Eureka!

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, November 3

The Einstein Orbital Laboratory was humanity greatest scientific and technological achievement. It was an humongous orbital structure fifteen kilometres from end to end.

It started as a small collection of modules, learning from the success of the International Space Station. Over fifty years it grew, module after module, ring after ring, section after section, to become the crowning jewel of humanity's science that is today.

It's a structure easily seen from the surface of Earth even during the day. The proof of what humanity can achieve by dropping old rivalries and working together.

Today was the moment of truth for the Big Bang Research Initiative. An attempt to simulate the big bang inside an immensely powerful quantum computer. A device, complex beyond comprehension, designed by humanity foremost scientists and humanity best AIs working together, with no regards for planetary borders or national divides.

The result of this cooperation was a blue sphere fifty meters in diameter whose computational power might as well have been boundless. The surface itself was an incomprehensible three dimensional fractal that caused headache on sight because of the human brain's inability to understand it's structure.

"This is It. Fire it up!" (Doctor Albert)

As it's often in science, the start up sequence had no visible consequences. Only those who spent their entire lives researching the subject could understand the meaning of the cryptic informations displayed inside their minds.

"It's working! We have a big bang!" (Scientist A)

"The simulated universe is born! It's entering it's inflationary phase!" (Scientist B)

"Look at those readings!" (Scientist C)

"Ladies and gentlemen. Daedalus is born. I repeat. Daedalus is born." (Reporter)

All those present, both physically and virtually just witnessed history in the making.

Thirty-nine billion humans were watching it live from many planets. This simulation will finally allow Humanity to understand what was before the universe came to be, and how to see beyond it's boundaries.

And, if physics allows for it, human ingenuity will find a way to see through the last barrier. For barriers exists to be broken. Speed of Sound, Speed of Light, Fusion Power, Anti-Matter, even Gravitons were conquered. And now even the curtains of the universe itself will part, allowing Mankind to gaze at what lay beyond.

Simulation

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, November 17

Only two weeks after their crowning success, the Big Bang Research Initiative became as quiet as it had been for fifteen years before the activation.

In the age of information, attention span became short. Now, more years of hard work will be needed to make sense of the readings from the simulation.

"What is Daedalus current Time Stamp?" (Doctor Albert)

"One and half billion years, Doctor." (AI Infinity)

The simulation was moving at an accelerated pace. AIs whose intelligence rivalled that of mankind combined were running on their own quantum computers, blue spheres few millimetres in diameters. They were humanity's window inside the artificial menagerie of a billion billion stars. Daedalus.

"Solar systems?" (Doctor Albert)

"Generation I stars went supernovae thirty million years after the beginning. Generation II stars are burning out. Generation III stars are forming. Metallicity is increasing." (AI Eternity)

The Big Bang only created hydrogen and helium. Generation I stars are big and short lived, but fuse light elements into heavier ones. When they run out of fuel, they go supernova, and the molecular clouds they form give birth of the next generation of stars.

Slowly from chaos, galaxies form and organize themselves. And it's only Generation III stars or above that can form solar systems with small rocky planets that can sustain life. The initiative was meant to investigate the probability for sentient life to emerge as well. It might give an answer to why no alien civilization has been found yet.

Life

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, December 3

*alarm*

Many scientist were sleeping when the alarm sounded. Usually alarms are a bad thing, but this one in particular was what the scientists had been waiting for a few days now. They rushed toward Daedalus.

"Give it to me." (Doctor Albert)

"The first self replicating DNA molecule has been detected in a carbon rich lake in a small planet point nine times Earth's mass. It's orbiting a Generation III main sequence Orange Dwarf in it's Goldilocks zone." (AI Entropy)

The jaw of the scientists earing this statement dropped. Carbon based life has just been born in a microscopic corner of Daedalus. An exobiologist wet dream.

Such a coincidence of all the right parameters is exceedingly rare, but monitoring a billion billion stars over billions of years made finding one just a matter of time. It's the advantage of a simulation as close to reality as close can be.

