11-Nov-24: Time, and the Zium Exposition

I'm starting to realize that my blebs have a remarkable consistency about talking on time and the passage thereof. I suppose that's the only constant I can worry about.

Current events have happened, and I've so far spent about a week worrying sick (kind of literally) about them. Not much to say that hasn't already been by others. Among all things, hope and live.

Also on that note, I don't think I'll be finishing this visual novel, either. I kind of felt that I never would, honestly -- between Cohost closing (god it's only been like 1.5 months since then) and now, this, I sort of felt like it was never going to happen. I'll hopefully make something for the December Decker game jam, maybe? We'll see.

One nice thing that has happened was the release of the Zium Exposition today. I'm a big fan of the Ziums -- they're a set of lovely digital galleries one can just walk around in and just... take in the airs. Many times I just wander and look at stuff in the dead of night, to help center me, ponder on stuff.

I'll probably have more to say on the Ziums themselves, later on, but for now I just want to talk about one of the exhibits: "Time Machine" by Richard Walsh. It's been one of the features of Ziums to basically have side-games, areas you can teleport to from the main exhibit, and Time Machine is one of those, presenting itself as an exhibit about time. A large clock ticks down, splitting the exhibit in two, the entrance and exit to the exhibit are arbitrarily opened or closed at certain points in time due to the massive clock hands.

Inside the inner exhibit is the centerpiece -- a bomb. Massive, quietly beeping each second alongside the ticking of the massive clock that makes up most of the exhibit. The buttons on it can be pressed, but seemingly do nothing, numbered at 1970-01-01, the start of Unix time. The exhibit's name, and the timer on the bomb both make it clear that it's set to explode in the 19th of January, 2038, the point in which Unix time reaches an integer overflow and fails, just like Y2K was supposed to.

It should be terrifying. I remember an SCP that was a similar concept, being driven mad by a countdown you can't stop.

To me, it's somehow calming. That this far off future exists, that 13-ish years down the line, there will still be people, playing and watching and talking about this bomb, in this game. Maybe it'll explode. Maybe it'll glitch out and fail -- another Zium had a procedurally generated artwork from your computer's hardware that I think no longer works.

Regardless. It's something to look forward to.

Play The Zium Exposition here.