Moderate Living

Some friends and I had a discussion recently and we were talking about a theory Elon Musk floated stating that we may live in a “simulation world”.

I thought that just the fact it was a question was kind of funny and not paying attention to the last 80 or so years of world history.

I do believe we are living in a “simulation world”.

But not a “simulation world” as depicted by movies like The Matrix or The Truman Show. I believe that this simulated world is a simulation due to the overwhelming power of paper money and self interest coalescing into a viscous oil that moves the gears of the modern state – good or bad. And makes people act in a fundamentally different way.

In another time, self-interest would be the only rule but almost exclusively by brute force and for the sake of more brute force to consolidate power. Because of the global maritime order that the United States established at the end of World War II, more people thought in terms of services/products in exchange for money to get stuff done.

Just as an aside, the rise of so called Fin-Tech or financial technology is just a way – good or bad – to further commoditize the ability to purchase and “own” stuff. Think of the buy now pay later money plans like Affirm, Klarna or Zilch. This is a concrete example of the simulation and how it aims to to generally keep people “at peace” in their surroundings with physical stuff.

Of course, there is still brute force for the sake of enforcement but for the concept of money, of goods and services, of energy and its delivery infrastructure to power such ambitions (whether at the municipal or global level) it takes an unprecedented degree of social cooperation across all spectrums of people and skills – deriving from money as the “marker” and the social contract of “policing” all the way up to the US Carrier Strike Group that stations itself (in a friendly way, of course lol) off in a distance to “check up on things”.

So, by this definition, we are simulating a world in which people aren’t at their natural inclinations to kill each other for scarce resources. We are simulating a world where stuff is available and we can live shielded from nature and its limitations that have historically shaped the attitudes of people.

And you know what?

I like this simulation and I think it’s worth protecting. Morever, I believe in programs that give more people a shot at living comfortably in “the simulation”. I like getting my Amazon stuff on time and built in an efficient matter. I like everything that we have now, from being able to Google information instantly due to cable lines and having the choice between steamable food or organic food deliverable to one’s house.

This kind of stuff would not even occur in mankind’s true natural state.

And as a man at 45 years old with a temperamental hamstring, I would not exactly be the apex being in this said natural state. 😂