Marcus is an assistant researcher at Larabee Data Centers, a scientific research company that uses its vast amounts of computing power to simulate just about anything the company wants. Marcus works with a team led by Dr. Branch, simulating evolutionary models and the progression of advanced lifeforms.
Marcus walks into the team's conference room. In the room is no one but Dr. Phthaeliossusen, an eccentric figure who carries around the brightest red binder, in which he is presently writing in. He is also a senior researcher within the team Marcus is also a part of.
"Mornin'," Marcus greets.
Dr. Phthaeliossusen stops writing and freezes for a moment. He looks up and replies, "Oh. Oh! Hello… Marcus." He sets his binder down, keeping one hand on the cover, as if a draft would blow it open.
"What'cha workin' on there?"
"Oh, ideas. Lots and lots of ideas."
Marcus pulls his chair to take a seat, unsurprised at the vague answer. He pulls his phone out to pass the time, as Dr. Phthaeliossusen continues.
"Y'know how we're studying evolution, right?"
Marcus puts his phone away, and attempts to answer when Dr. Phthaeliossusen continues once more.
"It's so very slow. The whole process is like if you–" Dr. Phthaeliossusen pauses, trying to think of an analogy.
"Like a–" Marcus replies, in an attempt to look as if he remotely cares about the Dr.'s crazy lecture.
"Monkeys! If you made a monkey type a story, and you kept doing it…no, but if you killed–"
Marcus utters a confused syllable.
"Nevermind. We both know evolution is heckin' slow," Dr. Phthaeliossusen finally says, "But it created you! It created me! It created this," he continues, as he touches the side of his head with his finger, meaning his brain, "And it made that," he still continues, trying to do the same pointing gesture to Marcus' mind from across the 12 foot table. Dr. Phthaeliossusen instead is reaching over the top of the table, pointing at Marcus' head.
"Your point?"
"I think we 'oughta give evolution the old boot and help–"
Before Dr. Phthaeliossusen finishes explaining his strange scheme, Dr. Branch enters the room.
"Sorry I'm a little late, but this meeting was a little off-schedule anyway. Well I called you here for an interesting find."
"Where's everyone else?" Marcus asks Dr. Branch.
"I didn't schedule this meeting until last night, so I don't expect everyone to have time for it. Anyway, the find."
A wall illuminates, revealing Dr. Branch's laptop's screen. Then, after some troubleshooting (this darn technology never works properly), the wall reveals a graph.
The graph starts with a relatively shallow slope. Then, it steepens a little, before plateauing in the end. The horizontal axis is labeled "time" while the vertical axis is labeled "advancement."
"Looks like one of our evolution models," Marcus comments.
"Yes, but look at what happens when I expand the graph to the latest time."
The graph reveals a sudden jump from the plateau. Dr. Phthaeliossusen exclaims an excited syllable of temporary bewilderment.
Dr. Branch elaborates on the anomaly in the data, "What seemed to be an end in evolutionary advancement suddenly led to a massive spike in–"
Looking for the right word, Marcus chimes in, "Progress?"
Dr. Branch agrees with this word.
Dr. Phthaeliossusen, somewhat indifferent to the data in comparison to the contents of his red binder, asks, "Perhaps this is just an outlier? How'd this happen?"
Dr. Branch taps a key on the laptop. Suddenly, the wall is populated with dozens of graphs, showing similar jumps.
"It looks like when evolutionary advancement gets high enough, something besides the basic laws of evolution kick in."
"Can we investigate the possible cause of this sudden jump?" Marcus asks.
"It's a whole lotta data, it can take years for us to figure anything out," Dr. Branch says, "Of course we've got access to the company's AI models, but that amount of data scraping with a model like Larabee's can consume Michigan's entire energy source. We'll have to be creative."
Dr. Branch checks her watch, and leaves the room with a hasty goodbye. Dr. Phthaeliossusen then looks at Marcus, then his binder, and then giggles a little.