Reorganize the social network.
The Institute - Chapter I
Three sharp knocks contrasting with the unusual silence transformed a neatly organized desk into a “No No No my notes! There’s coffee everywhere” kind of desk. Obviously not an ideal situation, even more complicated by bad timing. The door opened.
“Hi Tiffany, the people from the Chronicle are here.” said a woman the color of a starless night.
”The Chronicle?”
“Yeah… The newspaper thingy you had today.”
“Oh yes, right. Thanks Duala. Are they here, now?” Tiffany pointed at the door as if she was expecting some journalist to pop their head through the door like some kind of suit-and-tie jack-in-the-box.
“No, they are still in the atrium. Stephen is giving out his new peaches. This batch is excellent!”
Tiffany sighed in relief. She collected her thoughts enough to clean the brown puddle with the wet wipes she always had tucked away in the lower drawer of her desk. It was far from perfect, but it will have to do. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe she needed to have the interview with that journalist is some place that would feel less “formal”. After all, the Institute was not known for its formality. She walked at a brisk pace through the strange corridors of the Node - the main building on campus. The corridors were made of an amalgamation of materials ranging from wood to concrete, to stones, to glass, to metal and most unusually living trees. Many branches spanning the corridors stemmed from a series of interconnected oak trees around which the Node’s atrium had been built. A shy sun was illuminating the open space in a soft golden light. The atrium had always been a place for people to gather and they had, but today was particularly crowded. Tiffinay suspected this had to do with the peaches. The peaches.
“Stephen, you fool, don’t tell me…” muttered Tiffiany under her breath as she briskly approached the so-called Stephen, a wiry old man distributing his fruits to those around him. ”Stephen!” called out Tiffany. “A word”.
The old man gave the fruit crate to the group and walked towards her wiping his hands from the juices on his trousers still holding a couple of fruits under his arm. He smiled as he approached. A sly smile. A smile of mischief. If Fey trickster were real, he would be one of their best.
“Peach?” he asked, lifting the fruit towards Tiffany.
“Which ones are those?” she interjected with a cold edge that only brought a broader smile to Stephen’s face.
“Don’t worry. These are the controls. I’m not that irresponsible.”
“Not that irresponsible? Not that irresponsible? Do I need to remind you of last month’s incident?”
He chuckled to himself with the recollection of the events.
“Oh yeah, that got a little out of hand…”
“A little out of hand is an understate…” replied Tiffany but before she could finish her retort, two figures were walking towards her one with his hands outstretched in a greeting. In an instant, her face shifted from scornful to welcoming. In this moment, she had to become the face of the Institute.
“You must be Dr. Lawson!” said the smiling visage of a pocket-sized man, if the pocket could accommodate a fridge. “I’m Brennan, from the Chronicle. I believe we exchanged a few emails”
“Yes, indeed. And it is a pleasure to meet you in person. Welcome to the Institute.” replied Tiffany extending her hand to meet his. The second figure was Duala, Tiffany’s partner in running and managing the Institute. Duala nodded with her head slightly tilted, the tell-tale sign of “if you need me, just call”. Tiffany gestured towards one of the many small bushy alcoves that surrounded the Atrium. Each one had a unique set of flowers, bushes and trees. The trees had been molded to create living benches which provided drastically varying levels of comfort depending on how well the process went.
“I thought we could enjoy the Atrium and the weather before starting the tour. Can I get you anything to drink?”
The journalist nodded his head.
“Yes, that is a great idea. I’ll have some coffee if you have any.”
“I’ll bring some” interjected Duala.
Tiffany and Brennan took a seat in the shade of curiously shaped conifer. The branches in the lower section opened as large arms welcoming visitors to sit on its upturned roots. Conveniently, the wide and somewhat flat looking roots offered ample space to sit and to lean back against the gentle curves of the trunk. The smell of pine resin mixed with the earthy notes of decomposing needles filled the air around them. The flexibility and the elasticity of the conifer offered a level of comfort that harder woods could not. Brennan scanned the Atrium still bustling with people coming to get their share of Stephen’s peaches.
“It’s quite the campus you have here. I honestly didn’t expect it to be this large. It’s nearly the size of small town.” said Brennan in genuine admiration.
