The Simulation

Whooo...
Whrrr...
Beep, Beep, Beep...
Qyan was suddenly woken up by a series of alarms. Buzzers whizzing, triggers going off and red everywhere. He was groggy due to lack of sleep. He was awake all night trying to fix numerous errors that have crept up over past few weeks.

He slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by 10 billion lines of logs. He sighed and began monitoring his system for errors. This was his dream project and he had seen multiple failures over the years. He was the first one to try something highly experimental at such a large scale.




He got up to get coffee. He needed it to fight sleep. Analysing such a huge system was going to take time.

He was following strict rules. He was not supposed to interfere with the functioning of the system. Once it is up and running, he would only monitor. The results had to be presented untainted. However after 21 failures, he was tempted to modify the temperature settings.




"But that would defeat the whole purpose." He thought.

"Thats right! Don't!" Suddenly a voice was heard. Zua was standing behind him. He was working on a similar project inspired from Qyan's work. Although at a much lower scale.

"You read my thoughts so well", said Qyan. "There doesn't seem to be any fault with the programming. Its the natural evolution of the system based on initial setting. Maybe the starting parameters need tweaking. Not sure which ones."

Suddenly the alarms went even louder. Aro would be aware of it now. Qyan knew if he didn't do anything the damage would be irreversible.

Qyan: "Temperatures are fluctuating violently. We have never seen this before. The system will not be able to recover from it without outside help."

Zua knew what Qyan was hinting towards.

Qyan: "Do you think we should do something?"

Zua: "NO! Are you crazy! Aro would never approve that. And what purpose would such a success serve?"

He couldn't take it anymore. "I can't watch them destroy themselves another time. Here, you handle this."

"I HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU GIVE UP LIKE THIS!" Aro appeared on the screen. She had a bit of disappointment in her eyes. "You have accomplished more than others could even dream of. Tell me, what happened?"

"Humans destroyed themselves again! Not even animals could survive what they did to the planet. Maybe some insects are remaining." said Qyan. "They were so close to reaching Mars this time. I thought they would make it."



Zua: "This step would have given them enough leverage to reach checkpoint 1."

Aro: "What happened this time? Nuclear war?"

Qyan: "No, they narrowly avoided that. Even developed technology to shoot down Astrid 1. But, they couldn't outlive the climate change."

Aro: "Hmm"

Qyan: "How could they not see it coming? Do you think they aren't intelligent enough?"

Aro: "No they are more than required. I think what they lack, is compassion."

Qyan: "Ahh, I didn't think of that."

Aro: "Why don't you decrease intelligence by 10%, increase compassion by 10% and run it again?"

Qyan: "On it!"

Aro: "Let me know how it goes. I'll need a progress report by next month. Good luck!"

Qyan: "Yeah! Luck! They would need it!"

Somil Bhandari

Somil Bhandari, A programmer, traveler and an amateur photographer. Loves adventure, hates stagnant life. Always looking out for something new.

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