My brother once reported to me something insightful he had heard from a friend: If you wanted to make a truly convincing computerized virtual reality system - you would also need to impair the consciousness of the user.
In other words; there are two sides to a convincing virtual reality.
On the one side there is the coherence of the virtual simulation; and on the other side there is the perceiving and interpreting mind of the 'user'.
The insight was that no complex, real-time simulation can be fully, self-consistent when an alert and insightful mind is using it.
But - if the mind of the user can be simultaneously impaired; then he can be totally convinced by an imperfect simulation.
When the perceiving mind is unimpaired, then the deception is detected from the inevitable incoherence of any complex virtual world.
Yet why is complex-virtuality necessarily incoherent? Ultimately, because it is a lie, and all lies are incoherent with reality.
(Which is why one lie always leads to more lies. And why a 'cover-up' is always needed, and will itself always ramify.)
This is maybe a deep explanation of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. The only coherent truth is reality, therefore all models of reality are not true; therefore all models will be incoherent as experienced by the real human mind.
To conceal the incoherence of virtual reality requires that the inhabiting-mind be simplified-down to the same level as the virtual world, and this simplification itself must be concealed... This is achieved by impairing the inhabiting-mind.
The lesson is that if you want to make someone believe he really is dwelling in a virtual world; you must first impair his mind. One that is achieved, then he will live inside a simplified and incoherent model of reality without 'noticing' its simplification or incoherence; he will accept the model as reality.
All of us now inhabit a virtual world, not reality. If minds were unimpaired, this would be obvious because the virtual world is grossly incoherent when measured against the reality of which the human mind is an exemplar.
But in practice people inhabit this virtual world without realizing the fact, because they are mentally impaired. When, as inevitably happens, discrepancies are noticed - and the difference between virtuality and reality becomes evident; then these give-aways are rapidly ignored, denied or forgotten.
In any case of disagreement: virtuality is regarded as primary.
We can regard the socio-cultural changes of the past few generations as building upon the core deficit of atheism (or so feeble and superficial a religious conviction as to be de facto atheism) an incremental and multi-facteted mental impairment.
The religions and churches integration into The System was necessary for this to work - and this integration happened incrementally, progressively, and very fully; so that by 2020 the churches served to reinforce, not contradict, the virtuality.
This was apparently a demonic-strategy for preparing the world population to inhabit a fake, and evil, virtual world - without noticing the fact, and accepting the virtuality as reality.
So, if we imagine ourselves to be collectively in the position of Ragle Gumm in Philip K Dick's novel Time out of Joint, or Truman in The Truman Show movie. But whereas Ragle and Truman had the mental capacity to take notice of the discrepancies and gross simplifications of their virtual worlds; Man in 2020-1 is too mentally impaired to suffer more than fleeting doubts and recognitions.
Every day, everybody is experiencing multiple moments when he sees-through holes in the virtuality; when the virtual world peels-back to reveal the real, when the real world pokes-itself-through the illusion.
But because modern Man has no root outside the virtuality (and neither do any of the institutions to which he might look for external guidance - not even the Christian churches); Man has therefore no power of discernment.
The multiple, frequent give-aways of fakery are experienced as just meaningless 'noise'; as evidence merely of the 'randomness' of a Godless universe without purpose.
Thus, nearly the whole world is being deceived into self-damnation by an astonishingly crude, grossly incoherent, fake-reality!
> But because modern Man has no root outside the virtuality (and neither do any of the institutions to which he might look for external guidance - not even the Christian churches); Man has therefore no power of discernment.
ReplyDeleteI see this in talks with my brother, a modern materialist.
He flat out refuses to entertain the idea of God. Like many Westerners, he has an incoherent and silly view of God which I would reject too, but when trying to correct his theology or lack thereof, he is unable to listen because I suppose he's already decided there is no coherence to be found, that he's already determined he's "right" (since The System is constantly reaffirming him of his rightness) and I must be the babbling brainwashed fool that needs correcting.
If what we're saying is true about this virtual reality, then that is quite terrifying, therefore it cannot be true. How could it be that almost everybody has been fooled? And if I think it's true, then I must be living in fear, so why aren't I hiding in the forest and living off the grid? Also, if I don't plan to "do" anything about it (like protest or donate to the send-all-evil-people-to-Mars project) then why am I even talking about it?
These are thoughts he is projecting onto me because to him, there is no where else to turn. If you cannot accept the reality of a loving father in Heaven, then your only options are to go-along with it all, become a forest-dwelling hermit, or spiral into deep depression and despair. Any other option is just incoherent to the impaired mind. So best to not think about it and hope for the best I guess, right?
@I - "And if I think it's true, then I must be living in fear, so why aren't I hiding in the forest and living off the grid? Also, if I don't plan to "do" anything about it (like protest or donate to the send-all-evil-people-to-Mars project) then why am I even talking about it?"
ReplyDeleteYes, that sounds right. And it would be true if this was political rather than spiritual. Then lack of 'action' would indicate shallow or fake belief; and there would be no point in knowing unpleasant realities that could not be changed.
Indeed, trying to inform people of the truth without attaching it is a socio-political action agenda really only applies to spiritual And Christian belief - because for Christians salvation is primarily about deliberate, conscious choice.
