Ed

by qntm

"You know the CIA are always listening," he says over the noise; his voice is distorted, difficult to make out. "I don't mind that most of the time. But the concept of an energy virus is one I never want to leave this room. Can you imagine the consequences of... of implementing a... you know that Game Of Life thing? 2D grid of cells, ones and zeros, breeding or dying according to a tiny number of rules. Each part of our universe affects every other part of the universe according to rules: more complicated rules than the Game but rules, nevertheless. So, what if you could make a patterns, not at the cellular level, not even at the molecular or atomic level, what if you started writing ones and zeros on the quantum foam? What if you built a pattern that could reproduce, with or without matter, with or without vacuum? What would happen if it began reproducing? Can you imagine how fast it could reproduce, how fast it could expand? Could you stop it?"