Life as a video game...

Image source https://pixabay.com

If you are gamer it's probably occurred to you at some point that the real world can be similar to a video game in many respects. You have challenges to overcome, achievements to gain and there are token rewards that you can use to power up (improve yourself).
It occurred to me once after another late evening of playing Vice City, reminiscing about the 1980's, that I was spending hours trying to achieve things that I wanted to achieve in real life. Nice cars, nice property, a few businesses creating an income. Vice City was just a distraction from reality and reality is not that much different from a video game. Only with amazing 3D graphics, multi-sonic sound and some really amazing touchy feely effects.

Maybe life really is a video game, and we are just conscious avatars, like in the matrix. At least we are conscious of our existence within the simulation, but we are not conscious of the operator. Who is to say this is even a simulation? A simulation of what? It may be a construct from the mind of the operator. The world of the operator might be very different. There really is no way of knowing. The old allegory 'Plato's cave' demonstrates that this is not new thinking. People have questioned reality since we started to philosophise. (If you have not come across the allegory of the cave I highly recommend the following - https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm)

So if life was some sort of video game and we were the main avatar / protagonist, would we not spend hours and hours undertaking whatever task was necessary to allow us access to the next level (better job, business, nicer house or car, better relationships etc.) Indeed when people play video games they often repeatedly undertake the same mundane tasks in an effort to receive a few credits, only to move onto the next mundane tasks and power up. Real life is thankfully far more interesting than that. Imagine you were in a video game now, would you be wasting time sleeping, sitting around, watching TV or reading blogs if there were more interesting and rewarding things to do?

So next time you are procrastinating writing your next blog article, hitting the gym, setting up a business etc. think of yourself in a video game and start playing towards achieving the next challenge, because we might actually be living in a simulation, at least Elon Musk thinks so – see video from the independent http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/elon-musk-ai-artificial-intelligence-computer-simulation-gaming-virtual-reality-a7060941.html

Have fun, but remember to take regular breaks!