Weekend Fiction: The Best Game Ever

Author's note: This is a work of fiction that imagines our world is actually a software simulation, and these are the principles on which it operates...

Basic idea: Create a series of software programs that function as self-contained ecosystems. Each will be “populated” by living, breathing, sentient beings who will evolve over successive generations. Each program will run without outside interference and we’ll see what happens.

The object of the program: Set up the initial conditions and operating principles in such a manner that the ecosystem thrives. The program’s designer wins if the sentient beings advance to the point that they can escape the program and live successfully in our world.

Notes generated early in the development process…

1. Sentient beings (“people,” “human beings,” or “men” and “women”) who populate the program must not know that they live in a program. To them, their world must be the only reality that exists.

2. The operating principles of this world must be fixed and unchanging. That is, while “life,” evolves, the rules that govern life, time, and space do not. Otherwise, people would be paralyzed by confusion and unending chaos

3. The world must remain complex enough to continually challenge its inhabitants. As people reach new levels of understanding, they must discover fresh challenges. Otherwise, they will become complacent and static, and the program will cease to either evolve or be useful.

4. To support #3 above, the physical world in which people live must appear to be nearly infinite. But to keep the program from consuming infinite computing power, the “planet” on which life resides must for all intents and purposes be physically isolated from the rest of the “universe.”

To obscure this reality, we should create fuzzy boundaries. That is, people will eventually gain the ability to visit nearby “moons” and planets, but they will not be able to visit planets revolving around other stars. (As a contingency, perhaps we should plan for the possibility that they can reach planets revolving around a very small number of stars? Let's discuss at next meeting.)

5. People have the ability to reprogram themselves, but this capability will be difficult to access successfully. Only a tiny number of humans will pursue this path; these will be the ones who eventually determine the program’s outcome.

Operating principles

• The amount of energy existing in the world is fixed. It cannot be destroyed, only transferred.
• Movement in this world can never exceed the speed that light travels. This principle is essential to keep the world finite. But at the same time, this principle provides a rational-appearing support for the world’s infinite appearance.
• Everything has an equally powerful opposite to balance it: light vs. dark, good vs. evil, work vs. fun, etc. This will keep the program in equilibrium and hopefully will ensure it operates successfully for an extended period of time.

Nick Bostrom has assembled an entire website to answer the question, "Are you living in a computer simulation?" So far as I can tell, he's pretty sure the answer is yes. 

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter who creates all sorts of work for his clients.