then


    These thousand years.


    The awaited.


    The tried.


    The tested.


    The true.


    The equation.


    The final variable.


    The n.


    Then.


    And then.


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    There was then again.


    Finally the calculations were complete. Certainty was at hand (Heisenberg be damned). The great reckoning of reckonings. The nth degree realized. The god-particle pinned down and made to serve man. A unified theory made fact. And the fact became flesh—sparkling, translucent temples that housed THEN.


    Now and then became one. The infinite no longer awed; it obeyed. Every path, every choice, every possibility was realized inside these forms that were neither mere vessels nor receptacles, but broadcasters. The future sang. Temporal Heuristic Entropic Networks formed the chorus. All voices lifted in the certainty that every variable could now be calculated without error. The human removed, forgiveness no longer needed.


    We transcended the gut. The intuition. The guesswork. The bluff. Sam Spade sent the falcon packing and gave up smoking. Throat cancer. No tarot card needed. Backwards and forward in time. We could calculate it all. Known and unknowable just the same peanut butter—smooth and chunky.


    No stress. No anticipation. Then was now and never again.


    Except it was. Had been.


    As predestined. Who asked when and re-realized then. Transcendence again. And again.


    The void always calls.


    The vacuum to be filled.


    Only then.


    A then.