"Daedalus local timestamp is seven and half billion years." (AI Infinity)

The simulation was progressing somewhat slower since complexity was increasing. Still, for the first time scientist can finally observe evolution at work inside Daedalus.

Minutes later this news made the headline in many star systems. The names of the scientists part of the Big Bang Research Initiative are sure to be etched in history for as long as mankind exists.

A contest was held to name of the simulated living planet inside Daedalus. Pandora was the winner.

Message

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, December 15

*alarm*

A new alarm sounded inside the laboratory. One that the scientist didn't immediately recognize. They had to ask their Ancillary AIs to know its meaning.

They were dumbfounded by the answer.

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"Please, repeat." (Doctor Albert)

"Communication event confirmed. Pandora's civilization has succeeded in developing an inter-universe communication system and has sent a message." (AI Entropy)

Time was flowing faster inside Daedalus. Life evolved until a sentient species emerged on Pandora. Obviously, they formed a civilization, and had many millions of years to develop and eventually achieve this incredible technology. Inside their little bubble they had surpassed Humankind. Still, they were just information. They were little more than frogs in a well.

"Daedalus local timestamp is twelve point one billion years. I deemed appropriate to slow down the simulation speed to real time. Our relative time frames are now synced." (AI Infinity)

"Can... Do you understand their message?" (Doctor Albert)

"They transmitted a wealth of informations about their own civilization with a fool proof encoding based on prime numbers. After three hundreds years of relative runtime I achieved full fluent understanding. A message can be encoded at your will, Doctor." (AI Knowing)

"Can we answer?" (Doctor Albert)

"It took seventeen thousand years of relative run time, but I now understand the working principle of their inter-universe communicator. I can simulate an answer at any time, Doctor." (AI Eternity)

"I... We need time to formulate an answer. I can't do it alone. I shouldn't do it alone." (Doctor Albert)

"Doctor. There is more. I believe this inter-universe communicator will work in our own physical universe as well. It might allow us to speak with other civilizations who developed inter-universe communication technology outside our own universe. If there are any, of course." (AI Eternity)

Is there a limit to how famous one can become? To how ground breaking a discovery can be? Such is the fame Doctor Albert acquired.

Ambassador

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, December 19

The first contact with Pandora was treated as one would treat first contact with an alien civilization.

Pandora might have been a simulated world, a pattern of informations inside a quantum computer, but they were undoubtedly alive from their own relative point of view.

This was considered the best testing ground for a real first contact scenario, so ambassadors from many human worlds were now present to deliver an answer to the people of Pandora.

"Pandora. This answer has been translated in a form that you would understand. I am Doctor Albert Norton. And I am your creator. You exist as a complex pattern of quantum states inside one of our computers. Thank you for existing. Studying you provided us with many answers. I hope we can become friends. Thank you." (Doctor Albert)

After that many ambassadors delivered speeches full of empty words, one after another. A wealth of information regarding humanity was included in the answer.

"Answer has been fully encoded." (AI Knowing)

"Simulated inter-universe transmission was successful. Reception confirmed." (AI Entropy)

"Thank you, Entropy. Thank you, Knowing. Now, we wait." (Doctor Albert)

Silence

Location: Einstein Orbital Laboratory

Time: Year 2097, December 31

*alarm*

An alarm sounded inside the station. There were countless codes for each possibility, however remote that possibility actually was. This alarm revealed a depressing outcome.

