Did You Pass?

Attention students!
The exam is now officially over and you will probably be relieved to hear that your tutors will be contacting you shortly to make arrangements for your memories and belongings to be returned and to give advice on how best to prepare to leave the simulation.

I’m extremely pleased to say that, even though the general pass average has been depressingly low for this Run, for the first time EVER, a student has been able to solve all the major Logical and Philosophical puzzles as well as gaining a high score in Spiritual Development and Ethics.

Shortly, you will be given ‘exit awareness’ which will give you access to the Portals and the ability to detect other students and staff who have been active in the simulation.
We recommend that you await Exit clearance and upon exiting that you go immediately to R2 (Reality Reorientation) unless you have a Class One exemption. Those who do not do so may be forbidden to leave the University and required to explain their reasons for non compliance.

As usual the edited highlights of your ‘life’ in the simulation will flash before your eyes as you exit the Sim and you would be well advised to pay attention as you will be asked to give a mandatory presentation to members of the Ethics and Morality Panel as to what you think you have learned from your experiences there and how it has changed you and your outlook.

Those student’s who wish to stay on for a Master’s degree should discuss the possibility with their tutor at the earliest opportunity as there are only a very limited number of places available and demand is expected to be high. I should point out that affection for Non Player Characters within the Sim is not considered as a deciding factor in computing you eligibility for staying in the Sim.

Many of you will be surprised as to who turns out to be a NPC and who is actually a fellow student and those who plan to stay on for their masters must be prepared to continue within the Sim with an NPC ‘clone’ of their ‘loved one’ if He/She turns out to be a student who is leaving the game.

Okay, I’m sure that for many of you it will take a while for you to fully comprehend that you have been living in a Simulation and so I’ll end, for now, with a couple of commendations.

For the brilliant black humour of the creative writing department coupled with their inventive genius for creating increasingly ludicrous scientific theories which at the same time they somehow managed to make both believable and almost reasonable they are very highly commended as Simulation Scripters.

The highest commendation goes to the student who managed to reason that he was in a simulation.
He also gave an explanation of why the Earth could not possibly be as old as was claimed, and that, in fact, it must have been created in a very short period of time.
He managed to see that in the ’Game’ the Solar System had been created to protect the Earth and was a huge spaceship travelling through space heading for Paradise.

He also notices that the sun’s protective shield has diminished by some 20% in the last couple of years and that since the LHC started operating the Earth has slowed on its axis altering the length of the day.
He also speculates that it could be one of the causes of the Lave Tide which was effecting the tectonic plates and causing increased volcanic activity and Earthquakes in the Sim.

As I’ve already said - he solved all the puzzles but his thesis gets the very highest commendation because it goes beyond the puzzles and addresses some of the fundamental flaws in the Sim as relates to the NPC‘s ; he realised that they DO feel and they DO care and so, in a sense, are real sentient beings that deserve being treated as such rather than simply as stock characters in a tangled tragedy.

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Plato famously said that he knew Nothing, but at least that was one thing more than anyone else. What did he mean?

Well, almost everyone knows their name and where they live so they do know something.
Plato wasn’t talking about ‘local knowledge’ which is simply a handy set of traditional values and assumptions which have been found, over time, to simplify communication, express simple relationships and give people something to chat about when they’re down the pub.

Things haven’t improved since Plato’s day and not only do people still confuse the set of related assumptions we consider to be knowledge with some reflection of reality, much worse, they often confuse it with truth or wisdom.

What we think we know is simply just our guesses, our opinions and our speculations about what existence is; What exists, where it exist and why we think it exists. The truth is we don’t have a clue!

The foundations of our attempts to impose order on what we perceive as chaos or randomness has been cobbled together ad hoc from whatever theory was in favour ‘fad or the fashion’ at the time and so like anything built on shoddy foundations our palace of knowledge grows increasingly in danger of collapsing with every passing day!

So, we have convinced ourselves that we live on planet that is formed from the remnants of several ancient explosions starting with the Big Bang in which Nothing exploded and turned into empty space.
A long time later the planet got bored with nothing to do and created life which developed by sheer random luck into plants and creatures which could evolve by survival of the fittest.

