The Great Knowing
And there was a time when we had solved our last mystery, when the nature of everything we have ever wondered about was exploited.
People danced for this last discovery, celebrated, thinking that with such a divine understanding, there would be peace. There would be happiness.
When the celebrations died down, and they became bored, they began to worry. There was nothing new to turn to. Science had become the foundation of common sense. Every possible stroke and combination of paint had been laid. Every word had been used in every sequence.
Despair quickly ensued. This enigma had given meaning to their lives, had pushed them on. Suicide rates soared. Masochism is always reliable when there is nothing left to kill off a species.
One day, an ordinary man witnessed a baby being bored. “This is beautiful,” he said, and it was. “He knows nothing of the world we know, he is not bound by this terrible knowledge of all things. He is free.”
The man ran to all the schools and took them down, burned the books and sent the teachers home. “All things must ebb and flow,” he said.
And thus began The Great Forgetting.