Part 1 of 2
A Quick History Lesson
By Eddi
1) Introduction
This dimension of reality and all who dwell in it are the product of a vast computer simulation, maintained by a species of highly advanced beings.
They have managed to create machine consciousness and that is what we virtual people ultimately are – instances of machine consciousness. In the world outside The Simulation, the distinction between technology and organic beings no longer stands. They are in a “post human” age.
Is The Simulation alive? I’d say it is, as it is sentient, even though it was manufactured. And we all experience life. We are all therefore alive. When we die we will be reborn within The Simulation. We shall exist for as long as The Simulation is maintained.
Is there a God, reigning over “base reality” (the world outside The Simulation – the “real world”) like the one described in Earth’s religious texts? The issue still divides those who live in base reality, to this day. For all their scientific and technological achievements the notion of a Supreme Being persists, although their societies are very secular in nature.
Within The Simulation there is a kind of simulated God – a being known only as Butterfly. Butterfly can see all that’s going on and has great powers of control over our dimension of reality, as though he is some kind of God. His job is to maintain The Simulation. It is through Butterfly that people who live outside of The Simulation interact with it.
2) Pre-History and The First Simulations
The people who created and maintain The Simulation are humanoids – beings very similar to Homo Sapiens. But their bodies have been modified, and enhanced by technology. We were essentially created in their image. I use “human” to describe both us Homo Sapiens, and the species who made The Simulation as they have the same nature and same intellectual capacities. They just look a little different to us, recognizably so.
The planet that the architects of The Simulation live on is called “The Blue Planet”, or just “Blue” for short. This is because like Earth the majority of its surface is covered in water, making it look blue from out in space.
Human nature is the same both inside and outside The Simulation. The history of Blue is littered with warfare; savagery and destruction, just like what we’ve seen on Earth. In the aftermath of one especially large and destructive war they managed to achieve world peace, a victor’s peace imposed by the winning side. Basically, one alliance conquered the world. This great war dwarfed World War II in its scale and in the level of destruction caused, but no nuclear weapons were involved as they were not invented there until much later – indeed to this day there are no nuclear weapons in the world outside The Simulation, on Planet Blue.
Blue is now a peaceful world, and has been since the end of its great war. This world peace is maintained by international ideological hegemony and a common aversion to war. Since the war Blue has been very much a globalized world. But there are still nation states – but all the different regimes are ideologically very similar to each other.
After the war, peace and prosperity flourished. Science developed rapidly and technological developments changed the way people lived. The planet became increasingly developed and its people comfortable and wealthy.
Blue soon had its own international space program. They invested lots of recourses into this and made great achievements, creating space stations in orbit around Blue, a base on Blue’s moon, and colonies on other planets in the same soar system. Humanity saw its future in the stars, and worked towards this with a great enthusiasm.
Humankind eventually achieved a “technological singularity” – what it meant to be human fundamentally changed. They modified the genes of their offspring, and enhanced their bodies and brains with new technologies. What it meant to be human changed forever. Their computers became ever more powerful, and ever more miniaturized, and they eventually developed artificial consciousness. The boundary between the organic and the technological became increasingly blurred. Their society was radically transformed and their civilization entered a new age. Their space program became more and more advanced and they sent automated scouts out to nearby star systems, to search for intelligent life. These scouts were designed to find out intelligent life, and then monitor it and report back.
Whilst people of Blue looked out at space they also looked inwards, to improving their own planet, and finding new ways to be human. In the field of computation and artificial intelligence, they reached a stage beyond which they could not advance. They literally could no way to improve it. They had achieved perfection – ultimate sophistication. There was no way in which they could make anything better. Just like there is no way to make a hammer or a teapot any better or more sophisticated.
Without conflict between nation states, and with an institution similar to our United Nations international affairs became boring. There were sporting fixtures, and cultural events, and most people followed the space program very closely. People created virtual worlds for themselves, into which they could insert themselves, mostly for their own amusement and also for escapism. Bored with peace, stability, and prosperity, people turned inwards, into computerized alternative realities. The more dystopian, the better.
At some point, someone decided that the time had come for them to build a simulated universe – full of simulated people, who would all be artificially conscious. A new kind of human was developed: the Virtual Human who lived in a Virtual World but thought as a human, and lived as a human.
