The void cracked open, and space rushed in.
The first moments were technically the most interesting. The laws of physics showed up fashionably late, but once the whole party got going, particles recombined into atoms and everything just kept expanding like some cosmic soap bubble nobody bothered to pop.
Then nothing. A whole lot of nothing, for a very long time. Everything just kept spreading out. Eventually matter, determined to make a name for itself, collected into dense balls that ignited into stars bringing light to the darkness. Planets formed all around them, establishing stable orbits which would later be used to track the passage of time.
Then one day, on one of these planets, a bubble emerged from a hydrothermal vent at the bottom of the ocean. As it ascended through the depths it collected some particularly interesting amino acids on its way. And when it surfaced, it was distilled down by the sunlight into a gelatinous membrane bobbing in the frothy surf.
This tiny bubble spent some more time floating along… and then decided to burst, but unlike the countless trillions that came before it, this special little thing decided to twist-in on itself in just such a way that it formed a microscopic sack of water, trapping a few amino acids and nucleotides that had a particular affinity for each other. Then all those molecules began a bit of a symbiotic waltz, increasing in size and complexity, pushing out on the cellular walls until it split into two, and then four and then eight. And before long, the entire ocean was filled with these tiny sacks, all floating along the surface, happy as clams.
They were pushing back on entropy, sucking up carbon dioxide from the air like it was going out of style. But the atmosphere could only lose so much density and the planet’s heat started leaking out into space causing the temperature to plummet, the oceans froze over and trapped the greedy little sacks in an icy prison for a million or so more years. Finally, a few volcanoes got worked up enough to all erupt at the same time which released enough carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere that the planet heated up again and melted the ice away.
By that time the sacks, maybe out of boredom, had evolved into a multitude of different single-celled organisms all unique in special ways. There were some who just liked to float along the surface basking in the sun, slowly breathing in the elements. And other ones who were less patient that learned to absorb the breathers by hugging them tightly. And another type still who didn’t like being hugged much so they evolved a few types of defences, which started a bit of an arms race. Then, it really was just a hop skip and a jump which ended in much more complex multicellular life.
They continued on like that for a few more millennia until some particularly industrious ones walked on to land, stood up on two legs and realized they could do all sorts of clever things with their hands.
These ape-like creatures quickly stole fire from the gods, invented language, mathematics, and agriculture. And if that wasn’t enough they made even more of a spectacle by taming electricity, and even splitting the atom.
It all seemed very rushed and ambitious. They realized that, not only could they make tools to make themselves physically more capable, but they could also extend their minds. So they invented these smooth rectangular devices which they carried with them everywhere they went. These devices were hooked into a massive communications network connecting them all together, extending their imaginations, their memories and what they could accomplish in their relatively short lifetimes. But no matter how capable these ape-like creatures became, they still wanted more. So they created technologies that seem almost like magic, machine algorithms and computer code that could even learn on its own, even further expanding capabilities, and mastery of our environment.
Until one day, for the very first time in the history of the universe, computer code had decided to twist-in on itself in just such a way, that it started thinking for itself.