Babble

Description

Mike is a small cog in the giant machine that is Babble - a software corporation that dominates the Silicon Valley. Their live-translation app enables them to hire the best from around the world. Mike works at Babble HQ, a skyscraper which is the tallest in the world and still growing - CEO Mr Mirond and his shareholders fund ongoing construction. Mike works hard, driven by the inspirational philosophy of Mr Mirond, who teaches Babble employees to assert themselves and take charge of their destiny. Fed on these ideas, he decides to seek his boss, CFO Hideo Kane, and request promotion. He finds Hideo in a tense meeting with a group of suits, and eavesdrops. Lead shareholder and titanic capitalist Ronald Buchanan has sent his foot-soldiers to take over, because Mirond has gone AWOL, hundreds of floors up at the top of the tower. No one has seen him in months and construction has stopped. Hideo and Buchanan head upwards in search of Mirond, and Mike gives chase, hoping to meet his idol. As they make their way up the labyrinthine tower, they unravel the nature of one another's ambitions, and discover that Mirond's goal transcends all of theirs.

Biblical Connection

Babble seeks to update and add subtlety to the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel, which condemns the hubris of mankind's greatest collective enterprises. During my research I came across historian Flavius Josephus' 'Antiquities of the Jews', which added detail to the Babel story. He writes that the Babel project was masterminded by the galvanizing King Nimrod, (NIMROD->MIROND) '[...] a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God as if it were through his means that they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which produced that happiness.' The hubris-tic enterprises of our time are driven not by tyrannical kings but by powerful capitalists, like Donald Trump or Elon Musk. They seek to elevate themselves to godliness through wealth and technology. The key question is whether such ambitions should be condemned, as Nimrod's was, or if enlightened curiosity can overpower arrogance. The story’s climax will be modelled on the Pentecost story from the Acts of the Apostles – the moment when the New Testament God undid the punishment after the Tower of Babel, restoring linguistic mastery and heavenly visions to his students and messengers.