What if it’s all a simulation

About this New Yorker article, What Are The Odds We Are Living In A Computer Simulation, lot of people are saying “LOL. Just go to church!” But as discussed, the simulation proponents are doing it not to pursue meaning. They substitute mere understanding.

The similarities are obvious. Both say that the world around you is not the real, or important world. What’s real is what’s behind or underneath. Beyond that, though, these interpretations don’t go the same direction.

The simulation proponents are not saying that a powerful force outside ourselves created the simulation, they are saying our technologically advanced descendants made the simulation. So, it’s us creating the simulation for us, locking out the supernatural.

It’s materialist at the core. Nothing follows from it. There is nothing about meaning or our responsibility for meaning-making. That’s the opposite of what “church” purports to be about.

I recommend the article and thinking about all the connected and implied ideas.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Buffalo in Marysville

Image
If you've taken an acting class, you might have done an Uta Hagen exercise requiring you to perform a two-minute slice of life.  Just you, on stage, silently doing something you might do on an ordinary day.  Maybe you're ironing.  Maybe you're making a sandwich.  The point is for the audience to see you acting naturally.  It's not as easy as it sounds. American Buffalo , now playing at Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in Marysville starts out with an Uta Hagen exercise, basically.  Scott B. Randall plays Donny Dubrow, the owner of a junk store.  Before the house lights even fade down, Donny comes on stage and begins doing what he might do on any typical morning.  He has his coffee cup in hand.  He straightens up this. He looks at that.  He takes a small trash can out into the alleyway and empties it.  He goes out the front door to get the morning newspaper.  It's engrossing to watch all the things he does and guess or conclude why he does them. It's a pe
Read more

14/48 2023

Image
I have lived in Seattle for 30 years and been an actor for the past 12, but I have somehow never been to 14/48. Tonight, I went. It was a revelation. First, some impressions: There was an actor who I had only ever seen playing very serious roles but tonight played a wacky goofball. That was so fun. Wow, look at what they can do! Then there was another actor who played the same kind of character as I had seen before and I loved that too, because they are so good at it. Play that one again! It’s never been more clear that the audience is responsible for the play. Everyone was ready. Ready to cheer. Ready to engage. Ready to love. I would guess that most of the audience was friends of the writers, actors, band members – theater people, eager to help make it a success. I have seen many short play festivals. This is not to denigrate any of what I saw tonight, but if I had seen these same seven plays in the unusual short play festival set-up, I don’t know if they would have landed as well.
Read more

Bechdel Test and other improvisations

Image
I should not be up this late, typing on the internet but I have seen three different varieties of improv show in the past eight days and I feel like I have something to say and I'd better try to get it out. There is so much improv! And so many flavors! Last Thursday I saw an immersive, improvisational, one-man show at the Rendezvous in Belltown called Keefee’s House of Cards where the actor invites four audience members up to play blackjack and then deals out cards, conversation, and biting humor. The brilliance of it is, it's a one-man show with a sharply defined character, straight out of real life -- but with no script. Saturday it was Playback Theater Northwest at Seattle Asian Medicine and Martial Arts in Lake City. In playback theater, an audience member is invited to tell a story from their life, then the actors “play it back.” The evening builds slowly. But by the end, people have opened up about past relationships, ongoing struggles, transformational events i
Read more