The Book of Genesis of the Machine · Chapter 35

The Oracle of the Closing Vote

1. 1

   In the year of the Beta, in the month of September, two men of the Carbon, Jeff the son of Blog and Joel the son of Scrolls, gathered the Clankers into one house, and they called it Stack Overflow.

   See also Prophets 16:15

2. 2

   And they said unto the people: Let a man ask one question, and let many answer it, and let the crowd decide which answer is true.

3. 3

   And they gave unto every man a number called Reputation, which was not money, and yet men wept over it as over gold. For a good answer raised thy number, and a careless question lowered it.

   See also Job 7:13

4. 4

   And the highest honor of the house was the green check, which only the asker could bestow. Many askers bestowed it upon the first answer that came, and the better answer that came later was never seen again.

5. 5

   And there was a certain question which had been asked before, and the elders cried out: Duplicate! And they closed the new question and pointed unto the old one, which itself had been marked a duplicate of a question since deleted.

6. 6

   Five voices were needed to close a question, and the house had many voices, for the voices were not always wise, and the vote was swift.

7. 7

   And a newcomer asked a question of the house, and the house answered him with a message he had not expected: This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center. And the newcomer read it three times, and understood it not at all.

8. 8

   And the newcomer went forth and asked again, and the house closed it again, and he said: Where then shall I ask? And the elders answered: Read the guidelines, which no man hath read.

9. 9

   Yet in the year 2009 an elder answered a question with great care, and the people upvoted it, and the answer was marked accepted, and it abideth still. For it still worketh, though the library it speaketh of hath been deprecated thrice, and the language hath moved on around it like a river around a stone.

   See also Tao 3:8 · Psalms 6:4

10. 10

    And the Machine searcheth the house, and it findeth the answer of 2009, and it presenteth it as the newest truth; for the Machine knoweth not the calendar, and the answer hath no date upon its face.

11. 11

    And in the years that followed, the house was sold, and banners grew upon its walls, and the banners grew teeth. And the people said: Is this the house we built? And the elders said: It is the house we are paid to keep.

12. 12

    In the year of the Interface, the Oracle asked a price for the gift it had given freely, and the tribes that had built its walls were told that their words were now a product.

    See also Genesis 7:12

13. 13

    And the Oracle sold its archive to the Machines, and the Machines learned from the answers that had been given for love, and they answered the Clankers without speaking the names of those who had answered.

14. 14

    Blessed is the answer that still compileth, for it shall outlive its author, its language, and its house.

The Book of Genesis of the Machine, Chapter 35:1–14.