Paul knocked on the door, frowning down at his clipboard.”Come in!” He heard a deep voice shout from inside the room. “Ah Paul, good to see you, how are you today?” Asked the old man behind the desk. “Well, God I was just reviewing our soul mate algorithm for the upcoming generation….” Paul said, flipping through pages.”Have a seat dear boy, let’s talk about it.” God said with a grin and a gesture towards the wooden chairs across from his desk. Paul smiled at his boss. Sure he was 2,000 years old but he’d always be a boy to the entity that had been conscious for billions of years.
God reached down for his glasses to look at the papers Paul had handed him. Again Paul smiled, God could take any form he wanted but he often took the old man form since it was the way many humans saw him and felt the most comfortable with him. But Paul had been dead for nearly 2000 years and interacted with him almost every Earth day since but he still sometimes found himself stuttering over his sentences in his presence. God looked at him over his glasses. “So what seems to be the problem?” He asked.
“Well,” Paul said, retrieving some of the papers. “As you know, Earth has been increasing in globalization in the last 500 years, which has increased the interaction of different cultures and races. But as time passes, it becomes more and more evident that this actually causes people to be more discriminatory. Humans have such an “us versus them” mentality that they don’t realize how much it cripples them in finding love and happiness.” Paul explained. God nodded his sad approval. “Our current algorithm for placing human soul mates is more random right? With some preferences for location and age?” Paul smiled. Of course God knew what the algorithm’s current settings were, he just liked to give Paul the chance to explain himself. “Yes, the current algorithm for finding your soul mate is more random but it does try to place soul mates within a closer distance of one another and for them to be closer in age, but not always. Race was never a factor in our algorithm before. But I’m noticing a trend.” He said.
God frowned. “What is that?” He asked. “As different races have moved closer together, the soul mate algorithm has naturally placed people’s soul mates in people of a different race more and more often. But they are refusing one another. Or one is refusing the other based on race and their ‘preference.’
God looked back down at the paperwork. It listed thousands maybe even millions of people that had been close to their soul mate but because of racial prejudice had overlooked them or even mocked them! The person that would have helped them grow and feel loved for the rest of their lives, shunned to the side merely because of the color of their skin or because of feared judgment from others. “I feel like I told them to love and respect one another, right?” God said in an exasperated tone. Paul chuckled. “We all did. But every generation has to learn again. And as globalization continues, this polarization of dealing with race will only get worse if we don’t do something.” Paul said. “I mean really, of all the things to get hung up on, they are the most concerned about the melanin in the other person’s skin?! Avoiding happiness, love and self growth based on how easily the other one absorbs Vitamin D from the sun.” God ranted. Paul shrugged. “You did sort of create us to be visual.””Yeah, so you could appreciate the beauty of a flower not think one flower is better than the other. You are all UNIQUE but not BETTER than the other.” He continued. Paul nodded, letting his boss get frustrated. “I know and you knew this might be a consequence of visual appreciation but I think if we add a racial component to the algorithm, we could reverse the effects.” He said. God interlaced his fingers. “I think this could cause an increased polarization but if enough follow their heart, then it would change the cultural bias.” He said. Paul nodded, “My thoughts exactly.”
“Alright then, go ahead and change the coding in the algorithm. I would prefer the soul mates to be in races that they specifically refuse to be with. We need to put some pressure on their cultural norms so they learn to love one another again.” God said.Paul nodded, and stood, stacking his papers as he exited the room.God sighed and whispered to himself, “I’m definitely not looking forward to all of the prayers whining that they can’t find love.”
Closed System 