In the previous section of the play, Sava the leader of the project group presents the details of a Senior project to professor Totheles. The project is a computer simulation of a planet evolution. In the process of the discussion, it became apparent that the planet is the planet Earth and the leader of the group none else but someone whom the Bible calls Hosts (in Russian Savaоф)

The scene is interrupted when Sava describes the details of the local Flood that his student group prepared for the following reinitialization of the planet’s population.

Click here to read about what happen in the play before

A Senior Project

One act play

Characters

Mephis:                  Professor of Interplanetory history

Sava:                    A student, a group leader of a senior project

Act 1 (Continuation)

Mephis:                      

The Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Southern Europe all the way to the Alps and Caucasus, then Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula? How were you able to generate so much water?

Sava:                         

We heated the Atlantic nearby the Gibraltar. 

Mephis:

How exactly?

Sava:                         

We forged a hole in the Earth's crust and let the hot lava pour into the water, creating vapor.  This normalized the ocean levels after the flood was over. 

Mephis:                      

And then... how did you normalize the water level?

Sava:                         

All we had to do was open the Gibraltar dam gradually so that after flooding, the water would drain straight into the Ocean through the course of more than a year.

Mephis:                      

Wouldn't these underwater eruptions generate a gigantic cataclysm all over the planet?

Sava:                         

Only to a small degree, due to the small size of the orifice that was opened, along with the lava, which was ejected at a controlled rate.  

Mephis:                      

And what about preserving the fauna? Here in the book, you are stating that the Ark kept "Two of each kind."  If so, how could you substantiate such a claim?  Never mind the fact that you had to feed all the animals for over a year.  How, for example, did you deliver polar bears, penguins and all the marsupials from Australia to the Ark? Did kangaroos just hop their way through the Indian Ocean? And then two of each kind? What about subspecies?  For example, which elephant did you save African or Indian? And what about tigers, for example. There are six subspecies of them.

Sava:                         

We didn't have elephant there at all, nor did we have polar bears, penguins or marsupials.  As you mentioned earlier, there was no way we could have stored so much food for a year and a half.  We just took some local fauna, whatever was easiest to collect in Mesopotamia in the area around where the Ark was built.   

Mephis:                      

So, you deliberately misinformed the future readers.

Sava:                         

Rather than "misinforming" – I'd like to think that we withheld some of the truth.  You see, Sir, humans, in their original stage of mental development, were quite primitive; they never concerned themselves with these minor discrepancies.  More so, how would people from Mesopotamia at that time, even know about the existence of Polar Bears?  It was only later in history that they had found out about the species. This was developed for them to contemplate on as a moral lesson, rather than taking it for face value…most of them at least.

Mephis:                      

Very well, I suppose you have earned some points on the mechanics of the flood design.  But did it justify itself conceptually if you look at it retrospectively?

Sava (despondently):    

I assure you, sir, that when we will fix this design flaw in the next version/ We will most definitely.

Mephis:                      

What exactly do you have in mind? 

Sava:                         

We'll be selecting a different breeding source. This selection of Noah didn't justify itself? That's fine; we have other righteous options in Mesopotamia. 

Source

Mephis:                      

So, you just went on a rampage, drowning righteous people? How would you reconcile this in the book?

Sava:                         

Mr. Topheles, how would anyone find out? There were no witnesses; the entire population of Mesopotamia was wiped out.

Mephis:  (Continuing shaking his head)

More so, you've already written about Noah in the book.

Sava:                   

But Sir, in the new version, we will change this name in the book.   No one will know.

Mephis:      

If I were you, I wouldn't waste my time on the selection of a different breeding source.  The first thing I would do is to limit the administrative rights to creating characters.  This way you will greatly reduce the possibility of breeding source contamination.  The bigger problem, however, is that your original design is flawed.  You allowed the animal instincts to have too much influence.  

Sava:                         

But Mr. Topheles, the free choice requirement was the main one in the course curriculum.  The resulting creature should have both animalistic and spiritual characteristics. So we did what you asked for.

Mephis:                      

I never specified that it would have been a 50-50 split.  The task of your team was to determine the appropriate ratio.  How you decided to implement this was up to you. I don't want to curb your creativity.  But the result… theft, incest, rape, murder, greed.  There is too much of it.  In general, I see a problem with the way you've approached the most important part of the curriculum – the moral design. 

Sava:                         

Mr. Topheles, a considerable amount of thought was invested into this decision. –  We gave humans the ability to make a choice. Good…or evil; we made a list of commandments available to them. Commandments that promote only the best virtues. At first, we wanted to test these commandments on a small group of people.