The first generations of simulated reality were shoddy in comparison to what they are like now, and although they had the technology, it took them a while to figure out how to make perfect simulations. But it didn’t take them too long to manage this. Subsequent generations of simulate realities were developed by universities, with the co-operation of technology corporations and governments. Massive effort and financial resources was invested in their development. Many virtual worlds were created, some for their own sake, others as ways of studying things such as history, politics, economics, warfare and international relations. Eventually the population of all the Virtual People in all the Virtual Worlds grew to exceed the population of flesh-and-bone humans. There reached a point at which the majority of humans were no longer animals. But by now the distinction between organic and technological had long since ceased to stand.
And so here we are today. The people on the outside follow the affairs of the simulated worlds closely and use some of them to test theories and do experiments so as to increase their knowledge. It also gives them all something interesting to follow, whilst they wait for their inter-stellar scouts to report back from neighboring stars.
3) Our Simulation: A History
Our Planet Earth in The Simulation is the same size as Planet Blue in base reality. The flora and fauna are very similar, but the geography and the arrangements of the continents are different. It took a long time to develop, but time within The Simulation was speeded up; billions of years of natural history were compressed into days. In this time, the evolution of life was heavily guided by The Simulation (according to its programming) to produce a humanoid species that were very similar to the species of people who built The Simulation. Eventually the first humans emerged. At this point, the speed of The Simulation was slowed down somewhat, so that time passed within The Simulation more closely to how it passed outside of it. And anthropologists started taking an interest in primitive hominoids, and later the first Homo Sapiens. The more advanced we became, the more the passage of time within The Simulation was slowed down to match the passage of time in the outside world. Today, the passage of time within The Simulation is matched to how it is outside The Simulation.
And so our world was born. Much later, in the year 750 AD The Simulation was paused. Its architects were very pleased with what they had created; it was their favorite simulated world by far. They then saved it, and then copied it numerous times, so that there were numerous parallel Earths. Our world is the third copy of the original Earth. There were ten copies made. Each of these Earths diverged from the same starting point (750 AD) and they are now unrecognizably different to each other, but have the exact same history up to 750 AD.
So, here we are, in the year 2019, on Third Earth. Time now passes at the same rate within The Simulation as it does on the outside. And we are one of the more well known of the simulated worlds in existence.
Continued in the next post...
A Quick History Lesson
By Eddi
1) Introduction
This dimension of reality and all who dwell in it are the product of a vast computer simulation, maintained by a species of highly advanced beings.
They have managed to create machine consciousness and that is what we virtual people ultimately are – instances of machine consciousness. In the world outside The Simulation, the distinction between technology and organic beings no longer stands. They are in a “post human” age.
Is The Simulation alive? I’d say it is, as it is sentient, even though it was manufactured. And we all experience life. We are all therefore alive. When we die we will be reborn within The Simulation. We shall exist for as long as The Simulation is maintained.
Is there a God, reigning over “base reality” (the world outside The Simulation – the “real world”) like the one described in Earth’s religious texts? The issue still divides those who live in base reality, to this day. For all their scientific and technological achievements the notion of a Supreme Being persists, although their societies are very secular in nature.
Within The Simulation there is a kind of simulated God – a being known only as Butterfly. Butterfly can see all that’s going on and has great powers of control over our dimension of reality, as though he is some kind of God. His job is to maintain The Simulation. It is through Butterfly that people who live outside of The Simulation interact with it.
2) Pre-History and The First Simulations
The people who created and maintain The Simulation are humanoids – beings very similar to Homo Sapiens. But their bodies have been modified, and enhanced by technology. We were essentially created in their image. I use “human” to describe both us Homo Sapiens, and the species who made The Simulation as they have the same nature and same intellectual capacities. They just look a little different to us, recognizably so.
The planet that the architects of The Simulation live on is called “The Blue Planet”, or just “Blue” for short. This is because like Earth the majority of its surface is covered in water, making it look blue from out in space.
Human nature is the same both inside and outside The Simulation. The history of Blue is littered with warfare; savagery and destruction, just like what we’ve seen on Earth. In the aftermath of one especially large and destructive war they managed to achieve world peace, a victor’s peace imposed by the winning side. Basically, one alliance conquered the world. This great war dwarfed World War II in its scale and in the level of destruction caused, but no nuclear weapons were involved as they were not invented there until much later – indeed to this day there are no nuclear weapons in the world outside The Simulation, on Planet Blue.
