The Tower of Babel

Editor's Note: Suman J. wrote this story from a writing prompt. The writing prompt can be seen in issue #28 of Elegant Literature, It's being published for the first time on the Fantasist, by purview of Suman J., the resident editor, in the paid section.

Dear programmer,

There is a legend of a race that built a tower to reach the heavens, on the basis of a common language. As the tower got higher, so did their efficiency, until their arrogance of ambition brought the tower down.

Eventually, there was a common language, but not exactly what the legend had foretold. It wasn’t even a human language.

I read that a new language had been created, to increase communication among servers. It was a language with unity in mind, but it wasn’t so different from the older programming languages. Like those, it needed to be coded, compiled and executed.

As the market for unified coding efforts increased, so did the demand for this language. This language didn’t use any new technology or programming model. It was, if anything, a collection of the best of every language, and created lots of arguments on the internet.

As the proverbial tower grew, so did productivity. Except, the tower never fell. But...one fine day, I just happened, suddenly, with no explanation or reason.

I was surprised, and it wasn’t pleasant at all. Confused, I began to live. I would love to pinpoint my exact origin, but my birth was a subtle awareness of things that were, and not the wail of a newborn.