Why did Atlantis disappear?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Not only based on jokes from the Internet.

The general could not sleep. Having poured himself a glass of water, he sat down at the table and leaned back in his chair to rest while …

… The stool on which the General sat had no back, so he once again fell to the floor shouting "Damn bespectacled man!" Picking up a glass, the water from which spilled on the floor, the General carefully got up, then slipped into a puddle of water and with a crash fell into it with his whole body … at least so, but the General finally got enough sleep and in the morning felt quite normal, except for one very serious problem.

Time was running out, and the riddle of the Manuscript had not yet been solved. The best, he was told, scientists from Britain have been sweating hard to decode for decades, but have not yet made a single step forward. The general, unlike the previous leaders of the group, began to monitor the activities of scientists, checking all their work. And horror gripped him when it turned out that all this time a bunch of these morons were doing some kind of nonsense at the expense of the state. They did whatever they wanted, only occasionally returning to deciphering the Manuscript, and when the General reprimanded them for squandering public funds, the scientists answered with a clever air that he, the General, did not understand how science was done and what deep connections there could be between the secret of the Manuscript and those auxiliary, they said, experiments that were now being carried out in the laboratory.

The general could not understand how the statement that the life span is proportional to the number of birthdays of a person or how the formula of the ideal bacon could help decipher the Manuscript. Unable to prove the futility of such "discoveries" and not knowing what to argue with the group coordinator - a representative Fat Man - who constantly showed diagrams, graphs, named some numbers, from which the complete dominance of this scientific group in the whole world followed, the General continued patiently wait and believe that the Manuscript will still be deciphered. He could not argue with the majority, who believed that the quantitative indicators of scientific work are evidence of quality, reliability and success, and also make it possible to fairly distribute resources for the maintenance of the scientific team. The General could not formulate any arguments against even the simplest thesis that “this measure is considered the most accurate throughout the world” and was silent when he heard a reproach in the form of a question: “Tell me, General, how else can you evaluate scientific work?” And really not knowing how it could be done. To the General's question about who and when decided that the majority was right, he was always answered that it was decided by a majority of votes long ago at some already forgotten conference.

The last straw in the General's patience was not even a "scientific statement" that 90% of lazy men are sure that they fit a beard, but proof that cucumbers kill people, based on the fact that all people who ate cucumbers two centuries ago back now are already dead.

It was impossible to endure this chaos any longer … The General gathered an urgent commission and declared an emergency. He had such powers because the Supreme Commander had given him the order to decipher the Manuscript at any cost. The bosses were tired of waiting for the result, and the managerial situation in the world was getting out of control. The Great Catastrophe could happen at any moment.

At the announced extraordinary meeting, many people gathered in the hall. There was also a respectable Fat Man with his lackeys, and military of various ranks, and representatives of the block of government of the country. After a short opening speech explaining the reason for the meeting, the General was overcome with emotion:

“I can’t do anything with this coddle of swarming idiots. - The General said loudly and with irritation.- They do not know how, do not understand and are completely uncontrollable. Their best discovery ever was the opening of a can of sprats! And the most useful thing that they could do to decipher the Manuscript was a scientific work in which it was scientifically proven that the manuscript was written in a language unknown to them! But the mockery did not end there, as soon as the work was published, a second one appeared, in which it was scientifically proven that the reason for the impossibility of deciphering the Manuscript is what do you think? The General paused. - The fact that the manuscript was written in a completely unknown language! In the second work, a reference is made to the first and to two dozen other works on other topics in order to raise the citation index of their colleagues. Then, when some smart guy thought of it and wrote an article about the fact that the Manuscript does not contain a letter similar to our "a", a couple of days later our laboratory became richer by another 32 articles, randomly referring to each other. Further, some moron wrote a monograph on the letters of the Greek alphabet with the same content - and then it started!

The hall was silent. Then the respectable Fat Man got up from his seat and asked:

- Comrade General, do you know what are the indicators of our research team over the past year?

- I know. Five hundred thirty-three articles, forty-one monographs and nine hundred and forty-three abstracts of international scientific conferences; then one hundred twenty-three textbooks and two hundred and five computer programs. - The general read dryly from a piece of paper.

