Introduction
In my first post I wrote about the probability of living inside a game. However, there is no way to make sure and there is almost no way to be sure who is player and who is a game object. More importantly, it is very possible that even players don't know that they are inside the game.
What can we do?
If we assume that all rules of the environment applies to both players and GOs, it will be very hard to differentiate between those 2, specially when the game is very good designed.
On the other hand, there has to be some differences between a players mind and the GOs. Considering the computer agents that we have right now, like Deep Blue and Watson both designed by IBM, we can say that the artificial mind is faster and better in solving problems and even playing games. So it would be very easy to create a population with processing ability more than the players and less than them. So it is not possible to differentiate between us. Also, considering the human society in our world, it is clear that the IQ graph is normal so we cannot use it.
The salvation
I wanted to gave up on this topic but suddenly I realized that the might be a solution. About 2 year ago, a friend of mine ask me and the others a simple real life math question. I answered immediately and laughed at him because of the stupid question. But he was very confused and tried to convince me that my answer is wrong. More importantly the others also came in the discussion concluding on 4 different answers.
I could answer it correctly when I was 5 years old!
So why did they fail? Was it because of their IQ?
No it wasn't!
Their range of IQ varied from normal to clever (100-130 out of 140) So that wasn't the problem.
After some time, I saw the question on Facebook and other social networks and most people gave the wrong answer to the question.
The Question
This is the story:
A woman goes to a shop, and buys a purse that costs 20$. She gives a 100$ to the shopkeeper but the cash desk is empty and the shopkeeper inevitably goes to the neighbor and changes the 100$ bill. Then he came back and give 80$ as remaining to the woman and put the 20$ in the cash desk. The lady leaves the shop with the purse and the remaining amount, then the neighbor comes shouting that the 100$ bill is fake and asks for his money back!
Now the question is, how much money the shopkeeper has lost?
Simple, right?!
Of course it is. It is 2 simple plus and minus that people learn as the first topics in math.
What was your answer?
People come up with different ideas. Many of them think for minutes and still fail to answer correctly. I've heard 200$,180$,20$,80$, etc.
But the correct answer is of course 100$
It is very simple to inspect.
1- There was only a 100$ fake bill
2- The shopkeeper changes the money with his neighbor every time so there is no need to bring anything into the equation
3- When the story finishes, the shopkeeper has a 100$ fake bill + 20$ cash and he lost a (20$)purse, so the equation still says -100$.
Why that happened?
As far as I understand, there are only a few who can narrow the problem down to the key points and decide on what is a part of problem/answer and what is a diversion.
Now lets take a look at our society. From my understanding, more than 90% of people fail to process that simple question so there is a simple way to separate players from GOs.
Am I a player?
Hey! wait up! I don't know. Yes, it is more probable that someone who can ignore the diversions is the player, but we cannot be sure,
If players are playing for fun, then that has to be true! So that make me one of the players.
However, if this is a teaching game, which is less (but still) probable, it make me a Game Object that have been designed to help players learn how to think and how to improve.
Conclusion
Take the test and let me know if you are also a player :)
Friday, June 17, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Are we living in a game?
Introduction:
For a long time, I lived my life as a hardcore gamer. For years, lots of characters lived for me, done their best for me and died for me, without even knowing that they are satisfying my needs.
The Base
In our world, we can see a lot of games with different themes, characters, game play and atmosphere. The reason for these games is simple. People want to enjoy their free time by achieving stuff that they cannot have in their live which differs from person to person.
Some like to live in a fantasy, like being a mage or warlock or having a dragon so they play games like world of Warcraft. Some like to do stuff that is not good to do in real life, like rubbing a bank, joining mobs, etc so they play GTA and some others just want to challenge their minds and enjoy the challenge so they play strategic games like C&C or total wars series. Other than theme of the games, some people like to beat the whole world in something. They just want to be number 1, or in top 10 players in the world. Something that is not easily feasible in our world because we don't have a ranking system out of our computers.