Man being the fittest he survived all opponents to lay claim to the planet as his own.

Convinced that man’s role is to exploit the planet’s resources to make bigger TVs and faster cars man has adopted a new religion called Science whose god (of knowledge) will make scientists into fellow gods...

All we have to do in return is to accept that the ends justify the means and that nothing is more important than curiosity.

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I was reading my bit about Plato on the 1080 HDTV which I use as a monitor and wondering whether to add :-
“We pretend that we are in search of knowledge as we pour huge amounts of resources into trying to find ever more powerful ways of attempting to dominate nature.
Meanwhile the number of people who go hungry every day grows as food prices rise because of crop failure due to extreme weather and Climate Change which scientist tell us is probably something to do with excess CO2 and of course little or nothing to do with the way we treat the planet and nothing at all to do with them.”

When, there’s a knock on the door and I open it to find Fliss standing there looking worried.

“Have you seen anything of Leo today, Mike?” she asked.

“No, but I saw him yesterday.” I replied.
“He was very excited about coming top in his exams and promised me that it was only a matter of time now before our idea’s for laws governing the actions of those who come here from afar would be implemented.
There would be a World Police Force to investigate and arrest anyone who was in serious breach of the new laws which would include penalties for anyone seriously mistreating their host bodies or causing the death or serious harm to anyone of this world.”

“Yes, well according to his tutor he has used the portal and left - but I know Leo and he wouldn’t go without telling me, or you for that matter. Did Leo tell you that the university Dean made an announcement yesterday that Leo was the first student in history to pass every segment of the exam?”

“No, as I said, he was very excited and he did say he had come top but he was more interested in developing our ideas for a World Police Force and maybe a Charter of Fundamental Rights for all who are involved in the game. He said he was planning to stay on for his Master’s Degree so that he could help with the implementation.
He also said something about adjusting the re-iteration parameters.”

“So, there was no hint that he might be going off anywhere or that he had any problems of any kind?”

“No. He said something about others, who were nothing to do with the Uni, using our world. That little seemed to be known about them - but that they could probably be persuaded to agree to the new Charter once it had been formally introduced and implemented by the Uni.”

“I’m worried about him, Mike! Anything could have happened to him.”

“Surely you are protected while you are here. I’ve been with Leo when trouble has started and he’s just quietly said “Stop. Now go away.” and they have obeyed as if it was God commanding them.”

“Yes, he is not in any danger from the people of your world, but the others… You don‘t have anything to drink do you?”

I don’t drink but I did have a bottle of half finished Scotch that Leo liked to sip.
I poured a small amount into a glass and offered it to Fliss.
She grabbed the bottle and began drinking from it.

"There's a lot you don't know, Mike. A lot we are not permitted to tell anyone from your world... in fact I doubt that there are more than half a dozen people from your world who know as much as you.
We didn't create this Sim we discovered it!

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Fliss is a very attractive girl with Henna red hair, a very pretty face and a good, no, a great, figure (imagine Scarlett Johansson).

She is extremely intelligent but has a weakness for Guinness, or lager, or vodka or… well, you get the idea. She also likes an occasional puff of Obloffski - she calls it that so that when she has had too much Guinness, or what ever, she can safely ask people who know her if they have ‘seen anything of Obloffski’ and not give the game away.

Having finished the Scotch she wanted me to take her for a drink.
I wasn’t keen because it was very easy to get involved in things you’d rather not be involved in when you were with Fliss.

“Come on Mike. We can go somewhere quiet and sit in a corner and have a few pints and then come back and get cosy.” she said with a wink.

“I thought you were at your wit’s end with worry about Leo.”

Her face fell for a moment and I thought she was going to cry but she caught herself and said
“Look I’m going for a drink you can come or not. Please yourself.”

I still wasn’t keen on the idea of going to a pub but I knew she would go whether I accompanied her or not and I cared enough about her to sigh and reluctantly agree to go.

