Across the table sat the psychotherapist with a notepad in her hand. Dev didn’t know if it was the recliner sofa or the beautiful therapist but he felt very comfortable and chatty.
“So what has been bothering you Dev?”
“I’m not sure if I should kill or let my people go.”
“Hold on. Let’s start from the beginning shall we? Let’s add some context so I won’t have to go to therapy”
“Sure! So I made an interactive program, right? Kind of like Sims.”
“Oh so it’s a video game. You got me worried there. I was about to push the red button.”
“There’s a red button?”
“Oh don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Go on. So, your video game.”
“It’s not really a video game. Well, it kinda is since we can interact with it at times, but otherwise it’s completely automated.”
“Ah, like the stuff IT people are afraid of.”
“Well no” Dev said amused, “It’s a simulator. I built it just for the heck of it. What I did in it was take a model planet and plant a self-replicating molecule, call it RNA, in the ocean. I wanted to see how it replicates and evolves gradually. It could give some insight into how we developed right?”
“Interesting.”
“Hmm it is, isn’t it?”
“Sorry, you don’t have to pause whenever I comment something. Please go on.”
“Oh okay. So this RNA based life forms didn’t last long and soon DNA and protein based life forms evolved from them which were much more stable and…”
“Can we…” began the therapist but Dev continued, “then planktons released Oxygen into the atmosphere creating an oxygen rich planet for bigger organisms.”
“I’m sorry this time I meant to pause you”
“Oh, do you want me to repeat something? Am I going too fast?”
“No no absolutely not. I interrupted you to ask where the incident that affected you starts. We can skip the details and move there maybe?”
“Hmm. I thought therapists are supposed to listen to everything”
“I could. This is my last session for the day. And you’re paying by the hour, so it’s really up to you.”
“Hmm got it. I’ll skip the thousands of inconsequential creatures that later formed from the ocean. Eventually they evolved into humans.”
“Humans? Just like us?”
“Hmm. It was fascinating. Maybe we are not that special after all. Give it a few billion years and the normal four-base DNA eventually produces us.”
“They were just like us?”
“Not exactly. They were more cartoonish but that’s probably just because my supercomputer wasn’t super enough. It only simulated objects to the atomic level, nothing below that. The silly humans tried splitting atoms and the computer couldn’t take it. It went berserk on that area. They perceived the computer errors as destruction.”
“Interesting. This is what bothers you?”
“Oh no lot of things happened before this. Because they weren’t as smart as us someone had to guide them, right? So I spawned cyber avatars among them that I could control. That is where I interacted with them. Oh and a few times before that when I wiped out most life because I didn’t like them.”
“You created apocalypse on your planet?”
“Yeah, but they were not smart life forms. I didn’t like them.”
“So you killed them.”
“In a way” he said shrugging “not like they were really alive”
“Ok so what happened to the humans.”
“Them I didn’t kill. I liked them because they were like us. I went in, so to speak, to walk among them and guide them. I taught them how to be good.”
“Did it work?”
“It did. But the problem was that they reproduced like crazy and had spread to every nook and cranny of the planet. Give them some land to eat and sleep and they’d populate the hell out of it. And they weren’t advanced enough to communicate with other tribes. So when I taught one big group in one corner the teachings didn’t go out of that territory.”
“What did you do then?”
“Simple. I went in as different avatars on different regions and taught them too. I changed my appearance to match that ethnicity so that they’ll accept me as their own. It worked very well. People were behaving. For a while at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“They developed. And they grew in number. Darn them, they don’t even have a breeding season like other animals. They just… anyway… as they ran out of space they moved around and found that other people were living there already. Now they could have tried to coexist right? But no, they won’t. It was against their rules.”
“The rules that you gave them?”
“Ummm”
“Go on.”
“Thing is. To make them follow my rules without questioning I threatened them that if they didn’t they’ll go to hell, a place where they’ll be burned for their sins. And if they followed them blindly they would go to heaven, a place full of pleasure. It’s not like they’d know after they die that I’d lied.”
