The scientist picked himself off of the ground and ventured out of the observatory, out
of the research institution and back to his ship where the Creator was. He stood outside the
spacecraft regaining his stamina and strength before entering the ship.
“Back so soon? Do you have an answer for me?” questioned the intrigued Creator.
“I think we both know what I am thinking,” retorted the scientist.
“Ha. Very well then.”
The ship's door closed and it teleported away from the green fields of Indio to the
vastness of space to Orion nebula with the miraculous powers of the Creator. Even with
current warp drive technology it would take a few minutes to reach.
The Orion nebula was beautiful as it was cosmic in origin. The clusters of stars
intermingle with one another in an overflowing surge of various colors. It glowed and exuded
a sense of power with its cosmic grandiosity. A display that people from all over the galaxy
would die for. Tickets to observe the display would cost over a million clinks (a reserve
currency used by the Galactic Republic). The display was in front of Magnier to see as he
looked at the sight. His eyes began to water and then turned away and he crouched on the
floor in a prayer stance sobbing, not because of the celestial beauty but because he felt
nothing when he saw it.
“What is wrong with me?” asked Magnier weakly to himself, the sadness enveloped
his soul as it dawned on him that he could not partake in the spiritual highs most sapiens
would rejoice in. “Right before me are humanity’s achievements and the cosmos yet I feel
nothing. People look upon the nebula and its glory and find meaning in it. I look upon the
nebula and see hydrogen and cosmic dust; a series of chemical reactions following physical
laws. I see myself in the nebula. I am sentient stardust born from long expired stars and other
celestial objects and am a singular consciousness distilled through millions of years of
evolution, my ancestry – life itself only possible to originate and exist in one place in the
solar system, the Earth’s habitable zone and yet despite knowing these mind-blowing facts I
get no sense of elation. Instead, I see papers and more papers needing to be written,
phenomena to be discovered and studied so I can get more funding to do it over again. Again
and again. It’s like I'm at war with myself. A war… war.”
The scientist slowly got up from the floor and thought to himself: “War. The past. I
should look to the past, the true past for the answers, not the present.” Magnier turned around
and stood directly in front of the computer screen to face the Creator.
“Is it possible then?” asked Magnier.
“Of course it is but do not deceive yourself into thinking you have escaped the end. It
takes a considerable amount of energy for the universe to remain static as it is. This must be
done in haste and you must give me your answer,” responded the Creator.
“Let’s go.”
The ship rumbled and lights turned on and off in a frantic mess and then there was
silence. Magnier, a bit frightened, checked his surroundings and he looked out the window to
an ancient Earth. He saw the Earth was engulfed in gigantic explosions – World War Three.
The first two world wars were fought on Earth on a single planet however the third war truly
took place on multiple worlds spanning the galaxy with the Earth participating in the battle.
According to Magnier's father his supposed great-great grandfather took part in the war.
Before he left his family he sent his son away to the planet Indio and instilled in him a final
message: “War is madness. This war is a failure of our own doing. Instead of fighting and
lying to each other we should have been honest to ourselves, faced our greed and dark
compulsions together so that we could do the things that matter: the sciences, the arts. To
learn and share our discoveries with the world and help them, heal them to create a better
world.” This message was passed down from generation to generation.
“Creator, I know my answer.” assertively said Magnier.
“Go ahead. Why do you care?”
“I care because… my family cares and they instilled upon me a sense of duty to
protect and heal the world. I have chosen to take up science and use it in a way that is good.
To help make discoveries that will benefit the Republic and keep people happy and flourish.
I’ve seen the things that can be accomplished by the human spirit. I’ve seen the happiness in
other people’s faces. The economic surplus and low rates of political discontent is at an all
time low barring the catastrophe of the end of the universe. Look upon Earth and see what
selfishness and greed does to civilization, how far we have come only for it to be destroyed in
mere moments. That is why I work. That is why I care. I see it as my responsibility to save
civilization and this universe. To save its beauty, a beauty I can’t appreciate in fullness. To
save us all from this disaster and end our suffering. That is why. I. Care!” spoke Magnier as
he became increasingly more and more confident with each word being spoken.
“Is that your final answer?” asked the Creator in an unmoved tone.
“That is my final answer.”
“This answer…” said the Creator, there was a brief pause, another layer of stillness on
top of the timelessness of frozen time entered the room where the Creator and Dr. Magnier
faced each other. “This answer does not satisfy me.”
“What?!” screamed the angry scientist.
“I do not find your answer satisfactory,” said the Creator.
The spaceship teleported back to the universe’s final moments. The condition of the
universe was terrible. The distortions of space were horrible and lacked the beauty it once
had. Stars exploded and were torn to shreds. Nebulae faded and grew dark. Space was
receding and warping and coagulating. There were reverberations all around the edge of the
universe. Gravitational waves and similar phenomena were felt and thumped in the life of the
universe’s inhabitants. Societies crumbled. People looked up into the sky and began to pray.
Some took to thievery. Some took to ritual. Some took to hedonism. For this was the end of
all things.
Magnier shied away from the mirror of his spaceship. He had only a few minutes
before the universe’s destruction reached his galaxy's location and he knew it. He turned to
the Creator and pleaded, “Why not? I looked to my past and revisited all my achievements. I
even went back in time to look at the stupidity and pointlessness of war!”
“I’m not surprised. Who would expect an honest answer from a man who lies to
himself?”
There was silence as the scientist of utmost caliber stood speechless.
“War is stupid? War is pointless? Then what of the war that you face in your soul?”
questioned the Creator. “All this time you have been running away from your problems – the
darkness that obfuscates your reasoning.”