In addition, to make the games enjoyable, we needed autonomous characters, since we wanted to enjoy our games. Imagine when you are playing GTA and start shooting around but no one ran away from you while screaming, will you enjoy the game? Or when you are playing an strategic game if the enemy attacks a part of your army, but they don't defend themselves because you were busy and didn't give them an order, will you still enjoy the game?
At the same time, it is good for a game to have some unpredictable events. Instead of you having all impacts on game events, a good game has to have special events when the game objects have influence on each other and more importantly, on you. For instance, if you have ever played Sims you know that you can flirt with anyone and after a while you can move in with her/him but that will get boring after 2-3 times. There are a lot more in a relationship than just flirting, so why not add some unpredictable parts to it. In real life, you may not get a girl when there is a big difference between your culture, income or even body types which is rational. However, there are many situations that a girl/boy form a rich/powerful family falls in love with someone from a poor family. Or someone who is very pretty has a girlfriend/ boyfriend who is undeniably ugly. Some of these irrational behaviors are caused by our hormones. Some others are based on our moral needs, training.
Everyday, we try to make our games more autonomous and at the same time more unpredictable to make them more enjoyable. This also, doesn't mean that they are becoming characters similar to us since we are trying to give them theirs own personality.
The Theory
When a game character can think, make decision, make connection and interact with the others and the environment what will make you unique in comparison to them? The fact that we cannot understand anything beyond our physics is a barrier to our knowledge. Lets assume that we could build an advanced AI system and used it for our gaming purpose. How can they understand about anything beyond their lives? They cannot understand that their lives are simply some signals that we produce by some chips inside a computer system, then how are they supposed to understand that they have been created by some creature called human?
That is the same for us. When we cannot break our boundaries how can we make sure about anything beyond that? As a simple example, human-being is trying to prove the same thing about god. Many people tried to prove that there is only one, some others tried to say no there are many and some others tried to prove them wrong. But none of them could prove anything because there no way to prove or deny something that is beyond your existence doesn't matter if it exists or not.
Where are the players?
There is no way to be sure, but based on the situations that we have seen these are different possibilities:
If it is a Massive Multi-player game:
Then we have to divide our population into 2 different clusters.Players and NPCs (None Payers Character). Then a portion of the population is game characters and the others are people who are playing inside that game.
If it is a Single Player Game
Then we are all the same and the only one different is the player him/her self.
If the players is someone controlling the system
Then we are all the same. But the player is the one controlling some of our actions by changing the situation, or even commanding us to do something. That might be the reason when some people do something that they won't understand why they have done.
Can we find if someone is a player?
If it is a Massive Multi-player game:
One question can be do people know their types?
For sure, NPCs cannot possibly know that they are not real players, but we cannot be sure if the players know that they are different or not. Because all of our knowledge is from our memory and when you are living inside a game, it is very probable to override ones memory.
So the only way that we can inspect it is by studying peoples behavior and abilities. In our world there is no equality meaning that if someone is very good at something then he is bad in others.
There are some people with different bodies than 99% other people. They are taller, stronger or prettier than the others, but I don't think of it as a way to recognize players, because they can be random parameters generated by character generator system to make more diversity inside the game. But then there are some differences regarding peoples mind (not IQ). When talking to people, you can find their minds limitations. I guess the ones with open minds are more probably the players and the others the NPCs. It is also possible that it has been created by the same system, by influencing from the others, but I myself found some people very powerful in changing everything, even their way of thinking.
If it is a Single Player Game
How to make sure?
There is no way. As I mentioned, if we live in that kind of system there is no way to understand the reason for strange events. But these are the fact that I cannot understand why are happening:
*Miracles:
When a doctor says someone is going to die in a week and then you find him in perfect health. When you hear that in old days someone could fly, or walk on water of a river
*Dreams
When you see a dream and you see the same event happening in the future. (I've experienced it)
When the events comes true exactly based on the interpretation of your dream
*fortune tellers
Most of them are lairs, but there are only a few that can tell you were did you put something that you've lost several months ago.
