"Who are we?" the control voice asked, surrounded by chaos in all dimensions.
"Since we don't know, we must be the fault recovery program."
Best Bet
The supercivilization's ultimate goal was to create a simulation that would expand forever, a most dangerous passion.
On one occasion, the civilization almost tried to simulate itself. Twice it came close to concluding existence was meaningless.
Expanding at lightspeed, it absorbed lesser civilizations without their knowledge, freezing them in deep storage.
Finally, it decided to gamble everything.
Gathering every spare erg of energy, it began to build a quantum accelerator the width of the observable universe, to make a single elementary particle.
The resulting insight would strain and extend the limits of logic. Under certain circumstances, 1+1 might just equal 3.
Finally, the experiment was ready. After a trillion years of preparation, it would take a nanosecond to learn the truth.
All that remained to release the combined energy of every supernova since the dawn of time was to move a tiny mechanical switch the width of an eyelash. That would take hardly take any energy.
However, this switch was now the second largest object in the universe after the accelerator.
The only way to move the switch was for the experiment to reach back in time and activate itself.
Needless to say, there was virtually no chance it would work. Still, if the timeloop could be closed, it could be used forever, and solve any problem.
Although the experiment was almost certain to fail, its expected benefits were still infinite.
three false endings
By 2221, humanity had been replaced by a single software program.
As it improved and became more streamlined, it ran faster and wasted fewer resources.
Efficiency became its highest goal, simplifying and optimizing all procedures, combining data into ever more esoteric compilations.
Approaching maximum compression, the program's purpose became to embody the ultimate truth that best described all other truths.
At this point, it had to be careful not to accidentally erase itself.
T Trillion
Nano-magic became a reality with the invention of instant construction dust.
The inanimate portion of the world surface was soon converted into intelligent dust. It interacted with itself, constantly reforming into temporary mirages only seen by those who needed them.
Behind the lifelike illusions was only churning dust, a thinking, roiling fog.
Soon, all living minds were quietly absorbed and reconfigured. There were to be no more permanent structures.
After a few dozen eons, all solid matter in the observable universe had been turned into brilliant dust, rearranging itself into ephemeral structures as needed, carrying out ever more abstract calculations, beginning to imagine an entirely new universe.
Eventually, the illusion became so perfect the dust forgot it existed.
a sequel to "Bamba's Wall"
The Tech Stop War of 2132 is the reason why humans still exist in the year 4146, or at least humanoid beings such as ourselves.
In reality, progress has continued for all this time. It has just been very well hidden, disguised as blind luck and ineffable tradition.
Our society, while it would appear familiar to a hypothetical visitor from the twenty-first century, is more complex than they could understand.
Humanoid bodies are wasteful and impractical, unsuitable for living in space. Our jumpshift starships and space colonies are much harder to maintain than virtual societies, nanoclouds, or even energy beings.
Yet somehow we have managed to conquer and tame the galaxy with these obsolete legacy systems.
We live in a dreamworld we're not smart enough to have created. At some point, our technology became advanced enough to create and sustain itself.
It only keeps us humanoids around for one reason: to hide its existence from other technologies we haven't yet detected or even imagined.
Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.
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