What a Bleak Void

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The soft hum of a machine at work. The blinding light of a computer screen. The click of a mouse. A depression sets in as the last of my friends logs off. No, that’s not quite right. The depression setting in only coincides with the logging off, it is not caused by it. It happened every day - that numb feeling of realizing my incompetence as a person - my incapability of functioning properly, my inability to follow my goals, the laziness, the sloth.

Sometimes I ask myself, “Why do I smile?” I figure it’s merely because of some chemicals released in the brain. What a depressing outlook I sat there with, leaning back in my chair, alone, with those purple bags under my eyes. Sometimes instead of sitting there wondering about the same stupid questions every other lonely b*****d thinks, I would ponder my existence. Huh. Lonely b******s probably ponder that too.

But I mean, it’s strange, isn’t it? Billions of hairless apes living in electric cities powered by the skeletons of giant dead lizards on a planet in the middle of an otherwise lifeless void. A metaphorical shining star, an infinitely impossible chance managing to exist, to survive, to stand despite all odds. To see it more clearly, let’s start from the beginning. Those apes, existing for a mere fraction of the lifespan of the void they are engulfed by, an impossible creation on an impossible planet, light fire. They harvest and kill other creatures on that planet. They make huts, houses, villas, which add up and slowly transform into bustling cities, thriving metropolises.

They harness the powers of other creatures, riding on horses, each communicating with vocal cords they had evolved, and making a new friend - man’s best friend. But life isn’t all flower fields - there are conflicts. Men riding on horses slaughter one another, fighting for territory of their self-governed states. They murder one another, mass murder animals for food, and die from natural disasters - fire spouting from mountains of stone and dirt, smoke spreading across the land, the ground rumbling.

Yet somehow, finally, they find some way of peace - they protect one another to an extent, fighting diseases and riding across the land on rolling metal horses, flying across the sky on giant metal birds. They tentatively reach into space, spreading their small hands into the void that surrounds them to find some hope that... Hope that, what? Hope that they aren’t alone? No. They hope to find that there is something still, something that remains. Something to discover, something new to attempt to understand. Their futile attempts get them to the moon. Where next?

No matter how cold, dark, and terrifying the vastness of empty space can be, there is always one place quite colder. It functions as both humanities’ greatest flaw and greatest strength. And it was known by many names across many different tongues spoken by these hairless apes. It was the human mind.