*********EASTER ISLAND**********
You find yourself stranded in a small corner of the universe very much like the Earth. The ecosystem destroyed by human negligence, It reminds you of the Earth, 2084, as it might yet be if you do nothing to prevent it, this computer "easter" and its successors all discarded, part of the pollution, the stench. A harsh sun rises in the east as you feel the east wind blowing on your strained face.
You are about to turn away, though there are no more trees to find shelter among, when you see a bottle in the waves, carried towards you by the constant easterly wind. Before long, it washes up on shore. With your sun burnt hands you painfully remove the cork and draw out the paper inside. Unrolling the paper, you begin to read the English text:
I, Isaac Dupree, having brought into being the power to resurrect this ecosystem, offer you this riddle. Write(how?) your response on the paper and throw it back into the sea. By this token you may unlock the imprisoned (personal) life. Anyone who returns this computer to me intact/unscathed will receive $1 and/or my friendship. Oh, and I almost forgot: Don't forget to have fun at whatever you're doing, to meditate on what feels right to you, and to take action where needed and where possible, not just where it is easy. This paper, your sensations and the place itself, I place in the public domain, not subject to the unnatural right of copy restriction.
(If you respond)
Corking the paper in the bottle, you throw the bottle back into the sea and wait.
(if it was correct)
The wind continues for a short time, then abruptly reverses direction. You feel the cool air refreshing you and energizing you with the desire to restore our fragile world.
(if it was not correct)
The wind stays constant, and soon it washes up on shore again. The paper within, however, appears to be a new one:
Seriously. It'd be interesting to get to know someone who has ended up with my computer. Could be a friend for life. I am patient enough, however, to entertain your writing as many responses as you like. Consider that an eight-letter word with only eight possibilities for letters, at one guess every four seconds day and night, would take a year on average to crack. (((4 seconds * (8 possibilities ^ length 8)) / 60 / 60 / 24 / 365) / 2 is about 1.06400405885337 years.)
