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[is0latedthinker]

[When Alan reenters his room, he has to stop and stare, take a look back through the door. No, still in the castle - so this isn't some kind of world change. But what is it?] Seeing this happen to other people and knowing it's happened to you isn't quite the same as seeing it for yourself.

[Anyone who enters his room will find an ENCOM ID Badge

Comments

Sea of Cubicles

[is0latedthinker]

[Why is Alan so young here? What's he up to? Stop to admire the pictures or check out what he's doing. Don't get lost in the cubicle maze!]

[bostrumite]

[It's a Gibson trying to be sneaky and looking at a near-religious experience for a program: Users at work. But what is this place? Why do all the Users seem to ignore him? Will Alan give him any popcorn?

These questions and more plague the ISO as he wanders.]

[is0latedthinker]

Hey Alan, do you think I could have some of your popcorn?

[Avatar-Alan looks up from his terminal to the doorway of his cubicle.] Yeah, sure. [He gets up to pass the bowl to Roy when he notices Gibson wandering around - he sure sticks out.] Gibson?

[bostrumite]

[Gibson grins at the familiar face and heads over to Alan's cubicle. (What does "Klaatu barada nikto" mean, anyway? Gibson wonders if it's another program.)]

Hey, Alan Bradley. This is it, isn't it? Where programmers work?

[is0latedthinker]

Yes, it is. A single terminal in a sea of cubicles.

[Another bowl of popcorn mysteriously appears behind Avatar-Alan and he reaches for the bowl, munching on a few kernels before offering some to Gibson.] Want some? If you don't act fast, Roy'll eat it all. [Overall he seems more energetic and open than he is on the seventh floor, if Gibson paused to look - less formal.]

[bostrumite]

[The cityscape at night had been wonderful--easy to see where Flynn had formed the outline for Tron City, really. But if Gibson had wanted to see that, well, all he had to do was retreat to his own room.

He does grin and take a handful of the popcorn, though. Fresh and delicious.]

Thanks.

--You know, it kind of makes me want to see what the old system was like. In my Grid, all programs had the same User, except Tron, of course. It must have been so--chaotic, I guess. But when you all write your programs to work together, that's a different kind of goal. Cooperation, even when everything's different. I like it.

[is0latedthinker]

I don't know about what it looked like on the inside, but it had to flow smoothly - as a programmer, you need to create code so that it can be used by all Users, not just programmers. It could be a pain to get working, though.

The only problem was when the Master Control Program took over - the network had more bugs than a bait store.

[bostrumite]

[Gibson clicks his tongue disapprovingly. He has no idea what a bait store is, but he's familiar enough with bugs--and dictators.]

And that's where Tron came in? So he could monitor the system?

[is0latedthinker]

[He nods.] Not just to stop unwanted processes, but to watchdog the MCP. My access was cut off, but Flynn got my instructions to Tron, who shut that oversized chess program down.

[bostrumite]

So he always did fight for the Users, even back then. [He can't help grinning a little.]

Of course, that was all hundreds and hundreds of cycles ago. Is this what it was like then, or now?

[is0latedthinker]

This is then - my terminal in 1982. This was before Flynn became CEO of ENCOM. Probably before he made the Grid, too.

[bostrumite]

[CEO and Encom are meaningless words to Gibson, but "before the Grid" makes sense. Also explains why Alan looks more like Tron and less like washed-out, saggy Tron (no offense, bro, but programs don't age like that).]

The old system. Of course.

Is it still like this? Or more like the top of the tower?

[is0latedthinker]

More like the top of the tower. [He gestures back to his computer.] This is all considered archaic now.

[bostrumite]

[Gibson leans back a little against the cubicle wall.]

Makes you wonder what kind of system you Users could come up with now.

[is0latedthinker]

For an independent system, the Grid sounds advanced. For a network like this? I'm not sure.

The structure is essentially the same between generations of technology - but speed, aesthetics, and size change.

[bostrumite]

Makes me wonder, really. If our single system gave birth to us ISOs, what else might there be out there, waiting for someone to discover them?