The one and only original reality.
Adam's newest conspiracy is all of us
are trapped in a computer simulation.
Think about it, he says, future civilizations
will possess incomprehensible computing capacity, he says.
They'll have unlocked consciousness, he says.
Artificial superintelligence, he says.
Mathematics of the mind, he says.
They'll, like, run infinite simulations of humanity,
so they might understand humanity.
And those simulations will be able to think and feel,
he says, countless simulations, a lot of them.
Then he Googles "Living in a computer simulation."
to show me the evidence for this theory.
And if there are, he says, infinite sentient simulations
of us, odds are, he says, we are one of those simulations,
and not the one and only original reality.
There are times when I'm standing in the garden, when I'm
eating a grapefruit, or driving with the windows
down, when my heartbeat and my problems in the air I breathe
feel wonderful or frightening.
But always, I feel like it matters.
And that's where you're wrong, he says.
None of that matters.
None of that is even real.
Anyone who disagrees is just living with their eyes closed.
Have I too been living with my eyes closed?
Have I fooled myself with the belief in love and suffering,
and the howling noise emerging from the wind
tunnel in my chest?
Have I willingly purchased a subscription
to a collective delusion for the naive?
No, I have not.
So I respectfully disagree.
And he says, fine, but respectfully, you're
full of shit.
And because I am an adult, able to engage rationally
with dissenting views, I say, no, you're full of shit.
And he says, no, you're full of shit.
And I say, no, you're full of shit.
And he says, no, you're full of shit.
And I say, no, you're full of shit.
And he says, no, you're full of shit.
And I say, no, you're full of shit.
Until I am abruptly feeling cold and remembering
that spinning beachball of death that
appears on my MacBook, when an app freezes,
or the system fails.
A digital wheel, where things keep repeating the way
he and I are repeating and repeating.
And I feel stuck.
Some perpetual loop, where nothing I say or do
can move anything forward.
And I think I'm arguing about reality.
But maybe I am really only sleeping in the circuitry,
dreaming I'm alive, while elsewhere in a room I can't see,
a room in the future, someone else
is watching this as if it never happened.
Taking notes, calling a colleague over,
tapping the screen, saying, hey, take a look at this.
[LAUGHS]
[APPLAUSE]