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I’ve watched a few tutorial videos, and I saw Nookrium’s play through of Bright Nights. I thought he had just started out with the defaults and end up getting some kind of prepper. Started out in a bunker with lots of supplies. Which sounded like a great start to me. Learn the ropes on easy mode? Yes please! Play Now (Fixed Scenario)!

I did not find myself in a bunker.

I was not surrounded by supplies.

I was not a prepper.

I was in a FEMA shelter. I had the clothes on my back and a handful of oxy to my name. The NPC in the shelter with me needed an inhaler from the town to the north.

Well, none of this was on my schedule for today, so might as well help the poor guy.

I pop a pill, grab an emergency jacket and supplies then head out. Following the road north I see a giant hornet and a collie in my periphery, but they don’t react as I pass by. The few cars on the road are empty and unusable.

I spot more zombies as a reach a bridge at the edge of town. I climb into a street sweeper, figuring it should be safe enough, but it appears to be remote controlled and I can’t drive it. The zombies have noticed me by now so I rush into a nearby house and close the door.

I can hear them outside, but they don’t seem to be trying to break in. So I pop another pill and ransack the place. Found a bunch of football gear, a big stick, and some more drugs. Morale is high, despite the danger, or maybe just because of the drugs. Who knows.

I walk outside ready to fight through the hoards to bring my new friend an inhaler. A zombie moves towards me but I’m faster, I move around it and spot a bicycle. Just found some armor, now some transportation! I hop aboard and ride off down the road, sailing past all these zombie chumps.

And then I crash right into a parked car, with a zombie right next to me. I rush at it with my big stick but it bites my arm. I swing some more but can’t land a hit, while the zombie lands bite after bite. I can see more zombies coming so I try to break away, but I can’t pull free. More zombies move in and surround me. I swing wildly around while shoveling pills into my mouth.

So, one of my big problems with simulation hypothesis is that I don’t think we can actually accurately simulate another universe of the same size as ours down to the quantum level, without also devoting the majority or possibly the entirety of our universe to the task. Seems like at that point you’re less “simulating a universe” and more replacing your own.

How to solve this? Maybe each successive universe is smaller? We’ve got a matryoshka doll multiverse? Seems like we’d eventually end up with a universe that couldn’t evolve something capable of simulating another universe. And sure, if there’s only one “real” universe, then we’re most likely to be on one of the simulated ones. But we’re going to disregard this because I think it’s boring. I don’t really see what it tells us about the universe simulating our own, beyond. It’s much larger than ours.

And really, what’s the point of this exercise if we can’t speculate on the administrators?

So, back to the problem at hand, how do we not compute an entire universe down to the quantum level? Cheat of course! Don’t simulate an entire universe when all you need is a really good skybox. Now that’s interesting. That’s an answer that implies things. Being simulated makes you important. Better yet, it makes predictions. If it’s not a perfect simulation that means there are seams in the fabric of the universe, something we may be able to detect. Depending on how detailed the simulation is, and I can’t imagine a system of this size without bugs.

But let’s get back to the important thing. Us.

And the administrators.

And why?

We’re being simulated which tells us we’re important, but not how important. Maybe the administrators are interested in us as a species. Maybe just our planet. Maybe we’re just fodder for another species across the galaxy that they’re really interested in. NPC civilization.

Or, maybe the admins are hyper fixated on us. We could be a grand experiment in how species make it (or don’t) beyond the next great filter. Or maybe we’re a screensaver.

Maybe the administrators are interested in each of us personally. Maybe they each have a little window to watch one of us as an app on their phone.

Maybe they record our best and worst moments to blog about to their friends. Captioning them with little slogans and goofy text. A private moment could be a popular meme on another internet.

Maybe when we pray they trick themselves into believing we are praying to them personally.