The Conclusion

Rohan was on his way home that rainy night. It was an accident that he became an assistant to one of the greatest scientists of his generation- Aayod Kriyamani. Their work ended up late at night and he had to take out an umbrella and walk home. Traffic on the road was too much, given that it was Sunday evening. There were no holidays for assistants, especially the ones who worked on one of the biggest projects of millennia.

I shall not say that Rohan's fate was tied in my hands and I could really help him get the taxi, but I didn't help him. Though, I was amazed to see that as he was standing by the tree, he got a call from Kriyamani.

"Rohan, I want you to come back and see this immediately!" His voice was shocked and disturbed. Kriyamani was not asking Rohan to come back. He ordered him in the horror.

Rohan was tired. But Kriyamani's trembling and horse voice told him that something was fishy. There was something scary and he had to be there at any cost. In that rain and traffic, he ran to his laboratory.

Around fifteen minutes later, when he walked into the laboratory with heavy breaths, he saw Kriyamani's back.

Thrashing the door open, Rohan gasped, "What... What happened?"

Kriyamani whispered, without turning his face, "The last question... The last question has been found..." Then he saw Rohan in the reflection of the screen in front of him. He faced Rohan's shocked expression. Even I was surprised to see that he had found it. But I don't really know what was it. I was about to find out what would happen next. In fact, I had to be attentive. Because I knew the consequences of everything.

"How?" Rohan slowly walked towards Kriyamani. He was standing in the middle of large wires and computers. An astounding number of computers and machines surrounded the laboratory. Of course, it was the project of millennia. It was an attempt to understand the future; It was an attempt to understand the meaning of life.

"I ran the program. I let the computer choose what to do. I mean," Kriyamani's tears flowed through his cheeks, but still, he tried to maintain a clear voice, "I know I wasn't meant to. But I had to. Something inside told me that this was the time."

Rohan trembled and felt like his knees lost their powers and he sat down on the chair next to him. There were machines that run numbers. Machines that run codes. The speed of machines was miles ahead of human understanding. Yet, the computer displayed,

Fifty-percent. Two hours more.

"Do you know what worries and excites me?" Rohan continued, "The greatest computer in the world takes two more hours to get a hundred percent answer to arrive at the meaning of life. Humans? I don't know. We took thousands of years to get to the question."

On the outskirts of their laboratory, there was barren land. Kriyamani had insisted no one be around the laboratory. It needed to be very quiet. A computer of almost eighteen floors must be left alone from the other world. And, on those eighteen floors, there stood only two people who were waiting to get the answer.

Thirty minutes went by. I stood as patiently as they stood. I was as eager as they were eager. But in fairness, their excitement outwitted mine. Because I always watched them. And they didn't know this. I watched them this whole time. Ever since Kriyamani started building this magnificent computer. When this was started, I knew there would be something worth noting. And I began observing them all the time. I had to because this was the only thing that excited me.

"Thirty minutes are gone," Rohan watched his clock, "Do you think we should upload this on social media?"

"Social media? No. Computers wouldn't like it."

"Computers?"

"Yes. You see, it was not me who came up with the question. It was another computer. Your computer."

Rohan opened his bag and saw that the laptop he carried was not his laptop. Kriyamani pointed his figure towards the corner of the room, where there were wires attached to the big boxes that filled the entire room, going through many floors of the eighteen-floured computer, ultimately, towards the big screen that displayed,

Sixty percent. One and half hours more.

Rohan angrily stroked Kriyamani, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? I SPENT MY ENTIRE CAREER BUILDING THAT COMPUTER. YOU HAD NO RIGHT OF TAKING IT FROM ME!" His eyes went red and he almost charged Kriyamani.

"I know how hard have you worked on this. But I required a compelling computer to ask the right question. I needed a computer that impersonated his master. I needed your computer to make the right question and it did. Now stop condescending and see carefully." Now Kriyamani was in charge of the state of tension in the room. Rohan fell back upon learning that everything his machine learned, everything that he made his machine learn; now it asked the question that shall shape the understanding of the universe.

"What was the question?" Rohan asked silently, apologies in his eyes.

In that heavy rain, I was amazed by the answer of Kriyamani. It was of a kind that made my interest arouse to the magnitudes of infinity. This was perhaps the most sophisticated answer that made me get interested in human nature in a very long time... in a very very long time...

Kriyamani seemed lost into thoughts. "What was the question, Sir?" Rohan asked again, looking outside the rain that was in no sign of stopping. Kriyamani replied rather sighing, "The computer asked the other that how would you know if a human loved you or not?" He again heaved a sigh.

"I never thought about that." Rohan closed his eyes with his palms, "I never thought a computer would ask this question to another computer. A kind of turing test for computer I suppose. But isn't it interesting? Isn't it amusing that this is a kind of turing test that would recognize a human from himself..."

"A turing test for a human being. How would a computer know if a human really loved him or not?" Kriyamani looked at the computer screen and replied, "Feels like a valid question that needs to be answered. Is love the meaning of life? Can't we ask it? What do we even know about what to ask?" He turned his back again to Rohan, "Yes. All these questions Rohan; all these questions haunted me. Hence I let the computer ask it."

Seventy eight percent, Forty five minutes more.

There I felt the meaning of joy. A joy that brought slight exciting smile over my face. Love, after all, was the thing that always haunted human nature. How would you tell if you're loved or not? How would a computer answer! Fascinating... If answer to this question would lead to answer to the meaning of everything, I would win my bet. A bet of the century, the conclusion of which is long awaited for thousands of years...

"We're close to it, Rohan"

"More than just computer. In this final moment, I really wish that I was unknown to the final question and ultimate answer of everything." Though, he was almost inaudible even to himself. On the outside, rain was getting more and more heavy. Thunders clapped to the final moments of ultimate answer. Now the wait would be over. After thousands of years, Earth would hear the ultimate answer to the final question. For a very long time, the message was stopped at ninety nine percent, five minutes more to go. But then it appeared,

Ninety nine percent, sixty seconds more to go.

"Finally," Rohan closed his eyes briefly, "I don't know... I..." He couldn't finish his sentence. A cold air shuddered him. A cold breeze on already stumbled mind. But then Kriyamani helped him finish the sentence, "... feel something very close to being numb. Is it?"

"Yes... precisely."

"Never worry. Oh look, five more seconds!" The rain grew more dense and a thunder hit directly over the areas of building, but yet, Kriyamani, Rohan didn't move a nerve. Their eyes and hearts were fixed on the screen.

A message had come.

The answer has been found.

I tried to not believe on what my eyes just saw. Both of them were in a state... well as precisely said by Kriyamani, there were very close to what they called, being numb. But here I was... I saw... Yes, I had won the bet of the centuries! An answer my mind didn't believe was there. Was there... found correctly...

The computer screen displayed-

Not truth; nor shall the question was meant to be there. . .

"Meant to?" Rohan wondered with amazement, "What does it even mean to a computer?"

Epilogue

When the answer displayed on computer screen, I jumped. I screamed to the top of my lungs. I was joyed by all the journey I had to go through to see this on screen. It displayed. It opened up the doors to the meaning of life. Everything was quantified, yet much left undone. Perhaps humans would take more time to arrive at the one equation that explains everything from string theory to the big bang. Everything under a one short equation.

But, power of language held superior. Language had always been the greatest invention of human kind. Indeed the mathematics was the language of universe. But it is of no use, if it doesn't communicate. At last, I won my bet. My program won. A world where language override the equation. Tomorrow will be the day of glory in the world when I show the result of my creation... An earth that found the answer to the ultimate question by words. Now, may be I can get my answer to the meaning of life afterall.