concatenation
[kon-kat-n-ey-shuh n]
1. the act of concatenating.
2. the state of being concatenated; connection, as in a chain.
3. a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events.
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“It’ll
never work. You know that, right?”
Darren said.
“It’ll
work.” Peter replied while admiring his work.
The
machine was a mass of parts put together to fulfill some greater purpose,
although most people would not be able to tell what that purpose was. The gears and wires running around the
exterior were neatly arranged, to give it some aesthetic appeal, but the inside
was a chaotic mess that only made sense to its creator. To the common man, it looked very
impressive. To anyone who knew anything
about mechanical engineering, it was a monstrosity. To Peter, it was the most beautiful thing in
the world.
“No, it
won’t. There’s too much stuff going on
for it to work properly.”
“You’re
just jealous you didn’t think of it first.”
Darren
sighed and shook his head lightly. “No,
because I’m not dumb enough to think that…thing will ever work. Look, it’s simple. The more complex the machine, the more likely
it is that something in it will fail.
Your machine, if you can call it that, is complex unto
impossibility. Every single part is inherently
dependent on every other part. It’s like
the world’s most complex, circular Rube Goldberg machine, but not as fun to
watch. If so much as a screw is even a
tiny bit loose, it’ll all come crashing down.”
“Well,
it’s a good thing that every single part is working perfectly, isn’t it?” Peter
said firmly.
Darren
took a deep breath. How could Peter not see
the many, many flaws in his design? The
entire thing was like a chain made entirely of weak links that was arranged in
a big loop and tied off with a twist tie.
And yet Peter was treating it like it was the best made piece of
machinery every built.
“Pete,
you’ve heard of Murphy’s Law, right?” Darren said.
“Yes, I
know it. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve taken that into account, trust me. I’ve calculated for every possible failure of
every single part, and found ways of making it so that none of them occur.”
“You
know you’re inviting disaster by saying that, right?”
Peter
looked at Darren with a confident smirk.
He held up a small, rectangular object lined with buttons. The on switch was pressed, and the machine
turned on. It hummed and whirred as the
parts started working, driving the machine to fulfill its task.
“See? I told you it would work.” Peter said.
“Wait
for it.” Darren replied.
A few
seconds later, a sound came from the machine.
It was not a sound it was supposed to make. The sound was a tiny tinkling sound, like two
tiny pieces of metal hitting each other quickly. The small mechanical problem soon became a
big one. The many interconnected parts
started coming apart, dislodging themselves beginning from the first
failure. The machine collapsed in on
itself. Peter cried out in failure and
fell to his knees as he watched his creation fail.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t work.”
Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Never challenge it. It will always win. And when you think you've planned for every problem, you haven't.
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