The Fall of Pompeii (79 AD)... but if they were cavemen:
People live near big mountain. Mountain quiet long time. People think mountain safe. People build home. Paint walls. Sell food. Laugh.
One day ground shake. Sky break open. Black cloud rise. Ash fall like snow. People confused. Some run. Some stay.
Fire wind come fast. Hot air burn. No escape. City cover in ash. Quiet again.
Long, long time later, new people dig ground. They find houses. They find bones. They see last moment of old people. Mountain teach lesson: Earth strong. Man not.
The Fall of Pompeii (79 AD)... but if they were mad scientists:
Pompeii was perfect.
A controlled environment. Dense population. Predictable routines. A city built beneath a mountain that the locals believed was harmless. Fools. The signs were there—tremors, sulfur in the air, the mountain breathing like a living organism. We observed. We waited.
On the day of the eruption, Vesuvius did not merely explode—it performed. A column of ash erupted into the sky, exactly as pressure models would predict when magma meets trapped gas. The sky darkened. The city panicked. Excellent data conditions.
Ash accumulation increased by the minute. Structures collapsed under calculated weight loads. Human behavior followed expected patterns: flee, freeze, deny. Some ran. Some hid. Most delayed too long. The pyroclastic surges arrived next—superheated gas traveling faster than thought, terminating life instantly. Clean results. No suffering worth measuring. Just sudden cessation.
By morning, the experiment was complete. Pompeii was sealed beneath meters of volcanic material, preserved in near-perfect condition. An entire civilization frozen mid-action. We could not have designed a better archive.
Centuries later, when future scientists excavated the site, they would call it a tragedy. We would call it a breakthrough. Pompeii proved the theory beyond doubt: nature does not negotiate, and humanity is just another variable in the equation.
The Fall of Pompeii (79 AD)... but if they were cavemen: People live near big mountain. Mountain quiet long time. People think mountain safe. People build home. Paint walls. Sell food. Laugh. One day ground shake. Sky break open. Black cloud rise. Ash fall like snow. People confused. Some run. Some stay. Fire wind come fast. Hot air burn. No escape. City cover in ash. Quiet again. Long, long time later, new people dig ground. They find houses. They find bones. They see last moment of old people. Mountain teach lesson: Earth strong. Man not. The Fall of Pompeii (79 AD)... but if they were mad scientists: Pompeii was perfect. A controlled environment. Dense population. Predictable routines. A city built beneath a mountain that the locals believed was harmless. Fools. The signs were there—tremors, sulfur in the air, the mountain breathing like a living organism. We observed. We waited. On the day of the eruption, Vesuvius did not merely explode—it performed. A column of ash erupted into the sky, exactly as pressure models would predict when magma meets trapped gas. The sky darkened. The city panicked. Excellent data conditions. Ash accumulation increased by the minute. Structures collapsed under calculated weight loads. Human behavior followed expected patterns: flee, freeze, deny. Some ran. Some hid. Most delayed too long. The pyroclastic surges arrived next—superheated gas traveling faster than thought, terminating life instantly. Clean results. No suffering worth measuring. Just sudden cessation. By morning, the experiment was complete. Pompeii was sealed beneath meters of volcanic material, preserved in near-perfect condition. An entire civilization frozen mid-action. We could not have designed a better archive. Centuries later, when future scientists excavated the site, they would call it a tragedy. We would call it a breakthrough. Pompeii proved the theory beyond doubt: nature does not negotiate, and humanity is just another variable in the equation.