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The Egg



easynow

New member
Mar 17, 2013
2,039
jakarta
The Egg
By: Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”


“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.
 




Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,876
Worthing
So what happens then ?

Does it get fried or boiled ?
 










bhafc99

Well-known member
Oct 14, 2003
7,085
Dubai
My head's pretty scrambled after that.
 




jgmcdee

New member
Mar 25, 2012
931
I was trying to get the point of this, then realise that if the universe is an egg it doesn't have a point.
 






glasfryn

cleaning up cat sick
Nov 29, 2005
20,261
somewhere in Eastbourne
thought provoking
 


Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Apr 30, 2013
13,783
Herts
thought provoking

Sorry, but it's bollox, isn't it?

"Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born."

This is clearly impossible. In this life, he will live alongside say 7 Bn others. In his next life he will similarly live alongside a different 7 Bn. When's he ever going to catch up?!

Nope, either the whole story is bogus claptrap, or the "God" in the story is on a serious wind-up and the protagonist is too stupid to figure it out.
 




Coach_Carter_92

Active member
Apr 25, 2013
663
Home
Sorry, but it's bollox, isn't it?

"Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born."

This is clearly impossible. In this life, he will live alongside say 7 Bn others. In his next life he will similarly live alongside a different 7 Bn. When's he ever going to catch up?!

Nope, either the whole story is bogus claptrap, or the "God" in the story is on a serious wind-up and the protagonist is too stupid to figure it out.

Read it again, he is all 7bn people simultaneously, he just doesn't realize it. Although it would take a long time, granted...
 


Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Apr 30, 2013
13,783
Herts
Read it again, he is all 7bn people simultaneously, he just doesn't realize it. Although it would take a long time, granted...

Aye; you're right. Although.....is he simultaneously all people or are all the others people who he either has been or will be? If the former, then it will merely take nearly forever to get to the end; if the latter, it's a logical impossibility.
 


The Antikythera Mechanism

The oldest known computer
NSC Patron
Aug 7, 2003
7,795
On average, there are currently 358,192 births and 154,889 deaths a day, every day. As there are are 86,400 seconds in a day, God is having the above "death chat" 1.8 times each second with the same entity whilst reincarnating him/her 4.1 times a second. So that's chatting to and reincarnating the same person 6 times a second continuously 24/7, 365 days a year forever. Yeah right.......
 








Coach_Carter_92

Active member
Apr 25, 2013
663
Home
Aye; you're right. Although.....is he simultaneously all people or are all the others people who he either has been or will be? If the former, then it will merely take nearly forever to get to the end; if the latter, it's a logical impossibility.

I think it depends on your own viewpoint, because it could be one or the other; both, neither. IMO it's a good read, thought provoking stuff.
 


Coach_Carter_92

Active member
Apr 25, 2013
663
Home
As conscious beings who experiences time in this way, it's easy to subscribe to the idea of Newtonian time in that time behaves in a linear and deterministic way, independent from the observer - but since Einsteins theory of relativity it's been realised that time is relative to the observer, so it depends on where you are and how you move relative to others - there is no such thing as universal time.

Basically what I'm saying is that this hypothetical exchange with God with all people who have ever lived, and will ever live, could happen in an instant, relative to the time you are experiencing. As a philosophical hypothesis, it's perfectly plausible.

Good point. Using this theory, for all we know we could already be a god, although our mortal bodies don't realize it as our bodies haven't died yet in this version of time and reality.
 




Papa Lazarou

Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
Jul 7, 2003
18,858
Worthing
Or it could be a load of wish fulfilling tosh
 




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