Below you will find yet another example of a waking dream discussing an alternate view of reality. This one was recorded on as noted below.
++++++++++++
Friday,
August 03, 2012
They were having one of their "what if…?" discussions when he asked aloud. "Why do we suffer so much? It is as if there is no proportion to what happens to any one individual. It's as if each event has no causal heritage."
"Why do you say
that?"
"Imagine that
there is a computer simulation which takes place within an
'environment' and within this environment there are 'agents' which are given attributes and parameters or
values. Their purpose is to 'live' in the simulation, following its own rules
based upon the settings of the environment, reacting with the settings of the
attribute values."
"So?"
"So the agents
are given base class parameters of who
and what they are and the programmer lifts their finger and the start button is
pressed. Events occur based upon causal relationships. But since the programmer
is looking for something specific and wants to speed the simulation's
evolutionary and adaptation process they changed the rules in regard to causal
relationships. Instead of there being clear punishment for bad behavior
sometimes it was rewarded and sometimes good behavior was punished. Sometimes
events occur that had no causal reason and an agent is rewarded or
punished."
"What's the
point of the simulation? Why would the programmer want to make those rule
changes? What you've described does not sound ethical."
"I'm not sure
there is a point to the changes made in the simulation yet but what is unusual
is that some how something weird happened."
"What might
that be?"
"The agent's
parameters evolved to varying degrees
over the life of the simulation but seemingly out of no where a new attribute
appeared -- consciousness. Up until that point in the simulation the agents
followed the 'rules' now suddenly the
agents became self-aware and with it came the qualitative experience called
emotion. It was an unexpected mutation.
In addition the agents developed 'off line' storage in the form of writing.
"What was the
effect of this change?"
"Now the agents
could consciously see and experience the
simulation but were not aware of the
non-linear nature of the simulation's rules."
"Non-linear?"
"By that I mean
there is not a one to one relationship between action and result. Given varying degrees of heaven and hell
which did not correspond to proper causality these self-aware agents made up
justifications and rationalizations concerning good and evil and reward and
punishment."
"So what is it
you are trying to say?"
"Look
around."
"This is a
simulation. My God..."
"The proper
term, I believe, is 'My Programmer…'"
++++++++++++
©2014 by j.h. crook.
all rights reserved
