7.23.2011 When the world shifts, moments become doorways. All systems have to be recalculated when confronted with true strangeness. John's mind wants explanations. What could account for his software's behavior? Hackers! Computer Virus? A bug in the code. Systematic error. Bad assumptions. A hardware glitch. All hard to believe. Why would there be a sudden burst of relevant visual coherence?

What about a positive explanation? What if he has generated the first Class 5 Cellular Automata? What if he has invented a computer process that is not a simulation of life but is actually alive inside the computer? It would have been completely by accident, but isn't that how these discoveries always seem to happen? A major breakthrough! He could publish this and become famous. He wants to share this with the reporter and begins to fantasize about how they will break the story together.

Deep in the CPU, Fred the harlequin is miffed. John's rapid recovery from the shock, his ridiculous rationalizations and delusions of grandeur have grounded his Ego before the acrobat could make his move. Now Fred sulks and watches the fallout.
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