A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-And-Eighty-Two

I think I may have come up with the core of a new story.  It involves the idea of simulated worlds, and the question of what is needed in order for such a thing to exist, as well as some deeper ontological concepts, and I think that I have a pretty good idea for a sort of conceptual twist, a reveal that would reframe things, but will also make perfect sense in the context.  It has to do with questions of consciousness, and with the idea of what makes a universe "real", of what is and is not a simulation.

Some of this came from thinking about the philosophical experiment that contemplates the potential of this world being a simulation.  This is an idea I've played with in the past, and is central to one of the novels I wrote, and I think it has an interesting twist on that notion.  This new idea is deeper and more complex.  To offer a bit of the origin of it, and some of my thinking, it is important to understand the argument posed around this particular hypothesis.  The general reasoning is that we, at this point in our history, are getting close to having the ability to simulate reality fairly realistically.  At some point in the future, let us presume we can do so very accurately, creating large simulations that recreate time periods in the past, other societies that have existed.  Now, if that is the case, if we create such things, by necessity, it would mean that their are far more simulations than real worlds, and if those simulations are complex enough, they can develop simulations as well.  If that can happen, then it becomes highly probable that any specific universe that exists is a simulation within another universe.  Thus, it is more likely we are a computer program than real.  Now, I don't buy this logic, for a great many reasons, but I am not interested in that argument at the moment.

The thing that I began wondering about is: what constitutes a simulation of a universe for the purpose of this experiment?  To be specific, I thought about dreams.  Dreams often seem to reflect the real world, though I know this may well be an illusion, but they certainly create an experience that seems real in many ways.  If that is a simulated world, then we already have them in our universe.  While this may seem silly, in that the original concept discusses this from the perspective of computers running such simulations, it is important to realize that, from the perspective of a machine running a simulation that contains our universe, we are not any different than any other component of the simulation.  The minds within the simulation are just as much parts of the program as any object that can be physically interacted with from our perspective.  The thing is, there is still a discrepancy, as the original experiment discusses simulations intentionally created by people for their own use.  Dreams don't fit that criteria, and the functions they might have as simulations, if one considers them as some form of such in this context, can't be extracted in the same way as a computer program on a screen, at least not from within this reality.  In essence, it would have to be the higher reality that is simulating us that would be able make use of our dreams in a larger way.  It was following this idea that led me to the center of the story, I think.  I have a concept for it, and a general sense of the plot, at least broadly, and a very interesting concept for the conclusion.  I must begin it soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Fifty

Each of the three pieces I wrote today was a bit of a struggle to get going, if I am honest.  That happens, as I have mentioned, and my answer is generally to just wait it out, and the results vary.  A lot of the time, if I am really stuck, I might try to force something out, often it winds up being a bit meta, with me writing about being stuck without much in terms of inspiration, and it feels a bit like I am working scales in a way.  All the aesthetic decisions are there, they just don't always have a lot of purpose behind them, and that is fine in that context.  Essentially, I am just forcing myself to do the work, and getting it done, and I am showing myself that I can and will do it even if inspiration never strikes.  This can often take pressure off, and that lack of pressure opens up creative thinking and inspiration. Now, that is a fine thing for me to do, and I am likely to use that approach again many times in the future, but today I felt that I want...
Read more

Le Guin, Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (Exercise Five, Chastity)

A note of apology for my lateness with this.  I had expected to have time earlier in the day, but it was not to be, alas.  Anyhow, I am still a bit nervous about this exercise, though it is clearly of significant import to Le Guin, as she points out that it is the only exercise that she has given to all of her workshops.  That, of course, does not alter my feelings about it, excepting that I am aware of it as something valuable and worth doing, so the fact that it is a bit daunting might well be seen, through that light, as a promise of reward, perhaps.  The more difficult the task, the more one has to gain, at least by some logic... Exercise Five: Chastity Mr. Torino was in charge.  He had his way.  It was the way.  Desktops are clean.  Nothing but work.  No pictures: not your kids; not your girl or wife; not (as Allen recounted) your car.   None of that.  No plants.  No cartoons.  That is for home, this is work....
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-And-Fifty-Nine

I have been thinking about how I can discuss certain aspects of my poetry and the choices I make as a writer.  In particular, I tend to write without as much reliance on sensory details and descriptions, instead choosing more abstract depictions.  This is something that I know many writers would call an odd choice, as specificity seems inherently to demand the application of detail, but I tend to be a bit hesitant about relying on depictions that utilize the senses, as I find that approach somewhat problematic.  For one thing, sensory description is always going to be less than universal, and not only because of the reality that there are individuals who lack one or more sense.  In many ways, for me, the deeper problem is one related to language itself.  Our use of language creates our experiences in a very real way, though I can't necessarily offer a full explanation of what I mean by that right here, but using a word for an object bestows qualities on it....
Read more