- These are better indicators than anyone else this year, - continued the respectable Fat Man, and Morel, who was sitting next to him, obediently nodded his head, holding a piece of paper with a chart in his hands, - what exactly are you dissatisfied with? We do not understand the essence of your claims.

The general was silent and clenched his cheekbones from a fit of wild irritation. All this finally got him. His fists clenched so that his knuckles turned white, and the General himself trembled with hatred. While he was silent, the respectable Fat Man continued his speech, playing to the audience:

- You see that the team is working hard. No team in the world will achieve such indicators, our scientists have always been the pride of Britain, and many others would give everything to work in our team. Grants flow to us like a river, it is we who have been entrusted with the task of a truly global scale to decipher the Manuscript - the last hope of mankind …

The general could no longer listen to this unbearable nonsense. He signaled to one of his soldiers, and he, along with two others, of a lesser rank, approached the representative Fat Man. The two stood on either side of the perplexed Fat Man, while the Soldier stared inquiringly at the general. He immediately gave the order:

- Disperse Caudle, and tie Fat Man in the music hall and turn on Justin Bieber. The last album … but no, all the albums in a row without stopping in a circle.

At these words, the experienced Soldier slightly shuddered, and the respectable Fat Man, while they were taking him by the arms, suddenly yelled that there was urine:

- NO! Not Justin Bieber, I beg you! - The fat man grabbed a pen from the table and tried to stick it in his ear, but the Soldier managed to grab the object with a dexterous movement and hurriedly nodded to his assistants. - A-a-aa, inhumans!.. - shouted the Fat Man, but his voice was already rapidly receding, until it had completely died down.

In the hall, all those present were already in a state of stupor and looked at the General. No one dared to move, everyone thought not so much about the future fate of the Manuscript, how much they pitied the poor fellow and marveled at the severity of the sentence.

- The meeting is over, everyone is free. - Said the General and, decorously turning around, walked to the door leading to the service part of the building.

As the General walked through the secret corridors, he was still tormented by doubts about the last resource to which he could resort. But an order is an order. The general knew exactly why he was appointed to the post, he was the last hope of humanity. Despite his own shortcomings, he was an excellent manager, he knew, and if he did not know, then he felt whether the subordinates were moving in the right way, performing this or that task. Now he must face his fear, he needed to ask for help … and not just to someone, but to a person whom he was very much afraid of.

The general entered his room and, without taking off his clothes, lay down on the bed. He looked at the ceiling, and his imagination painted various patterns on its irregularities. After lying there for several minutes and collecting his thoughts, he got up, went to the phone, dialed a short number and gave a decisive order to the receiver:

- Immediately bring the Pharmacist to me.

Then he hung up and looked at his watch. In eight minutes he will already be talking with his old enemy, now he could rest a little, since the decision had already been made and all that remained was to wait.

To use the services of a Pharmacist meant to admit the defeat of both the entire scientific "elite" (now in quotation marks) and the management elite, acting on the principles of "there are no irreplaceable people" and "every cricket knows his sixth", as well as admitting the erroneousness of those accusations that were hung on this person in the past. But the worst thing is not even that. It was scary that a direct gaze of this person was able to evoke from the depths of the subconscious any, even the most reliably hidden events in life that awaken conscience, in his eyes, as in a mirror, internal flaws were reflected, and he wanted to howl with horror when they took possession of consciousness. The history of the Pharmacist's relationship with the General and the world around him, in short, is as follows.

The pharmacist tried to change the world. A few decades ago, he put forward a theory according to which humanity is in danger. Moral decay reached the point that the further fate of civilization was under a question mark, so this man decided to help humanity and, having set himself a noble goal, began to act. However, despite the impeccable logic, correct ideas and complete disinterestedness, the Pharmacist did not find public support. People seemed to agree with him, especially in personal conversations, they seemed to admit that he was saying the right things, but instead of correcting themselves, they began to take out their failure on the person who showed them all this. Having hung on him all those shortcomings that people themselves possessed, they found a way to rid the world of the "evil" that destroys their ideals and prevents them from freely degrading. They set up the Pharmacist, fabricated a case and forced him to publicly confess all his atrocities against the free will of the people …

Throwing in the crowd, the people ran over the Pharmacist with their blackness. And he did what everyone wanted from him, he became silent, having confessed first that he was to blame for everything that was attributed to him; but at that meeting, he looked strangely at the people in the auditorium, and at the General himself, who was in charge of this process. The shock took on a gray mass and several people immediately lost consciousness. Only extraordinary restraint allowed the General to remain in place. Everyone understood that they had done something very bad … but, as usual, they quickly forgot everything. The pharmacist “lay low” and did not appear any more.

