Computer Simulated Life Experience

Suppose there is a very sophisticated virtual reality computer where you can put on a headset to be immersed in a fictional life. The programme has the following features:

* You live the life of a fictional person, from birth to death, in a fictional world very similar to our own.

* The experience lasts for an hour of real time but the programme tricks your brain into feeling as though an entire lifetime is passing.

* Whilst connected, you absolutely believe you are the fictional person and you feel as though you are making real choices but everything you do and everything that happens is pre-programmed.

* You also believe that the places, other people and animals in the experience are real.

* You have the same range of sensations, emotions and thoughts as you do in reality.

* You can choose a time period for the fictional life ranging from ancient to modern.

* You can choose the sex of the fictional person but not the race, nationality or social background.

* The chance of the fictional life being generally happy is 80%, fairly unhappy 15% and very unhappy 5%. There may be some traumatic episodes, even in the happy life.

* When the programme has finished you immediately know who you really are and know that you have just had a fictional experience but you will remember the best and worst things about it.

Would you play this 'game' at all? Just once, or over and over?

I would play the game so long as it was fun and I was under the illusion of having free will. Otherwise it would be pointless and, if it was a very unhappy life,  hopeless and depressing.
It sounds like a very educational game!

I recently read a book I think you might enjoy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Tranquility_(novel)
I wouldn’t want to ruin the ending but it’s about a simulated world as well as time travel.

You would feel as if you had free will. Before you started, you'd have a 1 in 5 chance of 'living' an unhappy or very unhappy life. Would you take the gamble and play?

Yes I would, and I would take a 1 in 4 chance too. Maybe 1 in 3 if I felt lucky.
How about you?

If I was quite happy with real life, I don't think I'd feel the need to play this Alternative Life game. But if times were hard it would be a chance to escape for what would seem a long time.

Some people would want to do it to escape the misery of their real life but it would also be an easy way to gain wisdom and knowledge, very quickly.
To experience what it is to die, would be very profound.
Unless of course you have no memory of the time immersed in this virtual world, then I probably wouldn’t want to try it.
I guess it would depend.

Neon Knight wrote:Suppose there is a very sophisticated virtual reality computer where you can put on a headset to be immersed in a fictional life. The programme has the following features:

* You live the life of a fictional person, from birth to death, in a fictional world very similar to our own.

* The experience lasts for an hour of real time but the programme tricks your brain into feeling as though an entire lifetime is passing.

* Whilst connected, you absolutely believe you are the fictional person and you feel as though you are making real choices but everything you do and everything that happens is pre-programmed.

* You also believe that the places, other people and animals in the experience are real.

* You have the same range of sensations, emotions and thoughts as you do in reality.

* You can choose a time period for the fictional life ranging from ancient to modern.

* You can choose the sex of the fictional person but not the race, nationality or social background.

* The chance of the fictional life being generally happy is 80%, fairly unhappy 15% and very unhappy 5%. There may be some traumatic episodes, even in the happy life.

* When the programme has finished you immediately know who you really are and know that you have just had a fictional experience but you will remember the best and worst things about it.

Would you play this 'game' at all? Just once, or over and over?

Absolutely not. Even a small chance of living a terrible, traumatic life and abusive childhood would be enough to turn me off to the idea. I'm an empath and having the memories of those terrors would change me forever. I would never get over it.

This is very close to a Star Trek Next Gen episode, The Inner Light. It's  actually one of my favorites (and it won an award), but it is the one where we get the infamous flute scene.



The implications of the end of the episode (shown above), is that such a simulation would change you forever. Even in happiness, I don't know if I could risk such an experience changing me.

We all live in the mind, the world - our experiences - are all translated through our senses into the mind. So what the mind experiences as real, is real.
Another reality, which may destroy the me I am today, I cannot do.
I am who I am because of the memories, mistakes, and experiences I've had. I will not be otherwise.