*Personal Events of the System
You are probably familiar with the quote "I prayed with all of my heart and *some saint but dead one* make it real" from religious people. Then you probably will thinking of the god. But at the same time, you will hear the same thing from people who believe in the powers of nature. "I wanted to have something with all my heart and now I have it". To me it is a system, that will respond to your desires, but it is probably designed to consume a lot of karma/ life power in order to prevent chaos. 7 Billion people asking for things in opposition with the others, of course it needs boundaries.
How does this theory explains the facts?
Is it a simulation?
Simulation is the same as games, but there is 2 differences.
1- The goal is usually creating something that happened before or will happen in the future regardless of the creator (a post human creature like machines, or a grandson of the originals). Then to make the goal possible, you have to prevent uncontrolled impacts. But taking a look at the list of unnatural events, it doesn't seems to be true.
2- In simulations, the simulated system is created with the same rules of the original system. Well, with the same reasons, it doesn't seems to be true.
I know some people think that this world is a simulation. I cannot deny the probability but I think it is less probable than being inside a game.
Can we disobey?
Maybe, but what is the gain?
As a single person, you might say that I don't want to be a part of this system. You can do it easily, because if it is a game, the system is important as a whole, not you personally, unless your disobey could cause an unwanted impact on someone. without knowing why, you will do the thing that yo u have to.
Conclusion
There is no way to prove anything. It is just something that can be true or not.
For a long time, I lived my life as a hardcore gamer. For years, lots of characters lived for me, done their best for me and died for me, without even knowing that they are satisfying my needs.
The Base
In our world, we can see a lot of games with different themes, characters, game play and atmosphere. The reason for these games is simple. People want to enjoy their free time by achieving stuff that they cannot have in their live which differs from person to person.
Some like to live in a fantasy, like being a mage or warlock or having a dragon so they play games like world of Warcraft. Some like to do stuff that is not good to do in real life, like rubbing a bank, joining mobs, etc so they play GTA and some others just want to challenge their minds and enjoy the challenge so they play strategic games like C&C or total wars series. Other than theme of the games, some people like to beat the whole world in something. They just want to be number 1, or in top 10 players in the world. Something that is not easily feasible in our world because we don't have a ranking system out of our computers.
In addition, to make the games enjoyable, we needed autonomous characters, since we wanted to enjoy our games. Imagine when you are playing GTA and start shooting around but no one ran away from you while screaming, will you enjoy the game? Or when you are playing an strategic game if the enemy attacks a part of your army, but they don't defend themselves because you were busy and didn't give them an order, will you still enjoy the game?
At the same time, it is good for a game to have some unpredictable events. Instead of you having all impacts on game events, a good game has to have special events when the game objects have influence on each other and more importantly, on you. For instance, if you have ever played Sims you know that you can flirt with anyone and after a while you can move in with her/him but that will get boring after 2-3 times. There are a lot more in a relationship than just flirting, so why not add some unpredictable parts to it. In real life, you may not get a girl when there is a big difference between your culture, income or even body types which is rational. However, there are many situations that a girl/boy form a rich/powerful family falls in love with someone from a poor family. Or someone who is very pretty has a girlfriend/ boyfriend who is undeniably ugly. Some of these irrational behaviors are caused by our hormones. Some others are based on our moral needs, training.
Everyday, we try to make our games more autonomous and at the same time more unpredictable to make them more enjoyable. This also, doesn't mean that they are becoming characters similar to us since we are trying to give them theirs own personality.
The Theory
When a game character can think, make decision, make connection and interact with the others and the environment what will make you unique in comparison to them? The fact that we cannot understand anything beyond our physics is a barrier to our knowledge. Lets assume that we could build an advanced AI system and used it for our gaming purpose. How can they understand about anything beyond their lives? They cannot understand that their lives are simply some signals that we produce by some chips inside a computer system, then how are they supposed to understand that they have been created by some creature called human?
That is the same for us. When we cannot break our boundaries how can we make sure about anything beyond that? As a simple example, human-being is trying to prove the same thing about god. Many people tried to prove that there is only one, some others tried to say no there are many and some others tried to prove them wrong. But none of them could prove anything because there no way to prove or deny something that is beyond your existence doesn't matter if it exists or not.