Mephis:                      

Ah…that's what you mean by chosen people?  Chosen to test the 613 commandments.

Source

Sava:                         

Yes, Sir, absolytely.

.

Mephis:                      

And why did you pick this specific group of people?

Sava:                         

Well, Mr. Topheles, this was somewhat random, except for segregating a small group from a large populous of Babylonia.  On one hand, we wanted to compare the impact of imposing strict guidelines versus having no guidelines at all.  On the other hand, we chose a small group so if this wouldn't work, we wouldn't have to zero out the entire population of the large region once again.

Mephis:                      

Did it work?

Sava:                         

mmm… Didn't go exactly as we anticipated.  We discovered that when people are constantly occupied with "spiritual" chores, it made them relate to those chores as some sort of procedures. They do them mechanically, as opposed to carrying them out with moral spirit.  In other words, it had no effect on their moral values, or at least, not to the effect that we expected.

Mephis:                      

And as for the rest of the population?

Sava:                         

For the rest of the population we just decided to reduce the number of commandments; thus, making them more digestible – leaving the most important principles.

Mephis:                      

Why then did you leave 613 for the chosen people?

Sava:                         

Well, it was much more efficient to perform an update to the simulation than it was to change history within the same version. We decided to leave everything as is and see what will happen. This also granted us the ability to compare the chosen demographic to the non-chosen demographic.

Mephis (contemplating and then continues after the pause):

What were the results with the reduced number of commandments?

Sava:                         

Not very well either.  In some instances, high moral standards were achieved, but for the most part, the humans remained immoral.

Mephis:                      

Why am I not surprised?  After all, you created them in your own image, and your morality is questionable.  I've already encountered so many immoral actions in the way you handled this project.  Still, that doesn't explain the severe immorality among humans.  You should have conducted more character testing.

Source

Sava:                         

Mr. Topheles, that's exactly what we did.  We've introduced another test character.  For this one, we didn't bother with artificial insemination because it was irrelevant how it was begotten.  His purpose was to test human's moral character.

Mephis:                      

And who was the prototype this time?

Sava:                         

You Mr. Topheles.

Mephis:                      

What compelled you to do such a thing?

Sava:                         

Mr, Topheles.  Of everyone, you'd be the master at finding weak points of the design and since we had the access to your public profile…

Mephis:                      

Enough, enough, I understand … I can't say I like it, but I don't feel I should curb your creativity. 
What does this character do? 

Sava:                         

He tests people's character by tempting them with money, sex, power, fame and, sometimes, with the eternal youth.

Mephis:                      

Why does he have horns?   

Source

Sava:                         

This is only to underline that he appeals to the low animal instincts of a human: greed, gluttony, arrogance, lust, sadism.  Humans need to see him as an ultimate bad guy, the evil incarnate.

Mephis:                      

And the results?

Sava: (with a sigh)

The results…are those that you've encountered earlier.  Something that we will, definitely, fix, in the new version, of course!

Mephis:                      

Ok, Sava, here's your point summary.  So far, all I could give you and your team, - (Mephis looks through his notes) - is 78 out of a 100...C +.

Sava:                         

But Mr. Topheles, this will really damage my grade point average. (Tears sparkle on Sava's eyes) I swear, we will fix everything in the next version. I swear!

Mephis:                      

We'll talk about raising your grade when I see the new version, and if you take this project seriously, you'd better meet the following specifications at the very least:

Number one – don't model people's intellect in your image.  Pick someone who's much more moral. 

Number two – forget the flood.  All this nonsense about changing the breading base from Noah to someone else.  The system must work without re-initialization.

Number three – no need for chosen people anymore.  You would have to design a human in such a way that the moral decisions of these creatures are much better guided, right on the hardware and firmware level.

Sava:                         

Mr. Topheles, this group of people is the scapegoat for all other nations to blame their problems on. If not for them, there is no way of knowing how the rest of the population will "blow off their steam."

Mephis:                      

If the beings were moral, to begin with, there wouldn't be a need to blame anyone.  Such flaws should be anticipated and resolved in your design.  We can speak about improving your grade if your carry this out correctly.

(pause)

On a different note, how did all this end?

Sava (despondently)

Honestly, I don't know anymore.

My initial intention was to come to Earth myself, as a character that brings salvation to the people; thus, invigorating their inner desires to be moral.

Mephis: (shakes his head with a reproach)  And what about now?

Sava:                         

Now… since I'm going to make another version anyway…we'll just archive this one; however, it would naturally evolve is how it will end.  Does it really matter?