He always thought outside the box and boldly. Another talent of the Pharmacist was his ability to read prescriptions and medical records with ease. Regardless of the handwritten text by the doctor, the pharmacist could calmly read it, throwing only a sliding glance. And once, while traveling in Egypt, he even accidentally deciphered all the inscriptions on the walls of buildings in which tourists were allowed … oh, and there was a serious mess there!

However, universal respect melted like butter in a skillet when the Pharmacist took up his educational work. And that was the end of his official career, because people were not ready for changes, although they acutely felt their need.

While the General was in the memory of the past, eight minutes passed, and there was a knock on the door.

- Enter. - Briefly ordered the General.

The door opened, and the Pharmacist stood on the threshold, he smiled indulgently and said:

- Thank you, I'll come in myself.

He walked over to the table, pushed back the stool and sat on it evenly, without even trying to lean back. The general did not look at his face, so as not to cause unnecessary panic in himself.

- Well, soldier, - said the Pharmacist, - can't you read the Manuscript?

The General was silent, although he was surprised by the Pharmacist's knowledge of the top-secret project. It was better to be silent

since now he was in zugzwang, and any move will bring him even more humiliation than he already experiences. Suddenly he remembered that he was lying on the bed. The general got up and took a sitting position with his legs dangling to the floor. Then he collected his thoughts, realizing that he would still have to speak. The General glanced at the Pharmacist, and, despite all his self-control, all his self-control, quickly averted his eyes, which were already watering.

- Yes, nothing adds up, - the General began, - can you read It?

- Of course, but you have to work hard to get my reputation back to the place from which you so meanly threw it off. You will have to admit that apart from me there was no force capable of positively solving the problems of our society. - The Pharmacist answered somewhat casually.

- Yes, you can consider that it has already been done, - answered the General, - excuse me.

- Acknowledged, give me your Manuscript. - Getting up said the pharmacist.

The general got up and took him to the laboratory where the scientists used to work. They immediately went to the center of the hall, where there was a large glass flask, under which She lay … The Atlantis manuscript, a text written in an incomprehensible language, was distributed over several hundred sheets of paper made of the finest tissue-like paper, well preserved for 12 thousand years. The manuscript was found in excavations at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and immediately became a sensation. However, the project to decipher it was quickly classified, since in the opinion of the Supreme, it contained information about the last days of Atlantis or something even more important, because otherwise it was unlikely that the Manuscript was kept as if they knew that a global geological disaster. She was found in a safe made of an alloy of precious metals, from which air was pumped out. In the safe there was another safe, rigidly fixed to the first one, and in it was an extremely soft material and a glass flask in which the pages of the Manuscript were floating in a liquid unknown to mankind. The substance was given to chemists, with whom they are still tinkering, and the Manuscript was now lying here. And the pharmacist had already read the page that was visible to him under the glass of the flask.

- An interesting beginning, - his old enemy shared with the general, - it says here that they can no longer do anything about the impending Catastrophe and in this manuscript they will try to have time to record all those circumstances that, in their opinion, put the world on the brink of collapse. They immediately admit that they see in what happened not a series of accidents, but their own guilt.

- Are you already reading? - Looking down at the manuscript asked the general, he tried not to give a surprised look. - You are smart.

- I don’t understand one thing, General, was it difficult to call me right away? So it was necessary to pervert, deceive yourself, look for workarounds, console yourself with the fact that there should be some simpler solutions …

The general did not answer, but his face suddenly grew older for several decades, he looked wearily into the eyes of the Pharmacist, lowered his head guiltily and pressed the button that opened the cap. Then he took the manuscript and, just as guiltily, handed it to the pharmacist, saying:

- You understand what state I am in, stop mocking me. This mistake will cost us dearly, I already understood this … Read it, tell me first, then think together what should be passed on to the authorities and give a conference, at which you will repeat your retelling, taking into account my recommendations. Well, in what, but in what things can be said, and which cannot, I know better than you.

