As Sharp as Knives

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: Gregory House, Ecks, Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jared Rhys, James Wilson
Location: Building 327 and Building 326/Maintenance Tunnels/Building 316
Date: Day 311
Summary: House, Hannibal, Will, and Ecks meet up with Wilson and Rhys while conducting a few specialized searches.
Warnings: Typical House and Hannibal-related warnings, otherwise will add as they come up

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[That's... hmm.]

Loss of coherency in the data over time. We the system's breaking down. Possibly.

[Now he's considering it.]

Different chunks of data get lost. You'd think the most vital things'd be retained.

[ecks]

Why? If something is dead, it is because the most vital parts do not work anymore.

[rubikscomplex]

[There's another pause before House wipes a faux tear from his eye and sniffs loudly.]

Our little girl, she's growing up. Learning all about making useful arguments and contributions to the DDX. I'm so proud!

Still, that's a moronic thing to say about data. When you're talking about vital parts, you mean actual physical organs. I'm talking about the maps of our brains on the servers. Computers are smarter than the human body. It would retain the most important pieces. More peripheral information would be lost first. Unless there really is a virus in the machine. Or the physical state of the equipment holding us is falling apart more quickly than we thought.

[ecks]

Your face is moronic data.

[She takes it in, though, thinks about what he said.]

What if the vital parts are not what we think are the vital parts?

[rubikscomplex]

[House considers that a moment, completely ignoring the comeback. He's proud of that, too, honestly.]

Different organisms have different weak points. Interesting. How do you find out what they are on something without a physical form?

[ecks]

[That one's easy. Sort of.]

You find out where the weak points are on a kind of thing by dissecting them and learning the parts.

[rubikscomplex]

Again, how do you dissect something you can't touch or interact with regularly?

[ecks]

[She falls silent, stumped for a long moment.]

...You observe what can be observed. Correct?

[rubikscomplex]

You're on a schedule. You don't have time to wait to piece things together slowly. How do you speed up the process?

[He has an answer, himself, but he's nudging her toward it.]

[ecks]

[She does not have an answer, but she recognizes this as a test. A long moment, and then:]

Because you observe it when it interacts with you, you provoke it to cause it to interact more frequently.

[rubikscomplex]

[There's the barest hint of a smile on his lips.]

Dark matter. More than half the universe is made up of stuff we can't see, can't measure directly, can't interact with. So how do we know it exists? We can infer its existence and 'interact' via the pieces of the universe we do have access to. We can't interact with these data ghosts directly for the most part. So, we go out and we poke everything possible. Leave no piece of rubble unturned, no corner of the map unexplored.

Go forth, young golem! And don't half-ass anything. Also, take vids and send them to me for anything you try.

[ecks]

If I leave no piece of rubble unturned I will spend all of my days turning rubble, Doctor House. I think that there are more sysematic things to be done.

[rubikscomplex]

[House rolls his eyes at that.]

I was speaking metaphorically. I mean don't half-ass anything you start. Whole ass it. All the way.

[ecks]

[She narrows her eyes briefly.]

Correct; if I use my ass to turn over rubble it will be necessary to use my entire ass.

[Poker face over here.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Okay. That earns Ecks a snort from the mental image alone.]

Do what you can, kid. I'm gonna head to the school. See if I can find anything else over there.

[ecks]

Acknowledged. I will look for other things.

[She just...has no idea what....

But she's satisfied, for now, with her instructions and with having made him almost laugh.]