“And why would they believe this in the first place?”
“I may have overdone my teaching bit by a bit. I used cheat codes and performed miracles. They had to believe me. In fact they revered me. They called me God’s incarnation, God’s messiah, God’s prophet and so on for each of my avatars.”
“Who is God then, if you were the messenger?”
“Why, me of course. The literal me. Outside. Here. Alive.”
“Like that. Ah!”
“You see the problem now? Each group knows me by different names and different teachings that I gave as per the period I walked there. They didn’t just take my teachings. They created religions around them. And these groups are fighting each other over who’s right, whose God is better. They’re killing each other over who is ‘good’. Hypocrisy killed irony right there. And you should see their leaders. Bunch of clowns. I’m depressed! Several months of experiment and I may have to press the red button on them.”
“You have a red button too?”
“Don’t we all?”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Dev looked dejected “So what’s your diagnosis for my trouble?”
“Let me see… Ah yes, you have… God Complex.”
“Huh?” he blinked, “Is this a joke?”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Oh no, not the F question!”
“Alright, I’ll be frank, Dev. You are trying to control your children. Maybe it’s good that you’re not a real parent yet. You restarted life on your planet whenever it wasn’t going your way and when it did, when evolution resulted in creatures of your image you didn’t like the way they behaved. So you took it in your own hands to guide them. No, to control them, to threaten them with punishment if they disobeyed. If we have learned anything from life it is that good and bad are relative terms and the definition changes with time. What’s good for you may be bad for someone else. What was honourable millennia ago may not be so now. You cannot give them a concrete set of laws to obey forever. They will never progress. You should learn to trust your children, give advice maybe but not order. Let them make mistakes, and grow by learning from it. Be a good parent. Forgive and Forget.”
Dev absorbed all of it for a minute, let it all sink, and then nodded “Thank you! I will consider your advice.”
He walked in utter silence back home, without the map to come out of his thoughts.
Once home he walked straight to the computer that was still running the simulation. He made another avatar and walked amongst his people once more. The condition did not look good. The humans were on the brink of another war. Most of them did not even believe in him anymore. Those who did only prayed to him when they wanted something. Most of the prayers being personal favours or destruction of their enemy. What they did not know what that their enemy was also praying the same, to essentially the same God. Dev did not feel the enthusiasm to preach now. He went to his office. He had an office in every city in the planet. He walked up the make-shift platform with a podium. Instead of a microphone it had a button.
“How can I forgive you when you don’t even ask for forgiveness” he murmured, “But I can forget.”
He pressed the red button which read ‘Delete’. As the world around him collapsed he got logged off from the simulator. The computer’s memory wiped clean. Everything forgotten. It was his tenth avatar.
He couldn’t sleep that night.
“Was it wrong what I did? I just killed billions of people. Did they suffer? Pain must’ve been coded in their gene. Even if only simulation it must feel real to them. When dreaming we feel pain too and it feels real. But, why is that? Our rational mind, at least the part that sees details of the world doesn’t work and the rest of our mind thinks things are real. Even though the world around us looks odd we don’t see the inconsistencies. We think it’s all real. It must be how my people saw their world. They must have cried, prayed in their last moments when they died! They thought it was all really happening. I could see the imperfection as an avatar because I’m from a more complex world than them. Wait a minute… could there be a more complex world than mine? Could it be that I’m a creation of a much more complex mind? Could it be that my God Complex isn’t that complex at all?”
He immediately folded his hands, “Oh Lord, my creator, please forgive me! Don’t destroy me like I destroyed my creations because they didn’t acknowledge me. Was the therapist your way of getting a confession out of me? I should not have been so controlling with my children. Please forgive me God, the Almighty, Lord, Bhagvaan, Bhagawath.”
So I forgave him! 
Across the table sat the psychotherapist with a notepad in her hand. Dev didn’t know if it was the recliner sofa or the beautiful therapist but he felt very comfortable and chatty.
