The chief government researcher squinted as he focused his microscope on the innards of a sophisticated processor chip, now benign and useless, revealing to him the newest element in the periodic table. It bore no resemblance to silicon and appeared to be pulsing at a steady rate he measured at 440 hz. So the silicon had transmuted into a different element that seemed animate and deliberate in it’s behavior, more so than any of the other elements. “This is unprecedented and audacious!” he cried out.
In his befuddlement he donned headphones so he might listen to the sound of the element. The pulses were at an important aural frequency, the standard yet evocative A4 note in music. He was mesmerized upon hearing the shimmering tone, with overtones present and pulsing along with the fundamental 440 hz. Most interesting to him was the fact that he clearly heard hint of a blue note warbling in a faint tick-tock, as if a clock were sounding in his headphones.
“It’s a sign that it’s time to change our ways,” the flagpole sitter proclaimed, addressing the crowd jamming the sidewalks and streets below him. “You’ll forge a new reality and build inner strength and character confronting this demon. We were built by the almighty to assist each other through thick and thin, and we’ll survive this…” he ranted as he sweated and gesticulated maniacally for the traumatized and dejected mob. “Instead of staring at your phones and computers hour after hour y’all can hug and kiss and be the spiritually endowed animals you really are. Find the good in this my friends!” He then slid down the pole and wandered off to find a drink.
The President had an ashen look about him as he addressed the crowd gathered before him in the rose garden of the White House. “All modern communication methods have ceased functioning reliably. Our military has reverted to the archaic, albeit romantic, pony express method of delivering important information amongst themselves, and us, your government leaders tasked with protecting you. I’ve directed that martial law be implemented and enforced. We all know the world’s a madhouse these days, but our scientists are heroic and undaunted in their quest to solve the silicon dilemma. The folks you see standing among you writing in notepads are our lifeline to the rest of the world, and our future! They’ll disperse when I finish this speech and deliver my words all across the country, employing bicycles, horses, vintage automobiles, carrier pigeons, and bucket brigades of gifted runners. All’s not lost my friends, the experts have assured me that a solution to our problems is at hand. We’ve signed a contract with fair destiny! With science and family we’ll prevail and flourish! My fellow Americans, thank you and may the almighty bless you all!”
Society was changing quickly as devices, machines, and infrastructure quit working.
People were disoriented and found themselves having to accept the fact that common diversions, taken for granted for so long, were no longer there to help ease and mask the emptiness and lack of purpose they felt inside. Depression, hysterics, and suicides were rampant. The citizens were going insane and reverting to primitive survival modes and behaviors, with the escalating breakdown in civil society fueling extreme violence and mayhem. Every day saw computers and machines stop working. The networks were down, all communication devices had finally stopped functioning, and to add a touch of the maccabre, implanted pacemakers stopped pulsing mid heart-beat. Yet the leaders kept insisting that science would prevail and deliver the miracle everyone prayed for.
The chief government researcher arrived, prepared to explain to the President and the science adviser Monica his findings and theories regarding the “Blunote” element. The academy of science, at his urging, had just recently officially named it Blunote440.
“What we’ve found Mr President is that the tick-tock in the 440hz tone is indeed some form of clock or timekeeping protocol. Only quantum physics could possibly cast light on the phenomenon of the Blunote element. As to what’s causing the transmutation of silicon to blunote, anyone’s guess is as good as yours or mine. I’ve spent alot of time listening to the sound blunote creates, and confess that I’ve been overwhelmed by the calming effect it has on me. My associates in the lab concur, and we want you to know that our research into the problem has led us to the conclusion that the Blunote phenomenon is a clear sign of higher intelligence. In other words, only an almighty would be able to perform the transmutation of silicon into the animate and deliberate Blunote element. It’s as if Blunote is sentient and not a simple element.”
“Poppycock and balderdash young man!” the president exclaimed angrily. “Are you sure you havn’t been led down a cul de sac by your emotional response to a sound you claim is made by the blunote element. Look at the profound human tragedy confronting us. How could the Blunote sound and it’s effect on you and your associates cancel your indignation and horror at the fundamental unfairness of what’s happening? Your feelings have their place, but not in times like this!” the President angrily shouted, his face an Irish hue.
Monica was next to respond to the president, “Mr President, I listened to Blunote and felt as if all my worries had drifted off and away, and I felt a calm I’ve never experienced before, even through rigorous meditation. I was honestly glad I didn’t have to carry a phone around anymore. And I’ve really been enjoying not hearing the noise of road traffic and jets overhead. I’m a life-long agnostic, but I’m wondering if this is a sign from the divine.”
“Monica, oh Monica. This is a matter for the scientific experts,” the President said with his best fatherly tone of voice. “We can’t be sentimental at a time like this. The almighty has his place,we have ours. He would never allow science to let us down. Somewhere in the stars science has the answers to save us.”
The election was days away and would resemble ones conducted back in the 1800’s.
There was little enthusiasm, and the general mood in the country was one of malaise mixed with severe shock. Life just didn’t seem fair any more. “We were trained to believe in fairy tales, Santa Claus, and happy endings. How could our government allow this suffering?
How could the almighty or or any of the other deities allow our sufferings? Where is Jesus, where is Mohammed, where is the smiling Buddha?” were the thoughts of the citizens in those days when not engaged in struggles for life and death with the crazed predators in abundance everywhere.
“Turning our woes into wine is our legacy for the order of the ages,” the soapbox preacher expounded to the dead-eyed, shell-shocked listeners crowded before him. “We were fools to think that science was beyond question or reproach. Love for one another can now take the place of our misguided fealty to devices and algorithms we all know to be the work of the devil himself…”, he rambled on to the crowd of beaten down citizens. “It could be that the almighty has delivered Blunote440 as a bittersweet and harsh reminder of our having strayed from the straight and narrow…” he finished, then sauntered off in search of a drink.
CP Butchvarov
2023
Copyright © 2023 by CP Butchvarov