Out of Chaos
06.16.11
“Here, Scholar Quaa, this is the permutation I was telling you about. It’s the only one that hasn’t followed the same general pattern that the others did. I think we may have found what the Scholars’ Collective was hoping for!”
“Did you use the same world-initialising parameters as you did for all the others, and calibrate the timeline to traverse the bifurcations chaotically?”
“Of course, Scholar – as demanded by the experiment’s specification and exactly as I did for the other permutations. The majority of them produced life, but this is the only one where sentient life has emerged.”
“Well, out of a sample population of half a billion this is our only outlier. I move to term this result a statistically insignificant aberration and discard it.”
“Discard it? But Scholar, this is likely the most tremendous moment in the history of the Collective – in the history of our people. This could herald the start of the Fourth Era of Knowledge, and you move to discard it?”
“Young Tarn, listen to me carefully. When the experiment was initially delegated to me, I was afraid of its possible implications. Even more than this, I was worried about how the people might react to the results, if any. I hoped fervently that there would be none.”
“But the people’s greatest wish is for our origins to be explained. It is the reason Scholar Song was voted in as Chief of the Collective – this research was the crux of his election campaign. And you think the people should be kept in the dark about a discovery as momentous as this? With all due respect sir, this is preposterous!”
“My dear boy, curb your passion for a minute and think about what we have done here.”
“What we have done? Why, we have created a world, we have created life… Oh.”
“Now do you see the implications of this?”
“Scholar, you don’t think that we – that our world – could simply be…”
“One cannot discount the possibility.”
“The thought is…terrifying, I must admit.”
“How do you feel now about discarding our results, and declaring the research a dead end?”
“I…I agree it would be for the best. But Scholar, what are we to do with this world? We cannot simply destroy the permutation – not when there is sentient life in it.”
“Of course not. We must hide it, however. I suggest you transfer it to the Theta dimension; research of that one was abandoned years ago. No one will find it there.”
“Certainly, Scholar. I’ll make it my first priority.”
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Tags: Chaos Theory, Flash Fiction, fridayflash, Science Fiction, Writing
This is absurdly creative and endearing. I’m not surprised, though, coming from you, Maria. Great flash! And a super welcome back, you’ve been missed! 🙂
Now, there is a thought. But their creation will eventually find them. Probably.
I love this. Who is created by who, I wonder?
How I’ve missed that gun with the outsized barrel Maria! Hoping you’re going to be around for a while
Heh, I feel a certain… theta in the air.
The proudest scientific tradition is to suppress evidence to the contrary of your hypothesis. It streamlines the truth, really.
Would that be a half-billion attempts to get the number 42?
Very imaginative and great use of scientific terminology and love how it ends, scarily believeable!
Great to have you back!
Very inventive, and wonderful use of dialogue. Great stuff.
Fantastic “circle of life” story Maria! Welcome back!
It’s turtles all the way down. Good story!
Returning to the #FridayFlash pool with a big ol’ splash, it’s… Mazzz in Leeds! standing ovation
This is one of the best Simulated Creation stories I’ve read, and I’ve been jones’ing for a good scifi flash.
I think telling a story with so much detail and so many possibilities through dialogue alone is amazing. This is a great story and exercises the mind in all the correct places.
I was lucky enough to hear you read this out at #Leedsavage writers meet on Wednesday… lovely use of dialogue – crisp, concise, evocative, elegant and thought-provoking.
What a wonderful little arc, you painted a lot of imagery with very little effort (sorry to clarify, that’s not me implying that you’re lazy!). This made me think of Conway’s Game of Life.
Nice! 😀
Really makes you wonder…especially if you get into the idea that aliens visited ancient civilizations…perhaps our world is just one big experiment.
Nice flash Maria, I wonder how long it will be before the “Experiment” will be searching for their own origins.
A full story in dialogue and my hat’s off to you Mazz. Sentient life is a hard thing to master and fragile as crystal. Thanks.
At the end I had the imagery of little tiny people chanting “We are here! We are here!” Not sure if you’ve seen Horton Hears a Hoo (one of my fave kids movies hehe). So glad they didn’t just destroy it. I thought you did fabulously with the dialogue only, and I understand the need to stretch like that, but I’d also love to read this with description to see what other layers you might add.
We have missed you indeed. These all dialogue stories are very hard to pull off. I did one awhile back and subbed it to a local writer’s association anthology. You do this so very well. It feels like it has more than a probability of being true…and that’s what good sci-fi is. You’ve defined it. Well done! *applause* And welcome back! 🙂
Nice job! You did something very different. Not even play scripts have just dialouge. You did very well.
Very creative, great dialogue. I wonder if someone will stumble across it in the not too distant future…..
Welcome back, Mazz, it’s good to see you again.
Loved the absurdity and its sinister implications. Great use of a dialogue-only narrative.
Adam B @revhappiness
Nice, very clever in its simplicity (despite its apparent complexity… 😉 ). I very much approve of the way you don’t dumb it down and spell it out, just the ‘Oh.‘ of realisation. I like this. =)
I was glad to see the link to this on Twitter. I usually rush to read your stories. Icy said “inventive” –she’s right. Satisfying and fun.
Now there is a voice I have missed. Great work as always.
The only thing worse than learning there’s no God is finding out you were created by a bunch of numbskulls on another planet – and then rejected!
This story was both cerebral and entertaining, and that’s a tough mix to pull off. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
This is great. I loved the all dialogue story, its not an easy task, but you’ve pulled it off and in a truely unique storyline – nice
You capture the scientists perfectly with the dialogue. Sometimes not asking questions is a little too easy. Or dealing with the aftermath of discoveries. I agree, nice & thought-provoking.