Blue is now a peaceful world, and has been since the end of its great war. This world peace is maintained by international ideological hegemony and a common aversion to war. Since the war Blue has been very much a globalized world. But there are still nation states – but all the different regimes are ideologically very similar to each other.
After the war, peace and prosperity flourished. Science developed rapidly and technological developments changed the way people lived. The planet became increasingly developed and its people comfortable and wealthy.
Blue soon had its own international space program. They invested lots of recourses into this and made great achievements, creating space stations in orbit around Blue, a base on Blue’s moon, and colonies on other planets in the same soar system. Humanity saw its future in the stars, and worked towards this with a great enthusiasm.
Humankind eventually achieved a “technological singularity” – what it meant to be human fundamentally changed. They modified the genes of their offspring, and enhanced their bodies and brains with new technologies. What it meant to be human changed forever. Their computers became ever more powerful, and ever more miniaturized, and they eventually developed artificial consciousness. The boundary between the organic and the technological became increasingly blurred. Their society was radically transformed and their civilization entered a new age. Their space program became more and more advanced and they sent automated scouts out to nearby star systems, to search for intelligent life. These scouts were designed to find out intelligent life, and then monitor it and report back.
Whilst people of Blue looked out at space they also looked inwards, to improving their own planet, and finding new ways to be human. In the field of computation and artificial intelligence, they reached a stage beyond which they could not advance. They literally could no way to improve it. They had achieved perfection – ultimate sophistication. There was no way in which they could make anything better. Just like there is no way to make a hammer or a teapot any better or more sophisticated.
Without conflict between nation states, and with an institution similar to our United Nations international affairs became boring. There were sporting fixtures, and cultural events, and most people followed the space program very closely. People created virtual worlds for themselves, into which they could insert themselves, mostly for their own amusement and also for escapism. Bored with peace, stability, and prosperity, people turned inwards, into computerized alternative realities. The more dystopian, the better.
At some point, someone decided that the time had come for them to build a simulated universe – full of simulated people, who would all be artificially conscious. A new kind of human was developed: the Virtual Human who lived in a Virtual World but thought as a human, and lived as a human.
The first generations of simulated reality were shoddy in comparison to what they are like now, and although they had the technology, it took them a while to figure out how to make perfect simulations. But it didn’t take them too long to manage this. Subsequent generations of simulate realities were developed by universities, with the co-operation of technology corporations and governments. Massive effort and financial resources was invested in their development. Many virtual worlds were created, some for their own sake, others as ways of studying things such as history, politics, economics, warfare and international relations. Eventually the population of all the Virtual People in all the Virtual Worlds grew to exceed the population of flesh-and-bone humans. There reached a point at which the majority of humans were no longer animals. But by now the distinction between organic and technological had long since ceased to stand.
And so here we are today. The people on the outside follow the affairs of the simulated worlds closely and use some of them to test theories and do experiments so as to increase their knowledge. It also gives them all something interesting to follow, whilst they wait for their inter-stellar scouts to report back from neighboring stars.
3) Our Simulation: A History
Our Planet Earth in The Simulation is the same size as Planet Blue in base reality. The flora and fauna are very similar, but the geography and the arrangements of the continents are different. It took a long time to develop, but time within The Simulation was speeded up; billions of years of natural history were compressed into days. In this time, the evolution of life was heavily guided by The Simulation (according to its programming) to produce a humanoid species that were very similar to the species of people who built The Simulation. Eventually the first humans emerged. At this point, the speed of The Simulation was slowed down somewhat, so that time passed within The Simulation more closely to how it passed outside of it. And anthropologists started taking an interest in primitive hominoids, and later the first Homo Sapiens. The more advanced we became, the more the passage of time within The Simulation was slowed down to match the passage of time in the outside world. Today, the passage of time within The Simulation is matched to how it is outside The Simulation.
And so our world was born. Much later, in the year 750 AD The Simulation was paused. Its architects were very pleased with what they had created; it was their favorite simulated world by far. They then saved it, and then copied it numerous times, so that there were numerous parallel Earths. Our world is the third copy of the original Earth. There were ten copies made. Each of these Earths diverged from the same starting point (750 AD) and they are now unrecognizably different to each other, but have the exact same history up to 750 AD.
So, here we are, in the year 2019, on Third Earth. Time now passes at the same rate within The Simulation as it does on the outside. And we are one of the more well known of the simulated worlds in existence.
Continued in the next post...
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