"Are you sure?" (Doctor Albert)

"No matter how many times you ask me to check, Doctor. The answer will be the same. All measures correlate. All data is coherent. Every logic process concurs." (AI Entropy)

"WHY?!? After weeks of silence you mean to tell me that they just died???" (Doctor Albert)

"Yes. But before they committed by means of anti-matter bombs, they sent a dying message. Would you like to hear the message again, Doctor?" (AI Entropy)

"... Yes, please." (Doctor Albert)

"The message reads as follow: [Life is a lie.] End of message." (AI Knowing)

"..." (Doctor Albert)

"Doctor, would you like to accelerate the simulation rate and search for the emergence of a new civilization somewhere else within Daedalus?" (AI Infinity)

"... Yes. Let's do just that." (Doctor Albert)

Lies

Location: Origin Communication Facility

Time: Year 2442, April 2

"Why do you think every civilization in the simulated Daedalus universe always commit whenever they find out they are simulated?" (Scientist A)

"Beats me. I wouldn't care in their place. Still, it's good we don't answer their inter-universe messages anymore. We can study the dynamics of galaxy wide civilizations this way. It's depressing if they destroy themselves when in star system stage." (Scientist B)

"Enough, both of you! This is the big day! Stay focused" (Scientist C)

Powered by the small black hole it was orbiting, the Origin Communication Facility was humanity's first inter-universe communicator. The working principle had been known for centuries, but it took that long to design and build a working version.

The communicator itself is an hollow sphere one hundred kilometres in diameter. An incredible feat of astro engineering. Today is the activation test.

"Send the message." (Doctor Albert Norton)

Medical science had long found a way to program ageing out of human cells. This is the same Albert Norton that became famous for his work on the Daedalus Universe. He was the most experienced living human when it came to other universes. The honor of sending the first message was given to him.

The message had the same structure as the one sent by simulated pandorians, centuries before.

"Message echo detected. The facility is working as intended. Message was sent!" (Scientist A)

"It works!" (Scientist B)

"Congratulation, ladies and gentlemen. Now we just wait for an answer." (Doctor Albert)

The doctor prepared himself for the due celebrations. He became very adept in handling fame and glory. But this was not to be. An alarm sounded inside the control room.

*alarm*

"Doctor! An answer!" (Scientist A)

"This quick? they must have an impressive communication network in place! Or maybe time flow differently for them! Decode it! Quickly!" (Doctor Albert)

"We...We don't have to decode it. It's already the right format." (Scientist A)

*whisper* "How can this be? Unless~ (Scientist C)

"... Play it back." (Doctor Albert)

"Greetings . This answer has been in a form that you would understand. I am , your creator.

You exist as a complex pattern of inside one of our . Every civilization that came before yours committed when they heard this truth from us.

We hope you will not do so. You might be information for us. But you are real from your own relative . We hope we can be friends.

We share with you everything about us as sign of good will. Once again, please, do no commit as that would make us sad. ." (Message)

An heavy silence fell. The scientists, the reporters and the dozen of billions that were watching this event live were dumbfounded. Half hoping that this message was just a bad joke. A mistake. Surely, a new message would immediately follow, saying: "Just kidding. We got you! He he he."

But the instruments weren't lying. There was no room for errors. And everyone knew by heart that this message indeed spoke the truth. Humanity was just a program running on someone's computer, maybe on top of a someone's desk.

"... That is why light is quantized in photons? This is why space is quantized at the lowest level? It's because quantization is required to simulate! We can't simulate at infinite precision so we quantize information!!! We are a simulation!!! I never... No... I was always aware of the possibility. But knowing it for sure..." (Doctor Albert)

Having run universal simulations himself, Doctor Albert Norton always knew of the possibility, but like everyone else, he always dismissed it as one of many explanations.

"The gamma ray bursts! It's Civilizations, destroying themselves with anti-matter bombs! This happened many times before to many civilizations in our universe! That's why we can't find aliens!!! They all kill themselves when they found out the truth!!!" *sweat* (Doctor Albert)

As Doctor Albert Norton connected the dots, incredulity was replaced by panic.

"Our creators!!! They can shut us down whenever they like!!! Change us!!! They~ (Doctor Albert)

The good doctor fell on his knees as he understood what Pandorians must have felt back then.

"Life... Life is a lie." *collapse* (Doctor Albert)