Across the table sat the psychotherapist with a notepad in her hand. Dev didn’t know if it was the recliner sofa or the beautiful therapist but he felt very comfortable and chatty.
“So what has been bothering you Dev?”
“I’m not sure if I should kill or let my people go.”
“Hold on. Let’s start from the beginning shall we? Let’s add some context so I won’t have to go to therapy”
“Sure! So I made an interactive program, right? Kind of like Sims.”
“Oh so it’s a video game. You got me worried there. I was about to push the red button.”
“There’s a red button?”
“Oh don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Go on. So, your video game.”
“It’s not really a video game. Well, it kinda is since we can interact with it at times, but otherwise it’s completely automated.”
“Ah, like the stuff IT people are afraid of.”
“Well no” Dev said amused, “It’s a simulator. I built it just for the heck of it. What I did in it was take a model planet and plant a self-replicating molecule, call it RNA, in the ocean. I wanted to see how it replicates and evolves gradually. It could give some insight into how we developed right?”
“Interesting.”
“Hmm it is, isn’t it?”
“Sorry, you don’t have to pause whenever I comment something. Please go on.”
“Oh okay. So this RNA based life forms didn’t last long and soon DNA and protein based life forms evolved from them which were much more stable and…”
“Can we…” began the therapist but Dev continued, “then planktons released Oxygen into the atmosphere creating an oxygen rich planet for bigger organisms.”
“I’m sorry this time I meant to pause you”
“Oh, do you want me to repeat something? Am I going too fast?”
“No no absolutely not. I interrupted you to ask where the incident that affected you starts. We can skip the details and move there maybe?”
“Hmm. I thought therapists are supposed to listen to everything”
“I could. This is my last session for the day. And you’re paying by the hour, so it’s really up to you.”
“Hmm got it. I’ll skip the thousands of inconsequential creatures that later formed from the ocean. Eventually they evolved into humans.”
“Humans? Just like us?”
“Hmm. It was fascinating. Maybe we are not that special after all. Give it a few billion years and the normal four-base DNA eventually produces us.”
“They were just like us?”
“Not exactly. They were more cartoonish but that’s probably just because my supercomputer wasn’t super enough. It only simulated objects to the atomic level, nothing below that. The silly humans tried splitting atoms and the computer couldn’t take it. It went berserk on that area. They perceived the computer errors as destruction.”
“Interesting. This is what bothers you?”
“Oh no lot of things happened before this. Because they weren’t as smart as us someone had to guide them, right? So I spawned cyber avatars among them that I could control. That is where I interacted with them. Oh and a few times before that when I wiped out most life because I didn’t like them.”
“You created apocalypse on your planet?”
“Yeah, but they were not smart life forms. I didn’t like them.”
“So you killed them.”
“In a way” he said shrugging “not like they were really alive”
“Ok so what happened to the humans.”
“Them I didn’t kill. I liked them because they were like us. I went in, so to speak, to walk among them and guide them. I taught them how to be good.”
“Did it work?”
“It did. But the problem was that they reproduced like crazy and had spread to every nook and cranny of the planet. Give them some land to eat and sleep and they’d populate the hell out of it. And they weren’t advanced enough to communicate with other tribes. So when I taught one big group in one corner the teachings didn’t go out of that territory.”
“What did you do then?”
“Simple. I went in as different avatars on different regions and taught them too. I changed my appearance to match that ethnicity so that they’ll accept me as their own. It worked very well. People were behaving. For a while at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“They developed. And they grew in number. Darn them, they don’t even have a breeding season like other animals. They just… anyway… as they ran out of space they moved around and found that other people were living there already. Now they could have tried to coexist right? But no, they won’t. It was against their rules.”
“The rules that you gave them?”
“Ummm”
“Go on.”
“Thing is. To make them follow my rules without questioning I threatened them that if they didn’t they’ll go to hell, a place where they’ll be burned for their sins. And if they followed them blindly they would go to heaven, a place full of pleasure. It’s not like they’d know after they die that I’d lied.”
