Written in Collaboration with fellow Laidlaw Scholar, Benjamin Berman.

We pick up where we left off, dear reader. A hard week of work, hostels and weißbier, had weakened us to the point of collapse. As such, Saturday began exactly where it should – around 11am. The first of two lazy breakfasts was taken, outfitted in ‘bananas’-esque pyjamas (specifically Albee), whilst we curled up on the sofa to enjoy our favourite late-80s comedy flick, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. 

Our day continued into a slow walk to Tempelhof, a nearby airstrip/recreational space, where we together enjoyed the gentle rhythm of Cormac McCarthy’s sunny prose.  

Sorry, we must pause writing, a huge thunderstorm is swirling overhead. Oh my god, it’s really picking up ... why are the clouds opening up ... why is it so dark ... what’s happening ... what ... no... ..... 

A screeching, tearing sound pierces the air followed by a loud crack and a deafening thud.  

In place of the office’s ping pong table stands a British telephone box, with a strange antenna on its head. 

Smoke curls around Albee and Ben’s feet, billowing out from the box. The door swings open. Out steps a mysterious figure. 

It can’t be... it's their Laidlaw programme manager Ben Margetts dressed in futuristic clothes! 

INT. HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE – THE OXFORD ROOM – MIDDAY  

ALBEE and BEN B (in an exaggerated Californian valley/surfer accent, or, for older readers ‘Bill and Ted Speak’):  

BEN MARGETTS??? 

FUTURE BEN M: 

It is I, Ben, programme manager. But from the future. You must listen to me, before it is too late to fix your destiny! 

BEN B: 

(Whispering, apprehensive) Albee… 

ALBEE: 

(Also apprehensive) Yeah Ben? 

BEN B: 

Strange things are afoot at the Humboldt Institute. 

ALBEE: 

Totally dude. This is most surprising  

FUTURE BEN M:  

Your blog this week was in danger of dismissal by the Ministry for Quality Assurance of Scholar Publications. If this were to happen, you’ll never become the leaders you’re meant to be! I would encourage you to reflect not only on the research itself but also on what it is teaching you about leadership. What responsibilities do leaders have when introducing new technologies? How should organisations balance innovation against potential harms? What does responsible decision-making look like in contexts characterised by uncertainty and competing interests? 

BEN B:  

Woooaaahhh. No way, dude! 

ALBEE:      

But, dude, our blog is totally due in 12 hours. Where are we gonna learn about all that stuff? 

FUTURE BEN M: 

Behind me is a time-machine built by Over-Lord Laidlaw himself. It will take you to any time and any place in the history of leadership. Apart from Monte Carlo, 2008. I recommend Athens, 348 BC, to start. I will leave you here. Like the LiA, this mission must be undertaken in my absence. 

They step into the telephone box and dial the number. Shaking, falling and screeching ensue. A thud, and they land behind a marble building. 

EXT. ANCIENT GREECE – ATHENS – THE LYCEUM - MIDDAY 

BEN B: 

Dude, this place is not Unter den Linden. 

ALBEE:  

I don’t know, dude. This place is most neoclassical. 

BEN B: 

What? 

ALBEE: 

What? 

A group of men in togas come into view. All but one, ARISTOTLE, is sat. 

ARISTOTLE (to the seated men, indistinct): 

[…] It seems, then, as has been said, that a human being is an origin of his actions. Deliberation is concerned with actions that happen through one's own doing, and the actions are for the sake of something else. […] 

ALBEE: 

Dude, that old guy seems most sagacious.  

BEN: 

Maybe he can impart on us some learnings about leadership. 

ARISTOTLE (suddenly focusing his attention on Albee and Ben): 

Leadership? You have questions about leadership? 

ALBEE: 

(Whispering) Is he talking to us? 

BEN: 

HEY, YEAH, MISTER! I MEAN, SIR. MISTER! We have to write a blog post about our experiences as visiting researchers at an Internet Research Institute for the Laidlaw Scholars network. But we failed to properly incorporate teachings from the Oxford Character framework in our reflections of our experience as researchers. Can you provide any insights, dude? 

ARISTOTLE: 

Blog? Internet? Network? CHARACTER FRAMEWORK? Hogwash! Nonsense!  

ALBEE: 

Well, Corey Crossan is always saying that leadership is like a bullseye at the centre of a target. Aspiring leaders are like archers-in-training and-  

ARISTOTLE 

(Interrupting excitedly) Yes… Good… Fire too high or too low, and you miss the target. Lead with too much control, and you stray into excess, stifling the talent in your team. Be too permissive, you stray into deficiency, lacking direction and a communicated vision! With each arrow, you may not hit the bullseye. But the more you shoot, the more you calibrate, the more attuned your acts of leadership become! Why, I think these insights may hold the key to the most fundamental mystery in all of ethics.  

The seated men in togas gasp and begin to applaud. Nicomachus scribbles in an otherwise empty scroll entitled ‘My Ethics’ 

BEN: 

Thank you, dude! That is most ruminant! Hey Albee, you know what that totally reminds me of? 

ALBEE:  

Yeah, of course, dude! This is like on Monday, when our team-lead returned to the office from the UN conference on AI in Geneva. The team had a meeting with their partners at Greenpeace. She totally led that meeting like an expert archer, dude! She was receptive to criticism from the partners, and allowed her team to steer, but nonetheless maintained a firm grip on the projects overall vision, even where it wasn’t fully aligned with the partners. 

ARISTOTLE: 

(Confused) Well, then. (Suddenly more serious) But do not be too hasty, men. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.  

