[ FF ] You come to realize you exist within a computer simulation . Things were not always this way . ( 250 words )

`` Did you know octopi have their intelligence distributed through their arms?'' Murph asks as he taps away at his keyboard. 
 
 `` Yeah, I saw a video of that once. They put an octopus in a new tank and half it's arms reached out to explore while the other half moved towards a little hidey hole.'' Martha yells over the sound of machinery. The grinding of the gears and the cooing slide of the pistons were a racket, but they had a sort of music behind them. 
 
 `` Do you think any of those arms ever wonder about being attached to the octopus? Ever just want to pop-off and explore the little tank world on it's own? Maybe slither up and out and realize that universe is bigger than just four glass walls and some colored stones.'' Murph leans back and squints really hard at his screen. 
 
 It flickers and for a moment he can see Earth hanging in dark surrounded by stars. His home, where his body still is, moving, laughing, living. 
 
 His job now, Martha's, everyone within, was to make sure the MACHINE ran smoothly. Like a farmer, it cherry picked minds from Earth. Scanned them and replicated them within itself. Thousands, maybe millions of minds given form to take care of and treat the MACHINE. 
 
 `` No.'' Carol shook her head as she tightened a bolt. `` The tentacle will die without the rest of the body and the octopus will just grow a new arm.'' 
 
 Murph returned to work. 

