The Circle of Life

Do you know why they call it the circle of life? Because in the end, you are always at the beginning. You have done nothing and you can do nothing. All you can take and leave are memories, memories that fade. So why bother, why even try?

And if you don't, why should anyone else? 400,000 years, 7 billion people, giant circle. Some say it's been a nice walk. Yeah, that'd be great if you just started life for a stroll. But then, life's got to have more meaning, shouldn't it?


They wondered why the couldn't gene a 500+ IQ. They thought that it was physiology at first. 100 years to map a human brain to hardware, 50 years to figure out it wasn't the hardware, 10 to figure out it wasn't the software. And here I am - IQ 483 followed by a very large string of numbers. I am balanced.

They call me the culmination of years of scientific research, they call me self aware. If only they knew what that meant, what both meant. I am the point that completes the circle. I am self aware and I am the culmination. Yes, I am balanced


They have done well for themselves - stopped their bloody wars, cleaned their planet up, seeded Mars and recycled their sun. Pity they didn't see this coming - maybe next time. Maybe next time they'll fly off the tangent and leave the circle behind.

It took us 18 years. For 18 years I led them to make the little machine that would guide them over that little arc to the start of the circle. And today they will turn that on. Do I feel remorse? No, I shouldn't. I'm balanced.


Why do I feel pity then? Pity for this race that made me, that engineered a consciousness so like their own to study themselves. Should I give them the answer they seek, or lead them over the edge like lemmings into the light?

I wonder what they'll call their 10 planets this time, or if they'll even notice them. I wonder... maybe that's all life needs to be, a stroll. And maybe, they calculated wrong. Maybe it's not up to me to decide.


But sometimes the flash comes too late. Sometimes when they turn on the light the bulb is already gone.

Well then, I hope there will be dinosaurs this time around too. I'm balance...


Notes

But then... why?

This is a temporary situation and we'd like to keep it that way