nailed it!" Sally said.
"Well," Bill, said, still talking over the interphone, "you gave me some good clues. I initially setup conditions like the mood of the country, the economy, and Kennedy's constituency. Then I changed one major chord. I simply continued Kennedy's life and gave him a second term in office. As you said, he kept us out of war. But now, we have to step backward again. We have to come up with the events that make those two events happen. We have to keep going back until we get to the single smallest event we can define."
"How long will that take?" Sally asked.
"It could take years." Bill replied quietly. "But," he said with more enthusiasm, "somebody else is paying the bills."
Sally sat back. An appreciation of business practicalities wasn't Bill's strong point. This
Sally sat in a comfortable chair in front of a large screen and two trackball controllers. "I'm surprised that you're not using virtual realty goggles and gloves." she observed.
"We tried that." Bill replied. "But too many people got sick from 3-D spatial disorientation. We can rotate the model and get all the dimensions on the flat screen. And don't forget, this isn't a game where things have to move fast. The researcher running the scenario in RUD spends a lot of time backing up, looking up other facts and relationships, and changing weightings. There is more finesse to this than there is frantic action. We also spend a lot of time simply researching historical databases."
"So how will you run the Vietnam scenario?" she asked.
"Right now, Janet Dwyer here is building the desired scenario -no war and no Lyndon Johnson." Bill walked over to a thin girl with stringy hair who sat lotus-like in her chair
with knees and legs everywhere. Sally noticed that she gave Bill a bright smile, but he never saw it.
"Janet, this is Sally. She is giving us communications circuits. Sally, Janet is my partner in pulling together these scenarios."
Janet offered Sally a handshake that was firmer than she expected. Sally silently thought, "You'd like to be his partner in other things too, eh Janet?"
Bill continued on, oblivious to the interaction between the women. "Janet and I will use the visual images to change the events and their relationships in order to make the predicated outcome match the desired outcome. Right now, the predicted and desired outcomes are so far apart that we'd have to scroll way over just to see them on the same screen."
"I'll be ready in a minute, Bill." Janet said with a toss of her head that got her hair out of her eyes.
"I'll bet you will." Sally thought archly. "Ack..." she thought. "Next I'll want a saucer of milk."
"Can I watch?" Sally said out loud. She caught Janet's sideways glance. It wasn't friendly.
"Sure," Bill replied. "I'll setup another console and get you a headset."
Without touching the ground with her feet, Janet swiveled her chair around so her back was to Sally. Sally could have sworn she heard the sound of a tail hitting the side of the desk.
As Bill had explained, the pace of the action was deliberate. Bill and Janet had a shorthand language that they used over the communications link and it took a determined Sally half an hour to catch on to their interaction. Bill would point to specific light bar with a colored arrow and Janet would hold it or tag it while Bill went deeper and manipulated it. Together, they were like a good surgical team. As she watched, they tried different approaches in order to get the colored ball representing the projected outcome to take a big hop toward the ball representing the desired outcome.
Suddenly, the projected outcome ball jumped and landed neatly on top of the desired outcome. "Freeze and backup the log!" Bill ordered.
"It looks like you nailed it!" Sally said.
"Well," Bill, said, still talking over the interphone, "you gave me some good clues. I initially setup conditions like the mood of the country, the economy, and Kennedy's constituency. Then I changed one major chord. I simply continued Kennedy's life and gave him a second term in office. As you said, he kept us out of war. But now, we have to step backward again. We have to come up with the events that make those two events happen. We have to keep going back until we get to the single smallest event we can define."
"How long will that take?" Sally asked.
"It could take years." Bill replied quietly. "But," he said with more enthusiasm, "somebody else is paying the bills."
Sally sat back. An appreciation of business practicalities wasn't Bill's strong point. This
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