” We have grown quite a bit since the early days. The Atrium was where it all started. At least that’s where the original buildings had been placed but we obviously tore them down once they had outgrown their use. We kept the trees though. Now, as you can see, it is a place for us to share some of the fruits of our labor. Quite literally. It is also one of the many orchards we have on campus grounds.” Tiffiny gesture towards the many and diverse trees growing in small clumps – some even climbing up the surrounding buildings. Some bared fruit. Other only flowers or buds. Brennan, a grin across his face, observed the grove. His attention was caught by a single tree which he could have sworn carried apples and yet also some pears. Before, he could satisfy his curiosity through a question, coffee was served. Brennan took a sip and tilted his head in surprise. He was a coffee amateur, and this tasted like nothing he had ever tasted before. Not bad but definitely strange. Tiffany noticed his surprised.
“It’s not coffee. Well not strictly speaking. Another one of Stephen’s creations.” Said Tiffiny her eyes darting towards the old man and, for an instant, her face becoming cold as the harshest winter. “We can go for a tour, and I can show you where it is made.”
“I would enjoy that but before we get to the tour, I would like to know more about you Dr. Lawson.” He paused for effect. “Who is Dr Lawson, the president…, leader maybe? of the Institute?”
“Oh, I’m not the leader. I’m just a coordinator. I manage the research, the maintenance, and the development of most activities that happen on campus. I ensure that we stay on track. That our vision is not lost. I also act as a liaison with the outside world. Hence why we are having this conversation.”
“So, who is the leader of the Institute? Your description of the work you do here sure sounds like what a leader would do.” asked Brennan a look of puzzlement on his face.
“There is no leader here. Well not strictly speaking. Not in the sense you think of as a leader.”
“I am not sure I follow you Dr. Lawson.”
Tiffany paused pensively for a few seconds.
“Do you remember learning about the Danalik?”
“The artificial intelligence data base from the old world?” replied the journalist after a few seconds of pause trying to recall his time in school.
“Yes. That’s the one. Years ago, I went through its book data base. I sometimes like to pick a random book from there and see what it was all about. Some selections are better than others, I’ll grant you that, but this one had an interesting concept. It was called the Square and the Tower by someone called Niall Fergusson. The gist of this book is that you can look at history from a network analysis perspective. ”
Tiffany shifted on her branch and faced Brennan. She leaned in, gesturing emphatically with her hand before continuing at an accelerated speech rate.
“Social interaction can be viewed as a network where each node or vertex if you are more mathematically inclined represents a person and the relationships between people are shown as the edges of the network. These edges can have different weights, and this would represent the strength of the relationship between individuals. For example, the professional relationship that we are fostering as we speak will certainly not have as much weight as someone you are very close to such as a family member or partner.”
“I see. How does this relate to history and even more importantly to you as not being the leader of this Institute” interjected Brennan with a growing frown of even faster growing puzzlement.
“The author contrasts two network topologies; the way you would organize the nodes. On the one hand you have the hierarchal structure. It is a very top-down view of society. The most extreme example of this would be the military. Although some corporations also follow this structure. In these cases, you have a person at the top who gives orders to the people below them, and they will give orders to those below them and so on until you reach the bottom of the ladder. The people at the bottom don’t ever interact with the people at the top. On the other hand, you have the distributed network structure where every person can interact with every other person. There is no top or bottom: there is only a distributed system of interactions. There are of course sub-networks which interact to a higher degree with each other. There are highly connected hubs that interact with many other nodes and even connect different sub-networks together. I will spare you the historic details but , essentially, if instead of looking at history through the lens of a hierarchal network - trying to find who is at the top and who is at the bottom, we looked at history from a perspective of who was the most connected node, who had the most information flowing through them, who connected the most people together; we would see a very different picture of history. The most influential people would not necessarily be the people at the top but rather those who had the ability to organize or re-organize a social network.”
She paused to take sip of her coffee.
“And this is what my role is here. I am not at the top. I am simply a coordinator. I ensure that the network is organized and that information flows from one sub-network to another. I ensure that we have the ability to disrupt the network when it is needed and to maintain enough stability to ensure we are still able to operate.”
Brennan slowly nodded before adding:
“I understand what you are saying… but I cannot shake the feeling that this is just some semantic shift. A hierarchy serves as a clear way to highlight everyone’s role in an organization. You are at the top. You are the decision maker. You are the one who’s choices will impact those below. I would even argue that a leader who can give out orders will have a more efficient team since there will be no confusion as to what everyone is supposed to do. Someone needs to take the hard decisions and give everyone direction.”