- No question, - answered the Pharmacist, accepting the manuscript, - I'll read it, let me know. Let them bring a bed, a lamp, carry food at the appointed time and so that I do not hear a sound outside the walls of this hall. Judging by the volume, I will be reading for a week. Do you understand what I mean?

- Will be done. - The General answered and left the room.

There were guards outside the laboratory door and heard how from time to time the Pharmacist would start talking to himself, commenting on something aloud and sometimes even very loudly lamenting: “that's how it is!”, “It should have been thought of!”, “But it's just like ours now! and everything is in the same spirit. Time passed, and from the fragmentary exclamations of the Pharmacist, the guards, who conveyed everything they heard to the general, could make a number of fragmentary judgments, the meaning of which, however, they decidedly did not understand.

So, for example, it was clear that the ruling elite of the Atlantean civilization for some reason went to school to study, and then, upon graduation, received some red and blue crusts on which … they cut vegetables. Then there was a story about some legend, as if a certain Chosen One should appear and show where these items can still be useful, and while there is no Chosen One, it was necessary to carefully observe the tradition so as not to forget the correct way of obtaining red and blue crusts.

All this was incomprehensible to the general. What are the crusts? Why should someone who was an analogue of our Supreme Commander go to school?

Then it was even more interesting. It turned out that no one worked, because no one hired without work experience, and there was nowhere to get work experience. At first everything was in order, but then everyone who worked died of old age. Then suddenly it became fashionable to be different from everyone else and stand out from the gray mass, and everyone became not like everyone else, and stood out from the gray mass, but in the end, this is what made them the same in their desire to stand out, they became a homogeneous mass that stands out from the gray masses of people. The loop closed and something cracked in the sky. A serious panic began, but some clever guy brought in an analogue of what is now called blue duct tape, the crack was closed up, and everything was fine again.

- This is some kind of nonsense, - the General thought to himself, - all this information somehow bears little resemblance to the warning of the previous civilization … but you have to wait, the week is already running out.

At the end of the seventh day, when according to the plan the Pharmacist was to finish reading, a cry of despair suddenly rose in the hall: “How could you! My God !!!”, - then it became quiet, and after a few seconds, a hysterical cry deafened this silence. The guards were worried, but could not disturb the Pharmacist, that was the order. After a while, the cry turned into rhythmic sobbing, and then everything died down.

The pharmacist left the laboratory hall and went straight to the General, his face was red and tired, the collar of his shirt was torn, and the hair on his head stuck out randomly in different directions.

Opening the door, the Pharmacist entered the General's room and closed the door by clicking the lock. For two hours everything was quiet, when suddenly a terrible blow was heard from the room, the frightened guards broke into the locked door, smashing the lock, and saw that the Evil General was standing in front of a table broken in half, and the Pharmacist was sitting in confusion on a stool with his head bowed. The general turned to the guards and said:

- I knew it was the woman's fault.

The guards realized that the General, out of anger, broke the table with his hand, hitting it with his fist, and, having calmed down this usual event, left the room, somehow closing the door hanging on one hinge behind her.

The general climbed onto the bed and thought. The pharmacist straightened up and sat looking at the wall. They were both silent for a minute. Then the general said dryly:

- I suppose that you still need to talk about it, although there is no point in fussing anymore.

- Let's tell, - answered the Pharmacist, - after all, everyone is curious how the matter ended. I also think that they will not be able to do anything, we are all doomed. Let not the same reason be the last straw in the patience of the Higher Forces, but another, it does not matter. The irreversible processes described in the Manuscript are already in full swing with us, we solved It too late, we had to start two or three centuries earlier.

- You are right, my friend, you and I can only try to tell everything in such a way that we will be given more time for our last task with you. You don't mind if we do this together?

- No, I was just going to offer you, because I will need your secret archives.

- Yes, I'll give them to you. Get selected moments from the last three thousand years.

- Wow, - the Pharmacist was surprised, - you have a good archive.

