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There was a minimum of 42 parameters to create a viable world simulation. The maximum was infinite. In this class, the basic 42 were used to give the students a feel for it. Questions were best answered in this way. The larger philosophical questions were easiest to answer by creating these worlds.
Jared left them at their defaults.
What if life on Earth had developed with a silicate base instead of a carbon one? Would religions exist if a meteor strike had taken out the entire Middle East before literate humans lived there? What if the ambient temperature of Earth had left us with no ice caps and mostly tropical flora? What if Earth wasn’t on an axis and had no seasons?
Jared left these at their defaults as well. Carbon, five major religions, ice caps and seasons intact.
To get more specific answers to questions like ‘what if Hitler lost World War 2?’ or ‘what if first contact didn’t happen in 1985?’ you’d have to juggle upwards of 2000 variables.
Jared changed those.
To create an exact replica of the Earth as it was today and make variations on your life was a form of self-abuse. Seven hundred thousand variables or more. Masters Doctorate level stuff.
Jared was extremely intelligent.
He was possessed by the idea that a perfect Earth existed and that he could create it. This was a documented mental illness called Thuringer’s complex. Like most people in the grip of an obsession, he denied that he was a victim of it.
He also thought he could make a self-aware Earth, an earth that noticed it was being manipulated. This was a documented mental illness called Forenzi’s disease. Like most people in the grip of a mental illness, he was unaware that he was experiencing a mental illness.
Jared believed that first contact with the aliens had not saved the human race; that humans could have come through the hardships themselves unscathed. This was merely an unpopular opinion.
The combination of the three was a new form of madness.
Currently, he had six Earths functioning in his lab, spinning away at a half-decade an hour. The faculty members had already questioned his motives. He was on the verge of being shut down.
Jared was waiting in his lab for the paperwork that would force him to destroy his experiments. He was looking at the Earths through tears, realizing that the paperwork wouldn’t even be necessary. Earths 1 through 4 had extinguished themselves in war. Earth five had hit a renaissance the likes of which had never been seen in any recorded simulation but had devolved into savagery almost instantly afterwards.
This sixth Earth, however, was balancing on the verge. Technology was mixing with the economy to form a global awareness. An ‘internet’ had formed, surpassing all borders and making the idea of countries seem quaint and dated. The number 42 has surfaced in the literature as relevant to the meaning of life. Films talked of false worlds kept within computers. Conspiracy theories abounded about alien sightings and lizard-men running the governments and banks. They were so close!
On the plus side, medicine had raised the average life expectancy from 30 to 85 in a few short centuries. A growing damnation of greed was starting to war with need for constant expansion.
On the negative side, the Earth was crowded and there were still no plans for solar system expansion. Left to their own devices, it was unknowable if they’d be able to create viable terraforming and space-travel technology fast enough, before they ran out of materials and air. No guiding alien hands to help them.
Jared sat in his lab and watched his Earth spinning. Another fifty years in there and another hour out here before the student/teacher council reached a decision. He wondered if the shut-down papers would have an effect on his experiment by the time they showed up.
His Earth-6 felt him watching.
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Jared left them at their defaults.
What if life on Earth had developed with a silicate base instead of a carbon one? Would religions exist if a meteor strike had taken out the entire Middle East before literate humans lived there? What if the ambient temperature of Earth had left us with no ice caps and mostly tropical flora? What if Earth wasn’t on an axis and had no seasons?
Jared left these at their defaults as well. Carbon, five major religions, ice caps and seasons intact.
To get more specific answers to questions like ‘what if Hitler lost World War 2?’ or ‘what if first contact didn’t happen in 1985?’ you’d have to juggle upwards of 2000 variables.
Jared changed those.
To create an exact replica of the Earth as it was today and make variations on your life was a form of self-abuse. Seven hundred thousand variables or more. Masters Doctorate level stuff.
Jared was extremely intelligent.
He was possessed by the idea that a perfect Earth existed and that he could create it. This was a documented mental illness called Thuringer’s complex. Like most people in the grip of an obsession, he denied that he was a victim of it.
He also thought he could make a self-aware Earth, an earth that noticed it was being manipulated. This was a documented mental illness called Forenzi’s disease. Like most people in the grip of a mental illness, he was unaware that he was experiencing a mental illness.
Jared believed that first contact with the aliens had not saved the human race; that humans could have come through the hardships themselves unscathed. This was merely an unpopular opinion.
The combination of the three was a new form of madness.
Currently, he had six Earths functioning in his lab, spinning away at a half-decade an hour. The faculty members had already questioned his motives. He was on the verge of being shut down.
Jared was waiting in his lab for the paperwork that would force him to destroy his experiments. He was looking at the Earths through tears, realizing that the paperwork wouldn’t even be necessary. Earths 1 through 4 had extinguished themselves in war. Earth five had hit a renaissance the likes of which had never been seen in any recorded simulation but had devolved into savagery almost instantly afterwards.
This sixth Earth, however, was balancing on the verge. Technology was mixing with the economy to form a global awareness. An ‘internet’ had formed, surpassing all borders and making the idea of countries seem quaint and dated. The number 42 has surfaced in the literature as relevant to the meaning of life. Films talked of false worlds kept within computers. Conspiracy theories abounded about alien sightings and lizard-men running the governments and banks. They were so close!
On the plus side, medicine had raised the average life expectancy from 30 to 85 in a few short centuries. A growing damnation of greed was starting to war with need for constant expansion.
On the negative side, the Earth was crowded and there were still no plans for solar system expansion. Left to their own devices, it was unknowable if they’d be able to create viable terraforming and space-travel technology fast enough, before they ran out of materials and air. No guiding alien hands to help them.
Jared sat in his lab and watched his Earth spinning. Another fifty years in there and another hour out here before the student/teacher council reached a decision. He wondered if the shut-down papers would have an effect on his experiment by the time they showed up.
His Earth-6 felt him watching.
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