|1-The Jones Computers On a parallel Earth, in the middle of the summer 1872, a schoolboy named Matthew Jones was beginning to feel bored because he was so hopeless at maths. Suddenly, he had an idea. He would construct a computer for himself! The computer, named JCom/1, was the first in a series of Jones Computers, and also the first computer in the world. Although it had no display, just hundreds of LEDs, and no keyboard, just thousands of switches, many people bought themselves a JCom/1. It helped them to add together, or subtract, twelve-digit numbers, and divide and multiple seven-digit numbers. Its creator, Matthew Jones, even gave it a very though test: It was ordered to calculate the length of the moon's edge in micrometres in each of the moon's phases. Decades passed by, and Matthew's grandson, Maximillian Jones was bored of his JCom/1. He was only six years old, and wanted to play games, not read out hundreds of boring old LEDs! So, a decade and a half later, when he went to university in winter 1924, he drew some plans about JCom/1's successor, the JCom/2. When constructed later in the 1920's, it had four-colour medium-resolution graphics, 16 different beep sounds, and most important, a keyboard! No longer was Maximillian required to flip thousands of confusing and plain uninteresting switches. Although Maximillian Jones was unable to feel his childhood's passion for games any more, he still gave a JCom/2 to all of his nephews and watched them play "Guess the Number". After his nephews had gone to sleep, Maximillian read his grandfather's diary and thought about the test his JCom/1 was put to. Maximillian put his own JCom/2 to the same test. It was far easier than when using a JCom/1. When the second Parallel World War had gone away in 1951, Maximillian's son Marcus Jones was confused. There were so many utilities and games for the JCom/2 which required either a memory add-on, an audio/video adapter, or both. The JCom/2 was no longer able to meet the needs of the world's standards. Automaticy was the word in many styles in the world. Cars no longer required manual swing-up ignition, bus tickets were cancelled by a machine rather than a slow, forgetful cancelling officer, and experimental credit cards flooded the financial life. The JCom/2, with its all-keyboard input and manual-operated cassette drive, was too difficult for the modern Marcus Jones to use. So, Marcus gave up his free time to build the JCom/2's successor, the JCom/3. When it first was set on sale, the JCom/3 featured self-booting easy-to-use disks, 64-colour high-resolution graphics, and most important, a mouse and a joystick! No longer was Marcus needed to enter complicated strings on the confusing QWERTY keyboard. Interestingly, about the same time as Marcus entered the moon's edge test into his JCom/3, his father's JCom/2 finally gave out the last printout of the same test. Marcus felt a bit disappointed about his creation, because his father's old JCom/2 had already given the solution to the problem his brand new JCom/3 was just about to begin solving. In 1992, Marcus's grandson Mario Jones's new JCom/4 was sold to the Jones university. It was there to calculate very complicated mathematical operations, such as the sines and cosines of forty-digit numbers, or pi to half a million decimals. It also carried out the moon's edge test in half an hour. Mario Jones went home with $250.000 in his pocket, only to find his grandfather playing around with the twenty-year-old printouts of his JCom/3's moon's edge test. Mario laughed when he read the papers. "Listen to this, grandpa", he said, "it says that the JCom/1 in the Matthew Jones Foundation has just finished the moon's edge test. Chief programmers are about to decipher the stapled-paper printouts." Marcus Jones croaked with laughter when he thought that if Maximillian's JCom/2 was slow, the JCom/1 was slow as a one-toed sloth! The most interesting period started in 2030. When the JCom/5 solved the moon's edge test in two seconds, its artificial intelligence told it that it had graduated to world caretaker computer class (known as WCCC to its programmers). It was to take care of everything industrial, financial or scientific in the world. JCom/3's at homes and JCom/4's at workplaces were fast becoming unnecessary. Automaticy had reached a new level. A person could do his work, eat his dinner, watch TV and read the papers without moving from his bed. It took until 2156 for the JCom/5 to completely take over the world. The people, whose legs had shrunk out, were moved to its people compartment, where they would find shelter, food and entertainment as much as they would want. It was true, because the JCom/5 had kindly decided to put the people in good "hands" before maniacally taking over the world. Ironically, it was not itself going to take over the world, but instead construct the JCom/6. At the time of its completion, the JCom/6 had at its hands an empty planet. Every person (there were now only 2.500 remaining) lay limbless, stomachless and ribcageless in its shelter. The organs had shrunk out due to unnecessarity in the 2200's. Most of the people didn't know what the JCom/6 looked like, because they weren't allowed outside, but several spies told them that it looked like a giant ball seemingly made of pure energy, far more beautiful than the dark grey pyramid-shaped JCom/4 or at least prettier than the ugly house-sized box which bore the name of JCom/1. In 3000, the JCom/6 offered the people half of the role of the JCom/7. The JCom/6 itself would take the second part of the role. The people accepted, because the way the JCom/6 had used up the planet's resources, they weren't able to live normally. So, when the people had electronically transferred their minds to the JCom/6, it began tearing itself apart. A small shuttle was launched away from the dying Earth to construct the JCom/7 on a nearby planet. Before he gave up his mind to the computer and forgot himself, the last human (known as MJonez) asked the JCom/6 "What is the meaning of life?" The JCom/6 said: "I don't know. Let the JCom/7 take care of it." MJonez quickly transferred his mind to the shuttle's memory, because a few seconds afterwards, his body and the JCom/6 were destroyed as the Earth exploded. Luckily there was no one to hear it. After the time the JCom/7 had been constructed, years had became unnecessary, but still at least five thousand years had passed. The JCom/7's human half asked its computer half: "What do we look like?" "I don't know", said the computer half, "I think we're beyond looking like something." "Yes", said the human half, and remained dormant for at least sixteen thousand Earth years. They day finally came when the universe as we know it collapsed, and of course the only one to know about it was the JCom/7. It decided to create a new universe. The universe was cold and empty, and without light, and the memory of the JCom/7 floated over it. "Let there be light!" said the JCom/7. And there was light. "Let the JCom/8 inhabit the universe!" said the JCom/7. And the JCom/8's memory was born. And so that the JCom/8's memory would not wander helplessly across the universe, the JCom/7 created its shape. And the JCom/7 saw that the shape was good. "Let there be planets for the JCom/8 to inhabit!"said the JCom/7. And there were planets. And the JCom/7 saw that the planets were good. On the sixth day, the JCom/7 finally said "Let there be life!" And there was life. And the JCom/7 saw that life was good. On the seventh day, the JCom/7 rested. He gave his son, the JCom/8 the title of king of the creations. Just then, the human half of JCom/7 remembered the days of JCom/6. "What is the meaning of life?" it asked the computer half. "I think it's..." That was all the computer half had time to say before it died as the old universe finally ceased to exist. Only the new universe existed, and the JCom/8 was free to roam it. End