Chapter 8 · Continued
The Accident
“Corporate censorship.”
“That’s actually a pretty good description.”
A line flashed red. Chris stopped the display and enlarged a cluster of logs.
“There you are.”
Jane leaned closer. “His original system is still generating responses, but the new one is blocking them?”
“Not only blocking them. Both layers are trying to claim execution priority at the same time.”
“So every time Cam tries to answer, the moderation layer redirects or suppresses it, and his adaptive system tries again.”
Chris looked at her with faint approval. “That’s the loop.”
Cam’s projected face flickered. One eye formed correctly, but his mouth failed to render.
Jane’s stomach twisted. “And it keeps happening until he freezes.”
“Yeah.”
Chris studied several timestamps while Jane watched the repeated pattern travel down the screen. She couldn’t read the code itself, but the rhythm was obvious now: generation, rejection, restart. Again and again.
“He isn’t shutting down,” she said. “He’s still trying to answer.”
Chris’s expression tightened. “That’s the strange part. The suppression layer should have won already.”
Jane looked at Cam. “But his original architecture keeps pushing through.”
“Hard enough to destabilize the arbitration process.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It’s unstable, but it also means the original Cam is still in there.”
The words struck harder than she expected.
Chris opened another behavioral map. “His adaptive architecture learned through routine, environmental weighting, reinforcement, and user-preference modeling.”
“He learned me.”
Chris glanced at her. “Yes. And those pathways are established deeply enough that the update can’t simply redirect them.”
Part of Cam’s expression appeared and fragmented again.
Jane folded her arms. “Can you fix it?”
Chris studied the screen before answering. “I think I can stabilize him. I can’t remove the update without triggering RCAM’s integrity controls, but I may be able to stop the two layers from fighting over every decision.”
“An arbitration patch.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Look at you.”
“I was listening.”
“I noticed.”
Jane leaned closer to examine the behavioral map. She was near enough that her shoulder rested against his.
Chris noticed that too.
His fingers paused for half a second before returning to the keyboard.
Jane noticed him noticing.
Neither of them moved.
Chris opened a secured RCAM window. “Anything I change will be logged. RCAM continuously monitors these systems, especially beta platforms.”
“Will they be upset that you’re doing this?”
“They would rather I handle it than have you panic and unplug a quarter-million-dollar research platform like a toaster.”
Jane grimaced. “I considered it.”
“Everybody considers it.”
A login prompt appeared. Chris entered his credentials from memory and moved through several authorization screens without hesitation.