In the previous article, three possible answers to the question of Why we are in a Simulation and its evidence to support the famous Simulation Argument were detailed. The first of these theories was that of ‘Victims’ placed in an alternate reality against one’s will by a perpetrator, with the intention to exploit or use the victim for personal gain. To illustrate this there are four different models of Simulation based on four very popular fictional stories from Hollywood. Hope you enjoy pondering over the same in order to deliberate over the hypothesis of the Simulation Argument.
A) The Truman Show — A Closed Physical Set Controlled Externally by Show Creators
1. Environment
A limited, physical 3D world disguised as a full reality; essentially a stage set with boundaries. In this film there is a giant dome with an entire town within it enclosed by water around and a false sky above, with image projections of stars, clouds, sunlight, wind, thunder, rain, just like a 4D film.
2. Architecture
Man-made, mechanical, and fully scripted with improvisations; the town is controlled and monitored from outside with cameras, microphones, actors, and invisible ear implants through which the show creators or organizers talk to the actors and guide them, except for the victim who is addressed by the ‘Creator’ only upon escape.
3. Characters
Actors populate the town (set), with one central victim being observed since birth and completely unaware of being in a show, until he begins to find some evidence on receiving a hint from an extra on the set and exploring further.
4. Objective
Entertainment and financial gain; exploitation of the protagonist for the purpose of making a show and gaining advertising revenues through it for the personal gain of the show’s makers. All items are on sale including houses on the show.
5. Way Out
Locating the physical boundary of the dome, breaking through and discovering the external world, required the ‘true’ man to conquer his fear of water or drowning and set sail alone. Also by emotional detachment and assertiveness, the protagonist refused to be part of his (false) family drama by realizing that his wife, friends and relatives around are not ‘real’. He notices the patterns and evidence of ‘un-reality’ in event sequences and chose to break free by physical travel or movement outside.
B) The Matrix — A Full Digital Simulation Run by Energy Hungry AI
1. Environment
While the Truman Show depicted an ordinary brick and mortar world, The Matrix opened our eyes to the possibility of a digitally rendered world with procedural algorithms that mimic infinite space. The world appears vast but is ultimately limited. Outside the globe of earth no civilizations exist (Fermi Paradox, one we can relate with), while upon earth corporate giants have taken over land with tall glassy towers, animal meat in restaurants, and other big industries post industrial revolution and capitalism much like our own world.
2. Architecture
Computer programs, code loops, glitches, limited by processing power keep the victim engrossed and controlled by putting Neo back on the treadmill (psychological reset mechanisms) as soon as he is shot or if he tries jumping off the building, thereby maintaining continuity of memories and experience. Strong ‘deja-vu’ moments indicate that the AI made a change in reality by superimposing an alternate timeline.
There can also be an adaptive simulation model in such a computer generated simulation, one in which situations shift, depending on one’s own inner state of consciousness as it is a mind linked simulation.
3. Characters
A mix of:
AI programs (Oracle, Smith, Merovingian, either help or hinder the victims by carefully putting them on to a path they have designed in order to keep the plan going in a desired way).
Human victims plugged into the system are unaware they are victims and seem to either enjoy or struggle. They range from copper-tops, to super rich icons such as Cypher who had chosen to be put back to sleep.
Awakened rebels (Morpheus, Neo, Trinity) have chosen to be free by realizing that they are in a programmed reality and not the real world. They try to break free themselves, and returned to help others who are real victims if those they help do choose to be free and take the ‘red pill’ and not the ‘blue pill’ (as a symbol of choice, thereby respecting free will).
In an adaptive model, characters may also change and adapt based on one’s own mental energy shifts to become positive or negative, helpful or hindering, spiritually calming or stressful and materialistic, in case we are in one such Matrix.
4. Objective
Energy harvesting or extraction in order to keep the machines in power. Humans were farmed just like non human animals, as machines could not harvest the sun for power due to humans polluting the sky. In order to extract energy from humans, the machines needed to establish mind control of most victims, and keep them stressed with nightmares and unfulfilled desires. As long as there was systemic stability and continuity or a reset of the Matrix a parallel world was allowed to operate by letting the anomaly of an unresolved equation in the program (Neo) become ‘The One’ with a certain function, in order to maintain a certain level of survival for the machines.
5. Way Out
Awakening from within; red-pill moments are when someone who is free is offered a choice. Then disconnecting them from the central program by unplugging the cables manually upon tracing one’s real trapped body in the human farm which are similar to the intensive animal farming systems we know of.
