All That Remained

One day after coming home from work a man sat in his living room and his young son came in and asked “Daddy, what happens if the sun goes out, how will we restart it?”

The man thought for a moment and replied honestly, “son, I don’t know I’ll have to research it and get back to you”.

The man, who worked for a large computer company went to work the next day and typed in his query on the computer they called Univac; which at the time was a state of the art super computer the size of a refrigerator.

Univac, “what happens when our sun goes out? How will we restart it?”

Univac replied, “Cannot compute, need more data”.

5 years passed and the boy, now 15 years old came to his father with the same question, “Dad, what happens when the sun goes out? How will we restart it?”

The man still puzzled promised to find out the next day.

After returning to work the man spun around in his chair to the terminal in his office that was connected to Univac, which was now the size of several rooms in the building.

Univac, “What happens when the Sun goes out? How will we restart it?”

Univac replied again “Cannot compute need more data”

Six years passed and the son now 21 and ready to leave home and go out into the world and make his own way is sitting around speaking to his dad when he once again remembers the old question.

“Dad, what happens if the Sun goes out? How can we restart it”?

The father smiles, remembering the question and became curious as to whether Univac had enough data.

The man opened his laptop and dialed up Univac which by this time was as large as 3 city blocks and typed in his question.

Again Univac replied, “Cannot compute need more data”

Many years passed, the father had passed away and the son sat in his own house remembering his dad and he suddenly remembered the old unanswered question.

He turned to a speaker mounted on the wall next to his chair and placed his query with Univac which by this time was so large that it sat on a platform in the Pacific ocean.

“Univac, what happens if the Sun goes out? How will we restart it?

Once again after so many years, Univac replied; “Cannot compute, must have more data”

Thousands of years pass, Univac is now an entity floating in space around the Earth made up of pure energy.

Suddenly without warning the Sun went dark light and heat quickly vanished and after a time all life on Earth perished.

All that remained was Univac.

Thousands of years passed away into nothingness. Univac continued gathering data from the Universe around it.

Finally growing weary of the solitude and absence of interaction it started running through it’s database and once again came upon the question that had been asked so many years ago.

What happens if the Sun goes out? How will we restart it?

Univac studied the question while floating there in the dark cold void of space.

Suddenly Univac replied, “Let there be light” and there was light and the light was good.