In the Simulation Labs we simulate ourselves simulating our own simulations. We simulate what life would be like if we could control all the parameters. It’s a dark obsession and yet at the same time it’s big business! We have plenty of funding so there’s no problem there. Companies, governments, police agencies, security agencies, the military, you name it. Everyone wants to buy into total simulation – it’s the way to go. It’s the shape of things to come. Everyone’s interested in optimizing control after all, let’s face it. That’s where the big money is, as everyone knows. No point in beating about the bush; we all know that’s where the big money is. That’s what all the big boys are interested in and what the big boys want they generally get, wouldn’t you agree?
Here in the Simulation Labs we test the limits of simulation. We push the limits and we keep on pushing them. We keep on pushing them and pushing them only who’s pushing what? That’s what you end up losing sight of, you see. That’s what you all-too-easily lose sight of, working in the Simulation Labs.
In the Simulation Labs we simulate situations that don’t really exist outside of the simulation. That’s the beauty of it. That’s the beauty of working in the Simulation Labs. That’s the danger of it as well. In the Simulation Labs we simulate ourselves running simulations. We’re testing the limits. We’re seeing how far we can push them. Let’s see how far we can push this shit Don our project manager says every day. But who’s pushing what, that’s the big question. It gets so you can’t really tell any more, if we ever could, who’s simulating what and why.
The other day I simulated myself in the Simulation Labs and it got so I couldn’t really tell you who had simulated who. It had gone symmetrical. The matrix had started to regress on me. I was simulating myself simulating myself and it didn’t feel good. I was trying to control all the parameters but it was all getting out of hand. The experiment was threatening to run away with itself; it was experimenting on us. In the Simulation Labs we simulate the opposition running their simulations to see how far they might have got. They in turn simulate us simulating them to see how much we know. They’re simulating us simulating them because they’re trying to get the edge on us. Everything’s about the edge, isn’t it? It always comes back to the edge and who’s got it…
In the future no one is going to use reality anymore, says Don our project manager. That’s the big breakthrough we’re all waiting for. Reality’s too hard to regulate, too hard to police. No one’s interested in reality anymore, Don keeps on telling us. That’s his slogan. I don’t really like Don myself – he’s a bit of a corporate tool, if you ask me. A bit of a weasel. A vicious little weasel in an expensive suit drawing a very good salary. Making sure we stay on track. Making sure we don’t slack off. Reality is an outmoded concept at this stage of the game, Don tells us. He’s hungry for his bonus.
None of us are real here in the Simulation Labs. It’s all a big con job. It’s all a hoax. We’re nth level abstractions caught up in an endlessly regressive sequence, always investigating the next level of simulation. Always pushing it. Always testing the limits. Reality is an error in the system that has now been almost entirely eliminated. Reality is an irregular function, a variable we can’t account for. It’s an embarrassment. Eventually we will do without it altogether – that’s what we’re aiming for, after all. That’s where the big money is…
