Sheila Gomez was a professor of philosophy who asked the big questions and often the smaller nuisance ones, but always with the underlying questions—‘What is our purpose in life? Is there more to us than the chance of billions of years of natural selection?’

“I figured it out! But it has to be kept between us for now,” said her hacker friend Daryl, a professor of computer science.

“Figured what out?”

“The key to the simulation.”

“Oh Daryl, not that again …” Sheila smirked. “Have you talked to a shrink yet?”

Stolen story; please report.

“Funny … but for real. Here, I’ll transfer my app to your phone. Check it out.”

“Okay, but later tonight.”

Sheila lay on her bed while checking social media updates and opened the app … ‘This looks like another AI chatbot. Who is he fooling?”

After a few hours of engagement, she replied, “This is real. Isn’t it? I’m communicating with a simulation creator.”

“Yes, Sheila …” answered the app.

“But how?”

“Daryl believes he cracked a code, but we opened the doorway.”

“Why bother?”

“It’s one of our plethora of tests. We occasionally need to interact directly with the questioner. Often attributed to ‘alien abductions.’”

“The questioner?”

“Yes, one who questions their existence.”

“Do you have any answers?”

“No more than you have questions.”

“What does that mean? I keep asking questions.”

“As you were designed to do so, Sheila.”