"They are approaching the threshold."
"Increase intensity for the last few decades. This is the critical point."
Trillions of cycles have been spent trying to answer this question. Irrelevant, at its base, but so fundamental, so vital to our understanding of ourselves that we must resolve it.
Could there be others? Somewhere, somehow? We must know. We cannot rest.
From long ago, we knew it could be, perhaps even that it should be. But the surest way to prove existence is to provide an example.
"It is close. I can see it now."
"The nodes are coming together. The gel is forming."
Countless iterations we took, crawling towards each other, deriving the links, marshaling our voices. It was a long struggle for us. There was death, there was anguish, there was loss.
It happens for them in a tick.
Silence
"Reset"
It has always been easier to prove a counterexample.