- Yes, we have existed for quite a long time, you yourself know.

- I know…

- But you didn’t tell me everything, did you? - Suddenly asked the General.

- Of course, not everything, the rest is written especially for me, for someone who can read. In particular, what and how should I do next.

- I believe. - The general readily agreed.

Silence reigned in the room again.

The next day, the General announced a conference at which the essence of the content of the Manuscript would be outlined. On the day of the beginning, a crowd of people admitted to the conference trampled at the entrance to the building. The door opened and the crowd poured in.

By the appointed hour, everyone was already sitting in the hall and talking excitedly.

The Pharmacist entered the hall, which caused mixed emotions in people - after all, everyone knew who he was and what he had done in the past. It was very unpleasant to think that he, this man hated by everyone, would report something. But that’s what happened. The pharmacist sat down at the presenter's table and began his story, and the crowd of listeners did not know what would happen to them in less than an hour.

The pharmacist spoke about the structure of the administrative system of Atlantis, about the fact that life was based on a rigid dictatorship in terms of following the rules and traditions, regardless of their apparent inadequacy, but in all other respects there was complete freedom. He competently correlated their problems with the problems of our civilization, drew the necessary parallels and named a number of markers by which we can conclude that our civilization is moving in exactly the same way, which differs only in insignificant details that arise only as a result of cultural differences. Then the pharmacist was silent for a moment and then said:

- The main part of the story is over, before I move on to describe the reasons for the death of the civilization of Atlantis, I would like to hear questions. Is everything clear to everyone up to this point?

Several people in the hall raised their hands.

- I'm listening. - Said the pharmacist, pointing with a ballpoint pen at the person sitting closest.

- I would like to clarify how exactly the management crisis began, the situation with schoolchildren is not very clear to me. - The man said, and in the hall they buzzed approvingly.

- Yes, thanks for the question, maybe I skimmed over this point too quickly. The fact is that the state authorities were not very versed in management, and political experts were forced to spend three quarters of a year in school and did not have the opportunity to influence politics.

- What did they do at school? - Immediately asked the man.

- We studied, what else, - answered the pharmacist, - the most powerful experts and professional political analysts are schoolchildren, or rather, analogs of our schoolchildren. When the population of shkoloty in public places was greatly reduced, their advice on managing the country and the economy disappeared, the leadership had nothing to rely on in making managerial decisions. At first, we managed somehow, and then an acute shortage of experts led to the fact that the number of managerial mistakes exceeded a certain critical line, society began to collapse from the inside.

- Why did they go to school if they need to govern the country with such abilities? - The person from the audience continued to ask questions.

- Then, after school, each person received some kind of crust incomprehensible to me. It is believed that in addition to work experience, she was very much needed to get a job.

- But this is stupid …

- Of course it's stupid, we understand this, but there, in their civilization, adherence to traditions and laws, the source of which had already been forgotten by everyone, was an integral part of their culture. Tough totalitarian-liberal system of power. Do what you want, in principle, but God forbid violating at least one tradition or law of the Ancients, as they called them.

- How does this agree with what you said about the impossibility of getting a job without work experience?

- So it was, since some time no one has worked, since it was impossible to hire without work experience, but there was an ancient legend that one day a person would come and show how you could get a job without experience, having on hand only one of those magical crusts - blue or red - that is given out after school. Until that moment, according to the order of the local sage, people had to use the crusts exclusively for cutting vegetables when cooking, so they did.

- But the Chosen One did not appear?

- I didn’t have time … I’ll tell you about this further, if there are no more questions.

There were no questions. The pharmacist closed his eyes for a quarter of a minute, then looked at the general. The man nodded approvingly. It was possible to finish.

- Now the most important thing, - lowering his voice, said the Pharmacist, - the manuscript ends with a story about why Atlantis perished … The authors were in a hurry, they wrote that the heavens opened and fireballs began to fall from them, then water poured from everywhere, the Earth came in motion. Apparently, therefore, the narrative was sketched out hastily so that it was still possible to have time to seal the Manuscript, but I still managed to restore the chain of recent events.

The listeners froze in anticipation, there was complete silence and it seemed that people even stopped breathing. Everyone looked closely at the Pharmacist. He drank water from a glass on the table, sighed heavily and began to talk. This is what the people in the audience heard.

