“Your soul for
immortality.”
Deal or No Deal* #quote
Been playing a new game I got. Decided not to go to that video game
tournament. It's fairly far away, and I'm not sure I'll do well
enough. (Winning ain't everything, but getting clobbered is boring.)
Anyway onto the flash fiction!
Digital Ant Farm
The program Akira made was simple. A little thing he maintained on
the computer for fun while he worked for a colossal Tokyo tech
company. He programmed ants to move about in a simulation back and
forth in various patterns in tunnels based on equations or whatever
else he programmed in. Sometimes if you squinted you could see the
shape of a cat, or a bowl of rice, or a car. Though many times the
patterns showed up to be much simpler, like boxes or circles.
During his breaks to calm down he often stared at the little
patterns he made. He envied the little ants. Programmed, they didn't
quite have the same pressure that a worker like he had. Akira wished
that he didn't have to think while he worked on some days like a
program and just go about the day. On one particularly dreary day he
mumbled in Japanese to the ants, “At least your content.” He
couldn't say happy, since certainly his little program couldn't feel
much.
Akira left his program on after a break on some rainy winter Tuesday
and since everyone got tired of looking at the pounding rain on the
windows they looked at the program. It became quite popular around
the office quite fast and all the employees asked for a copy. Akira
felt delighted that his little ant farm felt so loved by his
coworked. He eventually started programming their names to pop up as
some of the patterns that the ants made.
His boss quickly took note of all the strange ants appearing on all
the computers in the office. Many employers would yell at their
employees when they saw them all putting some program on their
computers. However he got into his position because he knew how to
make money. He asked the employees what the program was. When he
learned that Akira made it he smelled money.
His boss said to him in the most approachable voice he ever had
since Akira started working for him, “About your ant farm
program...”
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