“Yes, you are right. This is a semantic shift. The traditional top-down hierarchical structure requires and reinforces the idea that some people are above others. To a certain extent this suggests that somehow these people are better than you because they are higher up on the organizational ladder. Advancement in an organization and by extension in life is to climb the ladder; it is to climb above other people. The problem is that not everyone can be at the top. The problem is that for a top to exist, it requires many more people to be at the bottom. We must contend with the criteria that are used to define the direction of the hierarchy. Are the people at the top really more deserving or more competent than those at the bottom?”
“No. Of course. But, surely, you can admit that you play a more important role in the organization then say… a technician. I am just trying to understand why you are making this distinction when it seems that - in reality- it does not really affect how things work in practice. You are simply using a different name and using a different criterion to define the structure of the hierarchy. But there still is a hierarchy and someone can still be at the top.” replied Brennan
“We recognize that some roles play a more crucial role in the functioning of the Institute. To come back to the network analogy, these roles are simply connected differently. At the Institute, we shift away from the top-down view. There are only different roles. The importance of a position could be defined by how much the loss of this node or sub-network would affect the functioning of the organization as a whole. And from this perspective, the direction of the hierarchy becomes difficult to define since any node and sub-network participates in our activities. One way or another. As you said, someone needs to become the arbiter, someone needs to give the Institute direction, and coordinate its activities, but if I were not here, the Institute could still function albeit much less effectively, but the coordinators of each department could still converse and share ideas on what to achieve next. My role is to facilitate those conversations. It is to make sure that the vision we have is still upheld. It is to make sure that compromises are made and that a path forward is taken. And I am not even the only person carrying out this role. Duala, who you already met, also serves as coordinator. I am part of a sub-network through which information flows and links and coordinates many other sub-networks together. But, if the energy grid technicians were to be removed, what do you think would happen to our campus? Our engineers who understand how to handle to the electric grid, who understand how to build said grid, play a key role in our daily operations. Without them none of our activities are possible. Their coordinator must have the humility to understand that their job is to facilitate the work of these engineers. They are not above them; they simply perform a different role in keeping the lights on. The point being that everyone at the Institute is a node in an equally leveled network in a way. While, yes, this is a simple change in perspective and that many roles and concerns we have would be similar to those of the traditional top-down hierarchy, it also means that we have different priorities. It means that when we look at our colleagues, we do not see competitors, subalterns, or superiors, we see partners. We - as individuals - are simultaneously more important and less important than we think. We all have a role to play but our role is only but a small part of a larger network and it is from that network that true change emerges.
“Okay. That makes sense. The concept of importance becomes quite fuzzy, and I assume so does the concept of responsibility. A leader holds responsibility for his team. If something were to go wrong, they will be the ones that will have to face the consequences”
Tiffany nodded pensively before adding:
“We all have a responsibility in the functioning of the Institute. Regardless of what position you hold; you are part of a series of networks that are all connected. Everyone has their individual responsibility towards themselves, towards their sub-network, and towards the institute. You could see it as a distributed responsibility system. When something does go wrong, we figure out what went wrong, where it went wrong, and what we can do to mitigate this happening again in the future. The coordinator is not always responsible for the mistakes of his team. I am not responsible for someone using a lab grown salami as a self-propelled projectile leading to multiple broken windows and a black eye. That was the decision of this particular individual. “
“Self-propelled salami? That sounds specific enough to be tied to a real story” chuckled Brennan.
“We don’t talk about the flying salami incident.” Tiffany smiled before continuing.
“However, I would be responsible if I purposefully overlooked a known security concern that ended up injuring someone. We all must take responsibility for our own mistakes and decisions. We are all part of the network, and we must recognize that our actions have consequences, and these consequences can and will ripple through the network. We all know what we owe to the network and the community it represents. The issue of responsibility and accountability is not simply finding someone to pin the blame on. It is to find out why the current structure led to this error happening in the first place. And when we have found it - if needed - we re-organize the network. We share our failures just as much as we share our success. Ultimately, however, we all share the same vision and the same drive to accomplish it.”
“Speaking of vision: what does the Institute actually do?” asked Brennan.
With a twinkle of excitement in her eyes:
“It’s best I show you”.