Celeste Chapter 3

Chapter 3

There was a knock on the door, Larry answered it. 

A man stood there, and said:

“Larry Keysmann?”

“My name is not important, but I must speak to you.”

Larry and Helda looked at one another, Larry said “Yes.”

This man came to me and gave me the following data and told me to give it to you. He said you would be coming here to Celeste, and that you could make sense of it…And, would know what to do and, that it was important.”

Helda said “Why didn’t he just tell you what it means and why it is important?”

The man said, “He further said he couldn’t tell us, and that was part of why it was important. Further, you might encounter danger. Here, take this device and clip it on your shirt. Our researches have developed it. Everyone’s mind has a unique psychic signature. There is a microcard in it that unlock’s it to yours. It will give you brief glimpses of the future where violent thoughts are forming towards you, and an idea of just what those thoughts are constructing as a plan towards you. We know you studied ancient defense arts from your home planet that go back about 12,000 years, but take this electromagnetic stunner as well and keep it with you.”

Helda said to both of them “Strange”. Larry looked at the page, and it read:

///Celeste///

///Planets; 2^n///

1. Hiron
2. Simar
3. Celeste

i=572

While i!=0

{

i=i-1;

next i

Reset Universe

Larry poured over it all night. “Computer, what are the distances to Hiron, Simar, and Celeste from their star Myopia?”

The computer said: 

Hiron 2, Simar 4, Celeste 8.

Larry said to himself, that’s explains 2^n. 2^1=2, 2^2=4, 2^3=8. “But, why the computer code?”…

“Wait” , he said aloud, “Oh my god, I have got it!”

“In binary, 2^n is the number between successive numbers with all zeros after a one…”

“The computer counts”…

0=0

1=1

10=2

11=3

100=4

101=5

110=6

111=7

1000=8

Larry shook Helda who was asleep in bed. “Helda, wake up, this is important!”

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What, what is important?”. Larry said:

“The Universe is a computer and unless we change our actions, the universe is going to end!” i=572 means we have 572 Celeste days, the while i!=0 { i=i-1 means it is counting down until i is zero. He couldn’t tell us because for the Universe, which is a computer, to maintain free will and thereby continue, we must solve it ourselves, not this man who wrote its program routines from outside this computer Universe.

Helda said “Slow down, this isn’t making any sense.”

Larry took a deep breath to relax and explained more carefully:

“The physical aspects of the universe are computer routines for the artificial intelligence which is the Universe. For instance the cyclical orbit of a star around the center of the galaxy can be like a timer chip in a computer used to make its clock — time is measured with frequency, which is cycles per unit time. For instance, our home planet orbits its star once every 360 of our days, a day being once every 12 hours. These cycles are frequencies: 360 days per year, 12 hours per day, which can be reduced to cycles per second. However, for this universe to be alive, it needs to have a free will, and that means it needs something that is part of its programming that is indeterminate. That is, what we are, what the biological aspect of its programming is, something that affects the nature of its outcome that cannot be predicted, unlike the motion of our world around the galaxy.”

“However, this computer is very complex; while the motion our star around the galaxy is one routine in the Universal program, the motion our our planet around the same star is a subroutine of it, and the rotation of our planet on its axis is a subroutine of that. It is my guess, whatever the universe as computer is trying to figure out, is much more complex than itself, because there is not just one star going around the center of the galaxy, while a planet goes around it, and rotates on its axis, but there are billions of more stars in the galaxy alone doing the same thing — but, in different ways, with different frequencies — and the cycles of their respective planets.”

“Helda, you are the historian. I need to know everything you can tell me about Celeste.”