(Please beer with me, I've been drinking.)
Sometimes I have some pretty deep thoughts for a guy named Tex.
Do you ever wonder if our lives are just a program or simulation or a game?
Was Bill Hicks right?
Is this just a ride?
I find thoughts like this strangely comforting, kind of takes the pressure off.
I'm going to try to live the rest of my life like it's just a ride.
Whee!
Just think of the evolution in gaming. The goal is always to get more immersive. Mostly in the world of gaming two of our five senses have been focused on (sight and sound). If and when we can get to the point where all five senses can be incorporated into the game it will be that much more immersive. I remember back in 2005 it was reported that Sony put a patent on a non-invasive ultrasonic pulse beam technology that would have the capability of artificially inducing sensory perception. Imagine that, a gaming device that could not only beam perceptions that you can see and hear directly into your head… but also perceptions that you could feel, smell and or taste. So who knows maybe several years down the line they will have a machine that can do that. But that’s not the final frontier of game immersion. The next step for total immersion above and beyond that would be some type of time compression technology, to give the user the perception that more time has elapsed in the game than in the real world. So maybe you put on the device… set the timer for five minutes and you play a game for what seems to last a week long. Maybe it’s a vacation program? Five minutes later… you’re back in the real world, looking for your next program fix. Then a step beyond time compression would be to induce amnesia in the players for the duration of the game. This would affect the player in such a way so that he or she simply does not realize that his or her experiences are a simulation. Who knows… maybe we’re playing that game right now?
ReplyDeleteNWO - I didn't know about the time compression thing, but I have imagined it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think about "Coming to" like a guy saying
"Hey buddy, rides over." and disconnecting myself from a ride at Six Flags. "Man, that seemed so real."
I seriously do wonder about it at times.
And if you just go with the odds, think about how many simulation programs there are and will be vs one true reality, odds are, this is a simulation. It's really mind blowing stuff.
Yeah the time compression was imaginary on my part as well. But you’d think that eventually they would try to make it as immersive and real as possible. In‘Total Recall’ that device that they used to implant people with memory vacations. That device would have had to use some type of time compression effect. But yeah you’re right it seems that the odds are good that whatever we are experiencing now could be some type of simulation. I’m certain if we had the power now to create a game that you didn’t know was a game while you were playing it… we would create that game.. Because it would add to the realism. And being that we would create it, we could likely already be in it. There are so many potentialities when considering the simulation hypothesis.
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