Geek Theology

Author Unknown

In the beginning, God created the bit. And the bit was a zero.

On the first day, he toggled the 0 to 1, and the Universe was. (In those
days, bootstrap loaders were simple, and "active low" signals didn't yet
exist.)

On the second day, God's boss wanted a demo, and tried to read the bit.
This being volatile memory, the bit reverted to a 0. And the universe
wasn't. God learned the importance of backups and memory refresh, and spent
the rest of the day (and his first all-nighter) reinstalling the universe.

On the third day, the bit cried "Oh, Lord! If you exist, give me a sign!"
And God created rev 2.0 of the bit, even better than the original
prototype. Those in Universe Marketing immediately realized that "new and
improved" wouldn't do justice to such a grand and glorious creation. And so
it was dubbed the Most Significant Bit. Many bits followed, but only one
was so honored.

On the fourth day, God created a simple ALU with 'add' and 'logical shift'
instructions. And the original bit discovered that -- by performing a
single shift instruction -- it could become the Most Significant Bit. And
God realized the importance of computer security.

On the fifth day, God created the first mid-life kicker, rev 2.0 of the
ALU, with wonderful features, and said "Forget that add and shift stuff. Go
forth and multiply." And God saw that it was good.

On the sixth day, God got a bit overconfident, and invented pipelines,
register hazards, optimizing compilers, crosstalk, restartable
instructions, microinterrupts, race conditions, and propagation delays.
Historians have used this to convincingly argue that the sixth day must
have been a Monday.

On the seventh day, an engineering change introduced Windows into the
Universe, and it hasn't worked right since.
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