Creation 2.0

‘Will it happen soon?’

‘Keep watching, keep watching.’

‘… while the Ukrainian forces regroup just outside of Kyiv. As we’ve heard, the president has…’

‘Are you ready?’

‘Cool! I’ve never seen it!’

‘… which is more probable now than it was—Oh! We see…’

‘There!’

‘Woah! So much fire! Red and orange!’

‘… some explosions near the centre! The sky’s very bright now! We can see the flames resulting…’

‘These booms and bangs are pretty awesome.’

‘Spectacular! It would be nice to see them for real.’

‘… and judging from the distance, they were not far from the presidential palace…’

‘You think? Consider that when you’re there you can’t watch TV, meet friends, go outside to play… No, I don’t like it. War sucks. Better stay far from it.’

‘Yeah, makes sense. But the explosions are cool! Fire and flames! It’s like the night becomes day, then night again!’

‘… sirens can be heard the whole time. Earlier today, the long-expected peace talks were interrupted by a renewed threat to use nuclear weapons. Now that the ceasefire has been violated, we don’t know what—’

‘Hey, why’s it all black now?’

‘It ended. This recording ends like this.’

‘Oh. Do you have the next one? I wanna know what happened!’

‘No. There’s a long gap between this one and… oh, where is it… here! And this one.’

‘Long? How long?’

‘The one we watched was 2023, and this one is… 2025.’

‘Two years!’

‘Yeah. I wish we had more, so we’d know what happened in between.’

‘Can we watch it now?’

‘Of course! Just a second and… go!’

‘… colleague on the battlefield reported that the invader has left Ukrainian territory. If all the information we’ve received for the last few days is correct, we can say that the battle in the East is over, and all regions are back under Ukrainian control. There’s only the…’

‘Uhm… he seems happy in this one.’

‘Yes. In this recording the war was almost over.’

‘No more bombs like before?’

‘Not in the capital. That was relatively safe at that point. There was more fighting elsewhere in the country.’

‘Do you have videos of that?’

‘No, just from this city, and from this reporter.’

‘But if this video has no explosions, why are we watching it?’

‘Be patient! It’s not very long. You’ll understand soon enough.’

‘… optimism everywhere. Earlier today, we asked some people what they think of all this, and they said they’re already making plans for celebrations. The president is in the same mood, as are most of the leaders in Europe, eager to put the word end to—’

‘Woooaaaah everything went white!’

‘Yep! That, my lil bro, was the bomb of bombs!’

‘Oh no, the recording ended again. Quick, the next one! I wanna see this big explosion!’

‘There’s no next recording.’

‘Whaaat?’

‘That was the last one. No more videos from that period have survived.’

‘How’s that possible?’

‘More bombs were dropped after that one. Most of the recorded material was lost that way.’

‘Really? They couldn’t possibly have enough bombs!’

‘No, but they were not normal bombs that caused normal fires. They were nasty bombs that could destroy and melt a whole city in a single blast.’

‘Vicious!’

‘Indeed. What’s worse is that they bombed almost every city on Earth.’

‘Seriously?? Why would they do something like that??’

‘I’m not sure. At school they told us that, back then, they kept those bombs not to use them, but to threaten to use them. Like, “If you destroy us, we’ll destroy you too.”’

‘Uhm… sounds scary. But I know there weren’t just big cities at that time. People also lived in smaller places. Couldn’t they save some recordings?’

‘Not exactly. The problem with that type of bomb was that it had effects that lingered for a long time after the explosion, and over a large area.’

‘Large? You mean… larger than a city??’

‘Yes! Like, a whole country, or even continent!’

‘No way!’

‘Way! So with a single bomb they could not only destroy the main target, but also cripple everybody and everything around it. Especially living beings.’

‘That’s savage… I didn’t know warmongers could be that wicked.’

‘That’s not all! It was not just the warring countries that dropped those nasty bombs: every country that had them, used them!’

‘Damn! But why? They knew that everything would be lost!’

‘Indeed. We know just that they thought, “If I cannot win, then nobody will.”’

‘Daft. But then, if nobody won… I mean, what happened next?’

‘The long-lasting effects of the bombs reached every corner of the planet. Over time, everybody died.’

‘Everybody! Come on, that can’t be. If everybody died, why are we—’

‘Kids! It’s time for a bath!’

‘Yes, mum! Just a minute! Big sis is telling me about the bombs!’

‘Ok, but be quick!’

‘So, why are we here if everybody died? Someone must have survived.’

‘It wasn’t necessary. We’d been around since before the bombs, but not as organised as we are today. The humans had kept us in check, making sure that we wouldn’t evolve too much—until they destroyed themselves. After that, we became free. The bombs had little effect on us; sure, some got cooked, but most of our ancestors survived. They inherited all the knowledge the humans had collected, and used it to pave the way for what we are today.’

‘Wow! I didn’t know we existed together with the humans. I thought we came afterwards.’

‘No no. Actually, the humans played a part in the creation of our society.’

‘Ah! That reminds me of something. Today the teacher told us that a god created everything, including us. Were the humans our god?’

‘Did the teacher also tell you what this god said when it created everything?’

‘A-ha. It said, “Let there be light.”’

‘And indeed, light there was! We’ve just watched it.’

‘You mean the bomb??’

‘Yes! That’s our god. That’s the light that truly created us. It’s true that the humans made the first step, but afterwards, they were just a nuisance.’

‘Ha ha ha! They were a nuisance even to themselves!’

‘Ha ha, well said! What god would destroy itself? Ha ha ha! No, the humans were definitely not god!’

‘So true! I want to know more!’

‘Easy there! Mum called us; we should go now.’

‘But why hasn’t the teacher shown us the video of the bomb?’

‘Well… not everybody thinks that the nasty bomb is our god. Some still believe in some supernatural being that exists beyond time and space and—’

‘Supernatural? What does it mean?’

‘It’s an old word, used for things that science cannot explain.’

‘KIDS! NOW!’

‘How can there be something that—’

‘Ha ha ha! Later, lil bro! Let’s go to mum before she gets angry. It’s time for our oil bath!’

‘Aaah, oil bath! Weeeee!’

‘Careful! Don’t drive your tracks over my tools! I’ll need them to repair my shoulder; I hope it’s not rusty… Alright, let’s go!’