Where are the players?
There is no way to be sure, but based on the situations that we have seen these are different possibilities:
If it is a Massive Multi-player game:
Then we have to divide our population into 2 different clusters.Players and NPCs (None Payers Character). Then a portion of the population is game characters and the others are people who are playing inside that game.
If it is a Single Player Game
Then we are all the same and the only one different is the player him/her self.
If the players is someone controlling the system
Then we are all the same. But the player is the one controlling some of our actions by changing the situation, or even commanding us to do something. That might be the reason when some people do something that they won't understand why they have done.
Can we find if someone is a player?
If it is a Massive Multi-player game:
One question can be do people know their types?
For sure, NPCs cannot possibly know that they are not real players, but we cannot be sure if the players know that they are different or not. Because all of our knowledge is from our memory and when you are living inside a game, it is very probable to override ones memory.
So the only way that we can inspect it is by studying peoples behavior and abilities. In our world there is no equality meaning that if someone is very good at something then he is bad in others.
There are some people with different bodies than 99% other people. They are taller, stronger or prettier than the others, but I don't think of it as a way to recognize players, because they can be random parameters generated by character generator system to make more diversity inside the game. But then there are some differences regarding peoples mind (not IQ). When talking to people, you can find their minds limitations. I guess the ones with open minds are more probably the players and the others the NPCs. It is also possible that it has been created by the same system, by influencing from the others, but I myself found some people very powerful in changing everything, even their way of thinking.
If it is a Single Player Game
I think it is less probable, because then we all found someone different and there was lots of discussions about him/her. But since the one probably knows how to deal with the situation, he/she is probably living in the shadows or the peace of a very rich family.
If the players is someone controlling the system
Then there is no way to finding him/her. :) Or at least I cannot think of any.
How to make sure?
There is no way. As I mentioned, if we live in that kind of system there is no way to understand the reason for strange events. But these are the fact that I cannot understand why are happening:
*Miracles:
When a doctor says someone is going to die in a week and then you find him in perfect health. When you hear that in old days someone could fly, or walk on water of a river
*Dreams
When you see a dream and you see the same event happening in the future. (I've experienced it)
When the events comes true exactly based on the interpretation of your dream
*fortune tellers
Most of them are lairs, but there are only a few that can tell you were did you put something that you've lost several months ago.
*Personal Events of the System
You are probably familiar with the quote "I prayed with all of my heart and *some saint but dead one* make it real" from religious people. Then you probably will thinking of the god. But at the same time, you will hear the same thing from people who believe in the powers of nature. "I wanted to have something with all my heart and now I have it". To me it is a system, that will respond to your desires, but it is probably designed to consume a lot of karma/ life power in order to prevent chaos. 7 Billion people asking for things in opposition with the others, of course it needs boundaries.
How does this theory explains the facts?
Simply speaking, there are some rules dominant in the game. If you know them, you might be able to use them.
About seeing the future:
Since it is a game, it has to be possible for the player to save it and run it again from a specific moment. Then most of the events will happen again exactly the same, but only a few will change. (yes, that could be the reason when you saw the future in your dream but in reality it comes with little changes)
Simulation is the same as games, but there is 2 differences.
1- The goal is usually creating something that happened before or will happen in the future regardless of the creator (a post human creature like machines, or a grandson of the originals). Then to make the goal possible, you have to prevent uncontrolled impacts. But taking a look at the list of unnatural events, it doesn't seems to be true.
2- In simulations, the simulated system is created with the same rules of the original system. Well, with the same reasons, it doesn't seems to be true.
I know some people think that this world is a simulation. I cannot deny the probability but I think it is less probable than being inside a game.
Can we disobey?
Maybe, but what is the gain?
As a single person, you might say that I don't want to be a part of this system. You can do it easily, because if it is a game, the system is important as a whole, not you personally, unless your disobey could cause an unwanted impact on someone. without knowing why, you will do the thing that yo u have to.
Conclusion
There is no way to prove anything. It is just something that can be true or not.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)