For the next minute or so, I want you to put aside every belief you have about who you are and what the world and the universe is all about. Forget religion and real life. Then, if you want, forget what I’m about to tell you and go back to living whatever reality you feel is comfortable for you.

Philosophers, not scientists, have reason to believe that all stuff on this planet, clouds, giraffes, rocks, rabbits, Ferraris, and tomatoes, are no more real than the simulations of life on your computer gaming system. And the reasons they ponder this idea is that many things that occur in this world cannot be rationed off as the works of a god or the sudden consequences of reactions due to natural stimuli; for example…warm water and hurricanes. Eradication of disease. Sudden death with no overtime. Lingering illness with lots of overtime.

In other words, some guy in a room somewhere, maybe a kid in high school, has set up this universe on his computer. We’re all simulations and the reason philosophers enjoy juggling this stuff is that we have ample evidence now that the future may be an intruder upon our present moment and that this intrusion is a way that the future can see what things were like at this stage of their development. And since we’re all dead (remember the future is in charge) those who exist in the future study us through simulations of what life was like when we were alive.

They have all the DNA they need to download into a simulated world every one of us who ever existed and that the computer program will then feed us, put birds at our feeders, and cause many of us to die in traffic accidents, not because the future is made up of nine year old boys with cherry bombs, but because it’s the only way residents of the future have to study the authenticity of their evolutionary history. And what’s even weirder, they have given us…mere simulations in a virtual computer universe.the ability to develop systems of our own that will make it perfectly clear that what we are is electronic reproductions of something that existed a long time ago. This will enable us to do the same thing, to create our own virtual universes perhaps to see the future before it occurs.

The perfect reality meld between what’s happened and what’s going to occur. The past. The present. And the future all together at once. The ultimate realization of what “it” is all about. And it’s not at all like the matrix movies because unlike those films, we can’t disconnect ourselves and move around the simulation. Whether it’s a .45 to the side of the head or any other act of suicide, once we disconnect that’s it. Until we’re downloaded again into another simulation to begin the process all over again.

So now, go back to your beliefs and have a great life but whatever you do don’t mistake it for the real thing. Because the real thing might just be that high school kid clicking on to see what the world was like now so he can right a report about it for his social studies class. And who knows? The future might just be the year 1950 for all we know. But we don’t because after all, we don’t really exist.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Stuff I know, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.