It is by knowing sin as sin that we are able to repent - indeed knowing sin as sin is itself (pretty much) repentance.
Thus acknowledging reality is vital. If we believe that our words might help others to know reality, it is reasonable to use words.
I think there was a similar argument about AI (made by Ed Feser I think?), something along the lines of, if we cannot make true AI, then we just have to make humans more mechanical...
ReplyDeleteExcellent post; however, I wonder if virtual reality is the right term for what we are experiencing today. I mean, the minds of men seem incapable of perceiving any reality at all! It's like most people can only tune into virtual virtuality or something to that effect.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding post.
ReplyDeleteThe need to impair the minds of those inside the simulation in order for the simulation to be convincing explains a lot.
I have always wondered why the "elites" (of this world) spend so much time and effort bombarding us with chemicals, junk food, propaganda, etc. (And they do...after a century of consumer advocacy and muckracking journalism and organic food movements, the fact that there is still poison in the food is clearly a deliberate choice rather than the five hundredth consecutive accidental oversight.)
I've previously thought the motivation was some combination of...evil, first-order financial incentives (e.g. shelf-stable packaged foods are profitable), second-order financial incentives (unhealthy people make good pharmaceutical customers), the urge for control (weaken and confuse people so they don't revolt), and pure evil.
But this new insight helps complete the picture. Why do they work so hard at chemically weakening us (without destroying us)? To make the simulation run better! To make the matrix more flawless and beautiful in our clouded eyes and addled brains.
All their reasons are self-reinforcing. A well-oiled simulation DOES bring them bigger profits and more protection from revolts.
But still, just for the simulation to work, they HAVE to handicap our minds. They probably think of it partly like providing a customer service--like handing out 3D glasses at the movie theater.
And this is why we each have to work HARD at discernment. The System has coopted all the churches and schools. There are no more institutions to help us think straight. Worse than that, we are being deliberately handicapped, with drugs, chemicals, mind-scrambling propaganda and more.
We need to REALIZE that The System is working hard to prevent our discernment, not only by putting on a show for us, but by forcing their 3D glasses on us so the show will seem more convincing.
God is Truth and he wants us to find Him. But we'll be better able to find him if we can acknowledge to ourselves the extent to which evil men have been pumping theater fog into our vision. Not just to blind us to Truth, but to make their fake reality more convincing!
@Charlie - I think that physiological derangements are nothing like as important as the sickness of soul produced by eliminating God and the spiritual from Men.
ReplyDeleteEven if the matter is considered purely biologically and in a evolutionary sense; it seems certain then Men's minds and behaviours evolved in a context of belief in the reality of God and spirits and the continuation of existence beyond death. Then, quite suddenly, over a few generations, these fundamental realities are eliminated.
The result is a profound derangement of thinking and a huge number of deeply maladaptive behaviours - it is a literal insanity and sickness.
And the situation is so pervasive - so reinforced by the world of public discourse - that it affects nearly all people who say they are religious, and who believe themselves religious. The beliefs are both superficial and feeble - deep down nearly everybody is functionally atheist, materialist, and suffers the same pathologies.
@Jonathan - I've written something similar too - https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/search?q=AI
ReplyDelete@Frank - Virtual virtuality? I've sprained my brain...
Islanti, thanks for that great example. Your brother's projections really clarify the secular mind for me. I could never think of the topic the way he does, but now I think I can put myself into his shoes at least a little bit.
ReplyDeleteBruce, your comments on this post are even better than the post. I want to quote a few of them, but I think there are a few typos, so let me ask: did you mean "trying to inform people of the truth without attacking it as a socio-political action agenda"? Or did you really mean "attaching"? And if the latter, what did you mean by "attaching"?
P.S. Not the same Jonathan as above.
@J The passage should read "Indeed, trying to inform people of the truth without attaching it to a socio-political action agenda really only applies to spiritual And Christian belief - because for Christians salvation is primarily about deliberate, conscious choice."
ReplyDeleteWhat I means was that Christians should be informing people of the truth about this world - e.g. that we are now ruled by a totalitarian and evil-demonic world government - without making this knowledge the basis of some kind of socio-political 'plan of action'. The reason that Christians want to know about the evil motivations of this world's institutions is so that people will not be misled by them.
And the reason people must not be misled is that The World is leading Men into choosing their own damnation. The World is leading Men to live in fear and resentment, to regard Life as meaningless and purposeless and terminated by a death which is total annihilation - the world is therefor leading Men to despair.
Fear, resentment and despair are called sins because they lead Men to *choose* their own damnation. Modern Men do not only disbelieve in God as creator and Jesus as saviour - they are so corrupt that even if they knew For Sure that God was real and Jesus really did offer eternal resurrected life; they would oppose creation and reject resurrection, because from the perspective of modern 'morality' these are evil things.
In other words mainstream modern morality is and inversion of Christianity. In other words again, the motivation for this war is spiritual, not material. The powers of global evil could kill almost everybody on the planet very rapidly, if that was what they wanted - but they want people to be damned, and damnation must be chosen - therefore They have created this machine of damnation - The System - which will induce Men to choose damnation.
This has apparently been a very successful strategy. Many people now openly advocate self-damnation, and genuinely seem to have chosen it for themselves.
But knowing that this is the case can be saving; if it leads to the inward decision to repent and reject.