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​The Universe Is A Game: Here’s How to Play

Reality only gives us one playthrough on a game with no save file.

Humans have been suspicious of reality for millennia, and for good reason. Being born on a space rock that is hurtling around a giant nuclear fusion factory is, after all, an inherently disorienting experience. It's no wonder, then, that we have spent thousands of years speculating on the unseen parameters of reality, and on the kinds of roles we should be playing in it.

One of the trippiest theories to emerge from this distrust of all things spatiotemporal is the "simulation hypothesis," the idea that the universe is a simulation, and we are just players in it. This existentialist hunch has only gained traction with the advent of virtual reality games like The Sims or Second Life, and has even begun to catch on as a credible scientific possibility.

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So let's say, for kicks, that the universe actually is a massive simulated game that bears some resemblance to human-made games. Some compelling questions immediately come to mind: What is the gameplay like? Who are the players? Do we respawn if we die? Do we level up if we play well? And most importantly: what is the objective of the game?

In terms of reality's gameplay experience, it seems pretty clear that we're in an open world multiplayer RPG like World of Warcraft, with the difficulty settings set to "insanity." This is a populist interpretation that assumes that all players share in the experience of the game, and can influence and collaborate with each other.

Screenshot of early MMORPG Anarchy Online. Image: Funcom Productions

But there are other options too—it all depends on who you think is ultimately the "player" of reality. For example, if you are less of a populist and more of a theological totalitarian, you could argue that the universe is more of a sandbox game, like The Sims or Minecraft. In this case, there would be only one player, godlike in their power, who gambles with our fates as cavalierly as we do with those of our Sims.

That said, it's fair to rule out a lot of other types of gameplay, including zero-player games and first person shooters. This raises the next set of questions: do we respawn if we die, or level up if we play well? In a deku nutshell: Is this the only life we get?

Given how many people believe in reincarnation and the afterlife, the popular answer may well be that players do, in fact, experience multiple lives. In the case of reincarnation, a player's skill at the game would influence what kind of avatar he or she would respawn as in the next playthrough. Likewise, the traditional idea of getting into heaven is a lot like leveling up—players gain the right kind of experience points and are rewarded in return for it.

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But as fun as those parallels are, observational evidence suggests that respawns are very rare in the reality game, at least insofar as we know. People have been resuscitated from death, but it's nowhere near as casual an event as it is in Grand Theft Auto, where you can fall out of an exploding helicopter and respawn completely intact.

The many ways to die in GTA V. Credit: YouTube/Search and Destroy" (@DeathBringerPSN)

And though we may one day engineer digital afterlives, we're not there yet technologically. So for all intents and purposes, it looks as if reality only gives us one playthrough on a game with no save file.

That might sound depressing, but remember, this is a massive multiplayer game we're talking about, so there are still lots of lives to work with. Moreover, reality could also be viewed as a multi-generational turn-based game in which people cumulatively try to beat the game even if their avatars aren't around to see it.

That raises the ultimate question: If the universe is a simulated game, then what is the objective? This is the classic "meaning of life" question seen through a gamer lens, so it's not as if there is one conclusive answer. But there are definitely a few compelling candidates, the most obvious of which is entertainment.

The most popular virtual worlds that we have created were made for the noble pursuit of fun, so perhaps that's the impetus for the universe as well. Again, this can be seen from multiple perspectives, depending on who you consider to be the player(s). If we are all players, then maybe the objective of the game is simply our own pleasure and entertainment—a more hedonistic type of philosophy.

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But from the totalitarian view, we are the ones being played by some higher power. If that's the case, it's anyone's guess what the objective of the game is, but entertainment is still a pretty safe bet.

According to Men in Black, our universe isn't even a sophisticated game. Credit: YouTube/Остап Бендер

After all, the idea that higher powers watch over mortal affairs for pure amusement goes at least as far as The Iliad, and the narrative stakes of our civilization have gotten a lot higher since then. And that's just humans—who knows what kinds of Sims-style games are possible with alien civilizations? If I were a higher power, I'd probably play this game too.

Just as there are countless ways to find meaning in existence, so too are there infinite possible objectives in our speculative simulated universe. Perhaps the objective is to prevent the heat death of the universe, a popular cosmological endgame that suggests maximum entropy awaits all matter in the universe.

Perhaps, the idea is to discover new dimensions—literal level-ups. Or maybe the game's objective is to spread consciousness throughout the universe, as Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky believed.

Your personal objective may be maxing out on altruism points, or accruing wealth, or just getting through the game relatively unscathed. Whatever it is, may you find abundant power-ups in your playthrough.

Perfect Worlds is a series on Motherboard about simulations, imitations, and models. Follow along here.