My daughter Maddie and I had an interesting conversation today. I had assigned Maddie "Caverns of Socrates" a book by Dennis McKiernan. The story is about a group of gamers who enter a virtual reality game controlled by an artificial intelligence. The game is so realistic that the players are having a tough time separating the game from reality. In fact, the artificial intelligence has started to up the ante by actively trying to kill the real players...not just their characters. With that as a background, Maddie had asked me "What if our world was actually a simulation run by other life forms for their own amusement or purposes?" Jackpot! It was exactly this type of question that I wanted to elicit from her when I assigned the book!
I initially read "Caverns of Socrates" about ten years ago. I was enthralled by the book, not so much because of the story, but because of the philosophical questions that it raised. Similar to Maddie, I also pondered the possibility that our lives were not totally our own. In fact, I actually wrote a couple pages of a short story broaching that exact subject. Thus, when Maddie asked me that question I wasn't actually surprised by it and we had a great discussion. I am not going to get into what we spoke about...That is a private conversation between me and my daughter. Still, I think it is ok to tell you that I made an arguement that life is a game. I don't mean to say that our lives are being controlled by some alien intelligence. Far from it. Instead, I look at it as if each of us is a player in a multiplayer game called life. Each of us make decisions every day that have either direct or indirect impacts on the people around us. I try to play the game so that no one gets hurt. Others seem to play with no rules other than that they must win. Most people go through life not even knowing that they are playing. That is very sad, in my opinion. Have I hurt people in my life? Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes, I forget my own rules to "My" game and I hurt someone emotionally or psychologically. For those instances, I am truly sorry. Other times, my actions have hurt someone, when they were entirely meant to protect others. It is these actions that can tear you apart if you let them. When I reflect on these instances, I try to remember that their are others playing their own games of life simultaneously. Sometimes it is their own actions that lead to the injury. Life is a multiplayer game...and no one ever said it is easy. Rest in peace, babe, I think of you often. With that said, I'll leave you with the question: If life is a game, how do you play? Although a comment giving me your thoughts would be nice, this is really a question that you may want to just answer for yourself.
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