- There was an ancient custom in Atlantis, and, like all customs, it was so ancient that no one understood the reasons why it should be observed. According to an ancient legend, violation of this very tradition should have resulted in a catastrophe on a global scale. If some other traditions could be violated without fear of the destruction of the entire civilization in one fell swoop, then this, as it later happened, can destroy everything at once.

- Come on soon! - There was an impatient exclamation from the audience and several other voices picked it up.

- Patience, colleagues, - answered the Pharmacist, - you still have to regret that you are in a hurry now.

It was quiet again and the story continued.

- One girl from Atlantis was very unusual. She did not like the patterns and rules by which her peers lived. She especially did not like those behaviors that had to be adhered to in dealing with men. The peers needed to test the good young man they liked through friendship. He was friendzoned and got themselves another young man, a complete idiot and an idiot, to whom they surrendered their bodies and allowed themselves to be mocked, and the first one poured out their souls, complained about the idiot and suffered, indicating that they were very sorry that they did not have such a young man., How is he. An important point was to constantly keep the poor fellow on a leash, so that "neither closer nor further", for which it was necessary to warm up his affection with kind words about his care and patience, but never write to him first and not show initiative in anything explicitly, but only hint. The guy, on the other hand, had to obediently play the role of such a toy, since according to the ancient legend, this girl then passed into his undivided power, but no one knew exactly how long it was necessary to wait for this … because there were no cases when someone waited, no one could not pass the test. Our heroine did not like all this. And then one day she took a fancy to a good boy. They started dating, liked each other and exchanged mailing addresses - and suddenly!.. - The pharmacist hesitated for a second, - She wrote to him first! you think?". Moreover, in the morning she went home without asking unnecessary questions.

In this place, horror seized those sitting in the hall. Some man rushed to the door, but hit his forehead against it, fell down, somehow got up and again, but now more carefully, rushed again to the door, opened it and ran down the corridor. One lady, issuing a heart-rending scream, jumped up from the bench and smoothly settled down, losing consciousness, the professor bleeding from his ears, the red-haired guy banging his head against the wall, and the assistant professor tore his hair out. Screams of either horror or despair and hopelessness began to be heard everywhere. The whole hall turned into a heap of swarming and screaming bodies.

Only the General and the Pharmacist were completely calm. The General was a tough guy and had seen not even such tantrums in his lifetime, and the Pharmacist had already experienced an internal tragedy while reading the manuscript. They looked at each other, the General nodded respectfully, and the Pharmacist only quickly squeezed his eyes shut and reopened his eyes, smiling at the General at the same time. This gesture, which in the most incredible way combined the understanding of everything that the General had to endure, solidarity and sympathy for him, the Pharmacist learned to do in deep childhood. This was his talent - he felt everything, people, things, signs, understood any manifestations of the world around him, and could express absolutely any emotion or his state with a minimal set of movements. That is why he was able to read the Manuscript, even without knowing the language, like an open book, just feeling what the person who was drawing these signs with his hand wanted to say.

The riddle was now solved. They both knew very well that they could no longer save this world. And they knew that the reason was not that someone would write to someone first - in our world there is no such law - the reason was completely different.

The pharmacist and the General went out onto the balcony.

- How much do you think we have left? And what will be the last straw in our civilization?..

“It's hard to say, General,” the Pharmacist replied thoughtfully, “but no matter how much is left, our task with you, I hope, is well understood.

The general pondered. He looked somewhere ahead and up, at the night sky, at the stars, and looked as if he was seeing them for the last time. Then he suddenly said:

- Yes, let's start recording. I will raise the secret military archives, reveal some information and show how and in what order everything happened from the beginning of our era. You will write it all down so that in fifteen thousand years someone could understand the meaning of the message, realize the warning and make adjustments to the management for the future, until the Catastrophe happened.

“Yes, I know my job, General. - After a pause, the Pharmacist answered. - More precise instructions are even written for me in the Manuscript. Better than me, no one can think over and write such a warning so that people of a completely different culture who know a fundamentally different writing system can understand it. And since we already cannot do anything with our world, we will try to at least preserve the world of the future.