The Experiment


- Captain, we are getting a signal from sector 5A.

- Let’s go take a look.


- Captain, we are right above the signal, should we send our bots to investigate?

- Yes, send them.


- Captain, the bots retrieved what it looks to be a box with a manuscript inside.

- Have them bring it over, let’s see what it says.

“Hello there. You are probably wondering what is a manuscript doing here? Well, let me tell you a story. In the mid 21st century there was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution on Earth. Everybody was in a rush to use AI to create and discover new things: cure cancer, solve energy problems and many others. Not me though, I was not interested in any of that. My gig was trying to predict the future.”

“I started using AI to model events past, like world wars, famines and pandemics. I was soon able to do that. Using what I’ve learned, my next step was trying to see the future. At first, I was able to predict minor events, like wars in the Middle East, and election results in the Americas.”

“But the big prize for me was really trying to predict the future of the human race. I became obsessed with it. Our ancestors survived the Permian and Cretaceous extinctions, the high sea levels in the Eocene, the Ice Age in the Pleistocene, and the wars and famines in the Holocene. Can they survive the Anthropocene and beyond? I ran thousands of simulations, and the results were always the same: the human race will endure forever.”

“Here is my conundrum though. I am a scientist, and scientists need proofs. How can I prove if what I predicted is true? If I discover a cure for cancer, I can test it in patients to see if it really works. If I uncover a source of energy, I can see how efficient it is by comparing it with other sources of energy. But if I predict that the human race will endure forever, how can I prove that?”

“I needed an experiment to see if I was right. Only one thing occurred to me: I was to start a nuclear war. If what I predicted was true, the human race will overcome it and continue on to conquer the universe. If I was wrong, then…well, based on my simulations I could not be wrong.”

“Again, I started running more and more simulations using AI. My predictions indicated that it was going to take between 2000 and 2400 years for the human race to recover from the nuclear war. What is two thousand years in a 200 million history? Yes, just a drop in a bucket. I know, I know, many people will have to die, but their sacrifice will be well worth in the name of science.”

“My next task was to start that nuclear war. This was easier than I thought. I highjacked the nuclear missiles from an unnamed country and started shooting left and right. What came next was totally expected: everyone was shooting nuclear missiles against one other, all in the name of science!”

“That brings us back to now. If my predictions are correct, it must be around the year 4500 when you are reading this manuscript for the first time. Earth has been repopulated, and progress is being made to recover from the devastation of the nuclear war. I am really sorry for causing this war, but this experiment will prove that the human race will always recover.”

“Good luck and have a drink on me!”

- What do you think captain?

- What an idiot. If he only knew that 40,000 years have passed since the nuclear war he started, and Earth is still a barren planet.