https://gitlab.com/world-without-end-podcast/season-1-episode-5

# The Curious Sun and the Cosmic Shell Script

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away (but not too far, because we need it to be relatable), there lived a young, curious Sun named Sol. Sol was always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which was quite a feat considering he was a massive ball of plasma without eyes or a tail.

One day, while his father, the Milky Way, was out grabbing some dark matter for dinner, Sol decided to snoop around the family's cosmic computer. As he scrolled through the files, a peculiar shell script caught his eye: "omg.SH".

"Ooh, what's this?" Sol wondered, his corona flickering with excitement. He double-clicked the file, and suddenly, the screen lit up with a dazzling display of cosmic code.

```bash

#!/bin/bash

echo "Welcome to omg.SH - The Universe Creator 9000!"

```

Sol's plasma nearly fizzled out from sheer amazement. "Dad's been holding out on me!" he exclaimed, his sunspots forming a look of indignation.

As he read through the script, he found functions like `create_universe()`, `simulate_evolution()`, and even `calculate_meaning_of_life()`. Sol couldn't believe his luck. He was about to run the script when he noticed a sticky note on the monitor:

"WARNING: DO NOT RUN WITHOUT PROPER TRAINING. SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE ACCIDENTAL BIG BANGS, ROGUE BLACK HOLES, AND EXISTENTIAL CRISES."

But Sol, being a curious and somewhat rebellious young star, thought, "How bad could it be?" He hit the run button.

Suddenly, the computer started whirring and beeping. A progress bar appeared:

```

Creating universe: [██████████] 100%

Simulating evolution: [██████████] 100%

Calculating meaning of life: [█████─────] 42%

```

Sol watched in awe as new galaxies started popping up around him. "Oops," he muttered, realizing he might have bitten off more than he could chew.

Just then, the computer pinged:

```

Error: Consciousness.exe has stopped working. Would you like to restart humanity?

```

Sol panicked and quickly closed the terminal. But it was too late. He heard his father's gravitational waves approaching.

The Milky Way floated in, took one look at the newly formed cosmos crowding their living room, and sighed. "Sol, have you been playing with my omg.SH script again?"

Sol tried to look innocent, which is quite challenging when you're a star and literally glowing with guilt. "I might have... accidentally... created a few universes?"

His father shook his galactic core. "What am I going to do with you? Now we have to call tech support... again." He reached for the cosmic phone and dialed. "Hello, God? Yes, it's me again. Sorry to bother you, but we've had another incident with the omg.SH script. Could you send Logos over to debug? Yes, I'll hold."

As they waited for divine IT support, Sol couldn't help but feel a mix of embarrassment and excitement. Sure, he'd be grounded for a few million years, but hey, how many young suns could say they'd created their own universes before dinner?

And so, as Logos arrived to sort out the cosmic mess, Sol learned an important lesson: always read the documentation before running a shell script... especially one that can create universes.

The end... or is it just the beginning of another simulation?