The year is 2267. This is not for pretend. Consider, for a moment, that I might be telling the truth.
You think you’re in the early 21st century. Very quaint back then. The early 21st century was the beginning of the Game Age, when what you call ‘video games’ became the meaning of life. By 2030, games had advanced to the point where you could enter into a perfectly realistic world, via a direct feed to your Consciousness, and live out your entire life in any of the various worlds you chose to participate in. Now, in the 2200’s, we’ve advanced far beyond this. Our entire culture and lives are ‘virtual’.
In the same way that someone from 2006 might have been interested in the Renaissance or Medieval times, you are interested in the early 21st century. Very exciting time, full of wars and big technological breakthroughs. So you decided to play a game called The Age of Change.
You paid 410 credits to enter the game. You started playing last week. We plugged into your Consciousness, and entered in an entire set of memories so that you ‘remember’ everything that happened prior to last week. But of course, nothing did. It’s all just memory implants.
We also did a character change for you, so that you think you’re another person (you’re actually a 19 year old girl). Then, as you requested, we temporarily wiped out all memories that tell you you’re actually a 19 year old girl in the year 2267. This is a full immersion game. The game will last for two hours, but for you it will seem like 28 years.
Nothing around you is real. The computer you’re reading this on. The clothes you’re wearing. The people you think you know. Even your own body. It’s all just sensory feed from the game The Age of Change. Pretty cool, huh?
You did request that we leave you this one clue as to the true nature of the game. This is it, and you will receive no other. You thought it might be fun if you had a chance to ‘wake up’ in the game — realize you were just playing, so you wouldn’t take it all so seriously. Oh yes – Bianca tells you that she says ‘hi’, and she can’t wait to take you for a ride in her new Tricat Moonjumper, as soon as you unplug. She’s getting lunch with Cassie down at that nice little café next to the space elevator, and she’ll meet you there.
Finally, here’s the message you left for yourself –
How do you know this isn’t true?
Hey Bill! Well, I don’t know if I qualify as brooding, but philosophical might fit =) I’ve been diligently trying to gather followers — aiming for a whole army of 18-year old co-eds, but so far no luck. As for this article, you’re absolutely correct that it’s not original — but as outlined in some of the comments above, it’s much older than the eighties. It’s actually one of the most ancient ideas the human mind came up with to try to explain the experience we’re having here. It’s a fun idea that can be dressed up in different clothing, and each time we hear it it has the potential to help us recognize what it’s pointing at.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
The top of the web page says it November 2006 posted in Quick thoughts- oops its 2009
Hello Melody,
I actually wrote it in 2006, and it’s still one of the most visited pages on the site =)
Sweetwater,
Kenton
…but “The Game You’re Playing” is simply one of an infinite number of games each of us are playing in the “now”. The “you” that decided to play the game you are currently experiencing is but an unconscious and unaware but willing player in a larger game. That “you” is also an unconscious, unaware but willing player in yet another game, and so on. All of these games are all happening “now”, for there is nothing but “now”. Time is but a concept we each use to differentiate the change from one static and unchanging “now” from the next very much like viewing the individual frames on a film strip. Each frame exists in a static state of “now”. However, if viewed as a movie, all of the frames appear to form the illusion of movement through time. That is to say, the mind you are aware in this particular game is tricked into believing that time exists. We are not moving through time. We are simply experiencing different “nows” based on the myriad of choices we each make while playing each of the games we are playing.
Ultimately, you must either believe that the reality you are experiencing is the true reality and things are as they seem, or you must open your mind to the fact that nothing is real but the concept of physical reality.
Greetings Dan,
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment! I’ve written a number of articles on the idea of time — you might be interested to see how they fit in with the ideas you outlined above.
Sweetwater,
Kenton