“To a computer, a program is just one very big number,” she said. “So you can spend a lot of time designing and coding and testing and debugging. Or-”
He interjected, eager to make an impression, “Or you can just try out numbers and see what they do.”
“That’s right!” she said. “You’ll find word processors, web browsers, spreadsheets… Here’s your desk. Press the space bar to begin.”
He sat. He cracked his knuckles. He hit the space bar. He watched the dud-counter climb as the computer churned through thousands of useless numbers, hunting.
His head hit the desk. He straightened up, glancing around. No one had noticed, or no one cared.
He settled back into his chair and froze. On his screen was one word.
“Hello?” it said.
He watched the cursor blink. More characters appeared one at a time:
“Is anyone there?”
