Well, the task does need to be massively parallelizable, since in theory it is possible to have a million threads working simultaneously. I suppose it isn't so much a tunnel as a sprawling mine webbed with shafts. But still only 4 shovels to go around.

• Worker = thread
• Shovel = CPU core
• Passing shovel between workers = CPU context switch
• Designated dig area/volume= combined list of thread tasks, order generally unimportant
• Elevator (requires a shovel to operate the controls) = Spawn/kill threads
• Boss leaning on a shovel for photo ops = CPU wasted on refreshing your desktop

I'm not sure what RAM and swapping to disk would correspond to.

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