C) Inception — A Manipulated Dream With Subconscious Projections
1. Environment
Dream layers which are nested dreams within dreams, resembling multiple pocket dimensions stacked within each other, all existing within the overall bigger overall ‘real’ world reality. There is an experience of time dilation with the original time having hardly passed by a few minutes, while all dreamers in the shared dreams, have more time while inside a well architectured dream level, and could even reach old age, in the lowest limbo layer of the raw unconscious.
2. Architecture
Built by dream architects; the dream setup in each level of the nested dream, mimics real life spaces, although not exactly, so that the creators who enter the dream remain in control and are not lost in the dream themselves. Paradoxical geometry such as Penrose steps, opposite mirrors, and Labyrinth architectures, attempt to provide an illusion of infinity within the limited structure. The scenario is crafted by the imagination of the dreamer who puts the victim in this shared dream. The subconscious conflicts of the victim under intervention are visible to all shared dreamers, so that their secrets become known to the perpetrators. Similarly suggestions could be made to them in this state in order to make them behave a certain way upon waking up.
3. Characters
Mostly subconscious projections populate the dream and appear out of the mind of the victim. Only a few conscious co-dreamers exist as humans apart from these projections, and these usually are the dream team sharing the dream together voluntarily and foes who aim to manipulate the dreamer. The dreamers subconscious may include helpers who could even protect the dreamer especially in case they have been previously trained on how to protect their subconscious or even militarize the subconscious to find and attack or destroy intruders or extractors and implanters.
4. Objective
Extraction of information from the mind of the victim, or implantation of ideas into their mind, without the victim’s conscious awareness. The victim is manipulated or drugged into relaxing, thereby being made susceptible to subconscious mental intervention. In case the sub-conscious resists the perpetrators might try to overrule that by winning the victim’s confidence, or even make them fear and harm their own subconscious, for example the ‘Charles gambit’ to masquerade as the victim’s subconscious security person.
5. Way Out
Dying or killing oneself makes the dreamer wake up in upper level dreams but not in deeper layers when death could send them even deeper into a limbo state where they either live out their life span becoming old, or die to wake up. Realizing you are dreaming and using the militarized subconscious to fight off the perpetrators is a possibility in order to resist the manipulations, but the victim usually remains asleep until the drug wears off or until the time span of the dream runs out. In case of the perpetrators they awaken using totems which are objects they carry all the time which behave differently in a dream, in order to test if they are dreaming. They might also use triggers designed carefully such as hearing synchronized music or falling off which jerks them up, due to inner ear being unaffected by the drug, thereby waking up to a higher layer.
D) Charmed— An Alternate Timeline Generated Magically
1. Environment
A magically or energetically generated alternate reality that is essentially an alternate time-line that diverges from a key historical moment, in order to create a new version of reality aimed at dis-empowering or controlling the victim. Cole (the invincible ex demon perpetrator) went into the past as an ‘Avatar’ (ascended master beyond time and space) upon being recruited and bestowed with new powers of manipulating time by the Avatar leaders. He changed the timeline, from the point around the death of Prue (the first sister) in-order to trap Phoebe (who was trying to break free from his control) back into a marriage and isolated her from the rest of her family and friends, taking away her career success so that she depends fully on him and lives with him out of fear. He also ensured that the Power of Three was wiped out with the fourth new sister being dead and the older sister not allowed to talk to Phoebe.
2. Architecture
Constructed by entities (Avatars paired with the demon), with unstable access points between timelines that are accessible or breached magically or by timeline slips, the architecture mimicked the original reality. The property of The Manor and landscape remained similar but control went into the hands of Cole who was successful and powerful as a leader of the underworld with demonic colleagues who feared and obeyed him.
3. Characters
Mostly non-human beings or demons in human forms who chiefly populated the simulation designed by Cole. Only the creator-entity Cole along with the Avatars were fully aware of the construction. The only aware victim had made a slip through by accident.
4. Objective
Entrapment, manipulation and hijacking of the victim’s timeline or destiny in order to entrap her within a narcissistic relationship for the perpetrator’s own romantic aspirations, as well as to win power, authority, and control upon the timeline.
5. Way Out
Recognizing the illusion by listening to the sister who had full awareness and memory of the real world, and breaking free from the spell or timeline overlay by fighting off and vanquishing the perpetrator.
These four extremely vivid descriptions from these feature films or series are based on the idea that we might be placed in the simulation on purpose by someone other than the self for a malicious or manipulative purpose. In the next and final part of this article, I will examine alternate theories drawn from an idea that we might not be victims at all, based on popular exoteric and esoteric spiritual ideologies and science fiction. Stay tuned and please feel free to comment and discuss further.
Swati Prakash 