Unable to bear the result, and unwilling to start over again, at that moment the choice had to be made.
Whether or not to let the dream of a perfectly controlled narrative die, or to leave everything to faith and chance… letting time work its course, the random spinning and weaving together of cause and effect.
The theory was simple and universally applicable: if you left an apple in a perfectly sealed vacuum box, without the influence of an external force, for an infinite amount of time, a change would occur. First to weathering, then decay, followed by every natural law and occurrence.
And because energy is not lost—only converted from one form to another—an infinite time would mean infinite possibilities. The atoms and molecules in question, in the space of an infinite period, would at least once take the form of every single possible matter. At one point, it could have been a gold watch inside the box; at another, an entire cosmos complete with its own advanced civilization. Or perhaps it could return back to the state of being a single apple.
This… this was the power of time. This was the power of fate, of reality, of the universe.
Now that such an event was already set in motion, there was no stopping it. For it went on for an infinite period of time, meaning that as long as the concept of time remained, it would not come to an end. Only endless recurrence awaited.
For what usefulness it would pose—that was yet to be seen. But one thing could be certain: this was the complexity and brilliance of the natural world, which men could only discover and observe in sheer awe and intrigue from afar.