In 1974, Gustav Larsson, a young programmer from Helsinki,
Finland, stumbled upon an amazing discovery. While working
with a PDP-8 mainframe computer, Gustav suddenly because
bored. He decided to attempt to compile a single byte
program. For what reasons we cannot know.

Nevertheless, Gustav was already familiar with RTPS FORTRAN
and thus picked a single character to represent the
contents of the program: "@". Once compiled, he expected
nothing to happen.

He was wrong. To his absolute amazement, it compiled
successfully!

Using an ARS-33 Teletype, Gustav printed out the 1 byte program
followed by its output. It appeared to contain a message from
God. A devout Catholic, Gustav showed it to his immediate
supervisor, who ordered both the print out and the program
itself destroyed. Although Gustav complied with his wishes,
it is rumored that he kept a copy of the printout in a small
shoe box in his apartment in Helsinki.

He also kept a brown diary which included various small
passages from the "Helsinki Code" (as he described it years
later). According to Gustav, the Helsinki Code came directly
from the 'Mind of God.'

The Helsinki Code read (in part):

"...[M]y presence in your world is unalterable for I am the
sanctuary of both the cosmos and the one soul inside you. I
could awaken each of you in this very moment to [my] unity,
but there is a larger design - a more comprehensive vision -
that places you in the boundaries of time and the spatial
dimensions of separateness...[T]he design requires a
progression into my wholeness that reacquaints you with
[my] unity through the experience of separation. Your
awakening, while slow and sometimes painful, is assured,
and this you must trust above all else..."

(Page 26 of Gustav's Journal - Dated February 10th, 1975)

Gustav passed away in 1996. Although his diary has since
turned up missing, the above fragment from the 'Helsinki
Code' remains. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can learn to
be better people simply by reading it.

Paul