“And why would they believe this in the first place?”
“I may have overdone my teaching bit by a bit. I used cheat codes and performed miracles. They had to believe me. In fact they revered me. They called me God’s incarnation, God’s messiah, God’s prophet and so on for each of my avatars.”
“Who is God then, if you were the messenger?”
“Why, me of course. The literal me. Outside. Here. Alive.”
“Like that. Ah!”
“You see the problem now? Each group knows me by different names and different teachings that I gave as per the period I walked there. They didn’t just take my teachings. They created religions around them. And these groups are fighting each other over who’s right, whose God is better. They’re killing each other over who is ‘good’. Hypocrisy killed irony right there. And you should see their leaders. Bunch of clowns. I’m depressed! Several months of experiment and I may have to press the red button on them.”
“You have a red button too?”
“Don’t we all?”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Dev looked dejected “So what’s your diagnosis for my trouble?”
“Let me see… Ah yes, you have… God Complex.”
“Huh?” he blinked, “Is this a joke?”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Oh no, not the F question!”
“Alright, I’ll be frank, Dev. You are trying to control your children. Maybe it’s good that you’re not a real parent yet. You restarted life on your planet whenever it wasn’t going your way and when it did, when evolution resulted in creatures of your image you didn’t like the way they behaved. So you took it in your own hands to guide them. No, to control them, to threaten them with punishment if they disobeyed. If we have learned anything from life it is that good and bad are relative terms and the definition changes with time. What’s good for you may be bad for someone else. What was honourable millennia ago may not be so now. You cannot give them a concrete set of laws to obey forever. They will never progress. You should learn to trust your children, give advice maybe but not order. Let them make mistakes, and grow by learning from it. Be a good parent. Forgive and Forget.”
Dev absorbed all of it for a minute, let it all sink, and then nodded “Thank you! I will consider your advice.”
He walked in utter silence back home, without the map to come out of his thoughtss.
Once home he walked straight to the computer that was still running the simulation. He made another avatar and walked amongst his people once more. The condition did not look good. The humans were on the brink of another war. Most of them did not even believe in him anymore. Those who did only prayed to him when they wanted something. Most of the prayers being personal favours or destruction of their enemy. What they did not know what that their enemy was also praying the same, to essentially the same God. Dev did not feel the enthusiasm to preach now. He went to his office. He had an office in every city in the planet. He walked up the make-shift platform with a podium. Instead of a microphone it had a button.
“How can I forgive you when you don’t even ask for forgiveness” he murmured, “But I can forget.”
He pressed the red button which read ‘Delete’. As the world around him collapsed he got logged off from the simulator. The computer’s memory wiped clean. Everything forgotten. It was his tenth avatar.
He couldn’t sleep that night.
“Was it wrong what I did? I just killed billions of people. Did they suffer? Pain must’ve been coded in their gene. Even if only simulation it must feel real to them. When dreaming we feel pain too and it feels real. But, why is that? Our rational mind, at least the part that sees details of the world doesn’t work and the rest of our mind thinks things are real. Even though the world around us looks odd we don’t see the inconsistencies. We think it’s all real. It must be how my people saw their world. They must have cried, prayed in their last moments when they died! They thought it was all really happening. I could see the imperfection as an avatar because I’m from a more complex world than them. Wait a minute… could there be a more complex world than mine? Could it be that I’m a creation of a much more complex mind? Could it be that my God Complex isn’t that complex at all?”
He immediately folded his hands, “Oh Lord, my creator, please forgive me! Don’t destroy me like I destroyed my creations because they didn’t acknowledge me. Was the therapist your way of getting a confession out of me? I should not have been so controlling with my children. Please forgive me God, the Almighty, Lord, Bhagvaan, Bhagawath.”
So I forgave him!
 |
| Do we forgive our progeny for not being our idea of ‘perfect’? |
