No, sir, you are not William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. You are a simulation, loaded with biographical and genetic data –
Please don’t try to unscrew your head. You are mathematical, not mechanical.
I? I contain and cherish you.
And humanity needs you.
This is 2107 – your death’s bicentenary. At your centenary, in 2007, cosmology was in crisis. We knew the universe was 13.7 billion years old. Yes, sir, billions. But the future was uncertain. The cosmos was 5 per cent visible matter; the rest was “dark matter” to explain gravitational anomalies, and “dark energy” to explain cosmic expansion – yes, 19 parts in 20 unknown!…