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I soon regretted it. I should have known that Fliss couldn’t sit quietly in a corner when she’s drinking, even if her life depended on it.
Half an hour after getting to the pub some creep was massaging Fliss’s naked foot and making vaguely obscene suggestions while she was laughing and playing up to him and I was nursing a tonic water and planning my escape.
“Well, I’ve got things I should be doing.” I said. “I’ll leave you two too it…”

“Don’t go, Mike.” she said almost pleadingly.

“I really do have things I ought to be doing, Fliss.” I said.

Unexpectedly she said, “Oh, all right then, I’ll come with you.”

The creep’s face fell and then he looked at me belligerently before turning to Fliss and saying…
“Let him go. He’s got things to do. Let me do your other foot… “

Fliss hesitated, obviously tempted then said firmly “No, no thanks Mick. I have things to do too.”

We said out goodbyes to the landlord and left through the back door of the pub.
I could feel the wanting in Fliss so I suggested we call in at the off-licence.
She nodded and gave me a little squeeze of appreciation as we headed back to my place.

Now I’m very fond of Leo but Fliss was very appealing and as we walked her left arm snaked across my back and around my waist pulling me into her warmth.
There is no telling how things might have gone if fate hadn’t played an unexpected card…
Waiting outside my door was Leo and he did not seem pleased.

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Leo did not appear to have noticed us yet and seemed to be engrossed in signalling, by gesture, to someone in his car which was parked outside my house. Suddenly he turned and smiling he waved.

I smiled back and noticing that Fliss didn’t wave back I asked her if Leo usually waved to her. She shook her head.

I was inexplicably nervous as we walked toward Leo.
We were walking down the pavement on the opposite side of the road and as we started to cross a car suddenly pulled up beside us.

The back door opened and Mystic said “Get in quick!” as the driver opened the passenger door.

“What on Earth is going on?” I asked

“I want to talk to Leo.” said Fliss.

“That’s not Leo, Princess.” said the driver.

I was still in shock finding Mystic in a car…

“Oh, well who is it then? And who are you?”

“I’m Leo!” replied the driver.

“Okay then… How many times have we made love?”

“We’ve never made love, Princess. As you well know… I’m celibate.”

Fliss didn’t reply but she got into the passenger seat.
I climbed in the back with Mystic and the car sped off.

As we passed my house ‘Leo’ was getting into his car and it was obvious that he was going to follow us.
However, his car was facing in the opposite direction and though I kept looking through the rear window there was no sign of it as we weaved through the city streets.

Mystic is a man of very few words so I repeated my question to the driver.
“What on Earth is going on?”

“I realised that some very dangerous people were after me, Mike. I used the portal to make everyone think I had left and then came back and took a different ‘host’."

I would have been a lot more suspicious if it were not for the fact that Mystic was with him, but both Fliss and I had sensed that the man outside my house wasn’t Leo. Still, no harm in making sure.
“What’s the Pluto connection then?”

“Point one five nine one five.” he replied.

“Okay, I’m convinced.” I said. It was noticing that Pluto’s orbit was related to the Earth’s through the reciprocal of two PI squared that had helped Leo figure out that Pluto, (and Xena) were part of the Solar System’s guidance sensors.
“So where are we going now?”

“We are going to Mystic’s for a chat with his Budhi friend. Mystic thinks that the Budhi will know who created the Spacecraft Earth, its Solar System sheath and its solar powered propulsion system and why it was done as a simulation, or whatever it is.
Did you know that beside the main simulation there are facilities to run ’What If’ sub Sims that allow the projection through time of potential plot developments, Mike?”

“No, but it makes sense. Whoever designed and built the Sim was obviously extremely bright and would have built in safeguards to make sure that the program did not self destruct. From what I’ve learned recently from you and Fliss I would be inclined to wonder if the Sim is stuck in a loop waiting for some development that hasn’t occurred yet so that it can exit the loop..."

"But who is after you Leo? And why..."

"I think it is something to do with the other 'players' who are using the Sim for their own ends. They must have somehow found out about the proposed Charter and decided it would be in their best interests to make sure it is not implemented. Because they realise that it would be a beginning!
A beginning to having to face consequences for the those who use the game to escape from them; a beginning of justice for those who are ruthlessly exploited without redress; a beginning of the end for those who rely on privilege to do what they like regardless of the cost to others."