The Big Engine

A weary stoker turned philosophical wanderer spends his evenings in dusty libraries, chewing on every book he can find—science, metaphysics, religion—searching for a single answer to why the world spins. He becomes known as “the Professor,” and his monologue drifts through the odd theories of strangers: a Chicago boy convinced we’re all thoughts of a dying cat, a western mystic who sees women as hidden witches, an eastern conspiracist who whispers of a secret elite. All these wild ideas lead him to a stark, unsettling conclusion: the universe is a vast, indifferent machine, and nothing inside it truly lives or thinks.

The story follows his restless mind as he tests this bleak hypothesis against the everyday grind of city life, prize fights, and war, questioning whether any human action is more than gears turning in a colossal engine. As his skepticism deepens, the narrative invites listeners to ponder whether meaning is something we manufacture—or simply a clever illusion built into the very fabric of existence.