ALBEE and BEN B: 

Totally dude.  

The boys head into the time machine. It bangs and whirs, disappearing in a flash of brilliance. The disappearance is so energetic that a piece of stone is dislodged from the Lyceum, and a bird sitting on it flies off, losing a feather in the process. As the two objects fall to ground at different rates, Aristotle thoughtfully furrows his brow. 

 

 EXT. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSLYVANIA - NOVEMBER 1945 – EVENING      

Another thudding landing and the telephone box touches down next to a bench. Sitting on it is Robert J Oppenheimer, looking through a speech he is about to deliver. 

ALBEE:  

DUDE, it's the rocket man! 

BEN:  

That is most certainly not Elton John 

ALBEE:  

No Ben. Its Robert J Oppenheimer, his biggest hits are much more extravagant 

BEN:  

[to Oppenheimer] 

Hey mister, what responsibilities do leaders have when introducing new technologies? 

ALBEE: 

Yeah, like the bombs you made, or the AI we’re researching 

OPPENHEIMER: 

What? Who are you? ‘AI’? And anyway how- (he pauses thoughtfully) Oh… well, actually that is a good question. 

In the case of the bomb, you must remember that this is a new field, less fettered than most with vested interest, or with the vast inertia of centuries of purely national sovereignty. This is a new field growing out of a science inspired by the highest ideals of international fraternity. It would seem somewhat visionary and more than a little dangerous to hope that work on AI and atomic weapons might proceed, as have so many things in the past. Like the building of battleships on a purely and narrowly national authority, without basic confidence between peoples, without cooperation or the abrogation that somehow these separate, distrustful atomic arsenals would make for the peace of the world 

In such a world, it will be of little help to try to protect the scientist from restraints, from controls, from an imposed secrecy which he rightly finds incompatible with all he has learned to believe and to cherish. Therefore, it does seem to me, necessary to explore somewhat the impact of the advent of atomic weapons on our fellow men, and the courses that might lie open for averting the disaster they invite. 

ALBEE AND BEN: 

MIND-BLOWN!!!     

ALBEE:  

Dude, you certainly are a loquacious yet galvanising scientific and historical authority. 

BEN: 

Albee, dude, he’s so right. This is just like how at HIIG we have to consider the role of the team’s auditing ‘AI for good’. We can’t expect people not to use AI in their tools, but we need to make sure they do so most responsibly and with due thought to the dangers and harms that might totally arise from them. 

ALBEE AND BEN:  

Thank you for being so open-heimer with us! 

OPPENHEIMER: 

You’re welcome, I hope you don’t witness the birth of destruction that I have wrought. Good Luck. 

The boys step into the machine, which does its usual exit. Instead of shock and surprise, Oppenheimer gazes at the empty space left behind with a knowing acceptance of the vast mystery of our universe. 

The following excerpt from the King James Bible is displayed on screen. Morgan Freeman to dictate: 

32     And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 
33     And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place 

The telephone box lands next to Abraham. 

EXT. ANCIENT JORDAN VALLEY – MID AFTERNOON 

ALBEE:  

DUDE! that super ancient dude totally just bartered with GOD 

BEN: 

He was most resolute yet still so courteous in the face of the LORD   

ALBEE AND BEN: 

O Abraham, father of our fathers, most eminent patriarch, man of undying seed. How are you navigating the balance between offering constructive critique and recognising the expertise of those who have been working on the project for much longer?

ABRAHAM:  

You see, I was tested by the LORD, and obeyed His voice, and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws.          

So sometimes you must trust those that know more.  

But one must offer constructive critique within reason, even if that means accepting their boundaries and final judgement. 

I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes because will not the Judge of all the earth do right? 

ALBEE AND BEN: 

Amen

ALBEE:  

Woah, I never thought knowledge of the scripture would come in handy in the workplace.  

BEN: 

Yeah, like, for example, how we need to ask questions to make sure that the project makes sense to outsiders and its framework is sound, but we can’t mess with all the hard work the more senior team have done or undermine its structure. 

ALBEE: 

Yeah, at the end of the day, what Theresa says, goes, and we must accept that with grace.  

BEN: 

Yeah, but, at the same time, we should ask questions when we have them, both because they index the quality of available explanations, and also enrich our understanding.  

ALBEE: 

And, hey, we may even have a good idea or two every once in a while. 

ALBEE and BEN: 

Thank you, Abraham. And thank you LORD  

ABRAHAM: 

As I’ve always said, the LORD will provide 

An enormous rumble shakes the valley, A smell of sulphur fills the air, Abraham looks reverently at the city in the valley. An angel appears. 

ANGEL:  

Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. 

BEN: 

Just like Oasis said… 

ALBEE and BEN: 

Don’t look back in anger, dude! 

The boys do air guitar as they rush into the phone box and escape   

EXT. HIIG – THE SAME MOMENT THE BOYS LEFT  

Future Ben M is standing waiting for the boys, who come giddy out of the booth. 

FUTURE BEN M: 

So, have you learnt all you need to? 

ALBEE: 

Most comprehensively. 

BEN:  

We are totally ready to lead  

Ben Margetts smiles benevolently, secure in the knowledge that the space-time continuum will remain intact. 

FUTURE BEN M:  

Then go… and write… those blogs.  

ALBEE and BEN: 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR MOST ELUCITIVE FEEDBACK, FUTURE BEN!! 

Future Ben Margetts gets into the phone box, and, with a final thunderous take-off, is gone.