“My darkness?”
“You’ve felt it multiple times on your journey. The malaise. The apathy. You speak of
caring for civilization but you feel nothing for no one else.”
These questions probed deep into Magnier’s soul and shocked him; the sudden
realization that the Creator’s assessment of him was on the mark. Magnier stumbled a few
steps back before slumping back into his seat in the ship. He was lost in thought but strangely
his overactive mind was not bombarding him with the usual analytical questions. His mind
simply stopped. He couldn’t compute. He couldn’t analyze. He couldn’t strategize. The words
of the Creator rang through his mind “you feel nothing for no one else.” He knew these words
were true.
The renowned scientist looked back at his past with the recontextualization in mind.
He studied his mind in its entirety this time: the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious.
He realized that whenever the darkness – the self-awareness of the apathy for others came to
resurface in his conscious mind, he would actively push it away into the recesses of his
subconscious and unconscious mind leaving a husk of a man. To be called a “man” might not
be a suitable description of him, a calculating biological machine on the other hand, would
be. Another thought popped in Magnier’s mind: “Then why do I work so hard? Why did I do
all those things? What for?”
He pondered in his seat in a slouched, drunken posture and then it came to him. An
epiphany. The man did not like what he saw. The praise. The adoration. The feeling of
superiority above his peers. Was he always this egotistical? This narcissistic? His mind
couldn’t bear these disturbing revelations about himself. He started to quit thinking and
accept his fate.
“Keep going Dr. Magnier. You’re getting closer.”
The encouragement from the Creator reinvigorated the scientist. He closed his eyes
and concentrated on himself and his past – looking through a new clear lens to decipher his
actions and sense of purpose in life – a repetitive and meaningless existence of work and
dullness, a sentiment created over the years of his academic career. He saw how he ran past
the other scientists in his hurry, not once concerned about them as if they were not human
beings to begin with, another inanimate object in his way. He looked further into his past as
he reviewed his papers not once thinking of his collaborators in a good light but only a thing
that once in a while provides him useful insights to conduct research. He looked further in his
past when he learned of his ancestor’s message and felt how only pride motivated him. It was
all centered around him.
“You are close although you are a bit off the mark. When was the last time you felt
happiness?” advised the Creator.
The man self-reflected and thought about the question: “The last time I felt
happiness? The only time when I felt happiness was when… people celebrated my
achievements although I didn’t show it on the outside. I loved the adoration and it seemed to
grow more when I acted nonchalantly.”
“Why did you love the adoration? Why did you feel great to be praised?” questioned
the Creator.
“I loved the adoration… it felt great to be praised because…” thought Magnier.
Suddenly, the fog dispersed from his mind and the darkness within was illuminated by the
light of his answer. Magnier spoke: “I did it because I felt loved. I care because I wanted to
feel loved.” Magnier’s eyes began to water and tears began to flow down the sides of his
cheeks.
“Is that your final answer?”
“Yeah,” sniffled Magnier.
“This answer satisfies me. Now that you have decided to be honest with me I think I
should repay the favor and be honest with you. While I did not lie to you I did conceal some
things from you about myself and the nature of this world.”
Magnier looked up at the screen with a face of tranquility and peace of mind – he was
prepared for anything.
“The reason why I kept you from calling me God or other figures of powerful
importance is because I am no god but another being that exists higher on the totem pole of
reality. You live in a simulation my friend and I am but a simple worker tasked with
managing the simulation. I built and ran this simulation while the company financed this
endeavor and supplied me with enough resources to create this thing you call a universe.”
“So that means that I’m…”
“You are but a simulation as well but don’t panic. Everything is simulated in your
universe and to a simulated being this revelation affects nothing about your existence as you
can only operate within the abilities of your universe’s set laws. I mean my world could be a
simulation as well but I don’t worry about it. The observables of your universe switching to
different types of ends was a major glitch in the code and on behalf of the company we
deeply apologize.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Yeah. The company has decided to reset the server. No one will be killed or
destroyed,” said the voice of the Creator, now sounding less intimidating and sounding like a
regular person you’d meet down the street.
“‘Think of it more as a new beginning’. That’s what you meant by that!” exclaimed
the scientist.
“You are as sharp as the profile said you’d be,” said the Creator.
“The profile. You see my stats on a screen or something? Like a video game
character?”
“Kind of. I saw on the screen your thoughts and dialogue as a transcript and I can see
your driving motivation, in this case love. I wondered why you didn’t say love to begin with
until I further looked through your file.
“You’ve made a fool out of me… but why didn’t you tell me the truth from the start!”
“You wouldn’t have believed me. Looking at your profile and the state of mind you
were in, you would have ignored me and carried on searching.”
“Even so, why did you intervene? The universe was going to be reset anyway.”
“I just felt bad for you. I was sitting at my desk ready to pull the plug but your
incessant screaming and begging from those radio signals showed up on my screen. You
really were far out from the rest of civilization to communicate with me. Normally, we set our
live feeds as far away from the civilizations that pop up in our simulations. Instead we can
search up in our database for any particular kind of info we need to get from the simulations.
We do this because analyzing simulations on a live feed takes up a lot of processing power
and to cut costs we let it run in the background. It’s also why I had to freeze time to interact
with you in Indio.”
“You felt bad for me?”
“Of course I did. That’s why I played my part to ease your tension and realign your
attributes of your profile together. They were all messed up man! I know this might sound
disappointing but I’m a simple guy who saw someone in need of help. That’s it really. Sorry
for misleading you.”
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