01. Text

[hopefanatic]

There's something I've been thinking about for a while so I hope all of you will be patient enough to indulge me.

A good deal of fantastic and seemingly-impossible things happen in this place, ranging from all of us raising dragons to encountering killer plants like ones out of an old horror movie. I know that I don't just speak for myself when I say that a lot of the things we encounter here simply don't happen where I'm from... In fact one could even call all of it downright impossible and against the laws of nature and physics! I mean, the moons changing us into animals? Some mysterious space society that we've "mysteriously" encountered right when they need our help? It almost sounds like a video game!

Which brings me to the question I'd like to pose to all of you...

How do you know that any of this is reality?

Comments

[hopefanatic]

How uninspiring.

[coolerjunpei]

seriously? you want to spend all of your time worrying about a maybe, go ahead, but that's bullshit. you can't get any living done like that.

[hopefanatic]

I never said I was worrying, I was just posing a question.

[coolerjunpei]

splitting hairs. why would you ask people about it if you weren't some kind of concerned?

[hopefanatic]

Oh I don't really care one way or the other! I just want to see everyone search thoroughly for their own conclusion and reach a bright hope together!

[coolerjunpei]

wow.

so wait, what the fuck, what was wrong with mine?

[hopefanatic]

Like I said, it was uninspiring. Hopeless. Just an average response that has no chance of getting anyone to take action.

[coolerjunpei]

what do i have to take action for? i told you, if this is the reality we get, then it matters more than the others. if you wanted to know "what would you do to wake up from your imaginary coma oooh scary" you should have asked that.

[hopefanatic]

Well what would you do?

[coolerjunpei]

if i know it's not real, and it's just me, and the rest of you are my imagination? anything. but is that the kind of thing you're saying this is, or are you talking about a collective unconscious, just... conscious?

[hopefanatic]

I'd be pretty concerned about your imagination if you thought up someone like me!

Say that you found out that this was essentially a sort of stasis. That all of us who aren't natives are "conscious" here while our bodies are unconscious somewhere.

[coolerjunpei]

then this is real, and i might be harder to convince.

let's say you live here, "conscious" with everyone else, for... a year. maybe longer. then one day you wake up back where you were before. the year you spent here doesn't go away, right? the people you meet, the stuff you do... it's still real.

[hopefanatic]

That all depends on the person in question, doesn't it? Some people might prefer to live in denial than accept such a thing was possible once they woke up again and others might let their mind interpret it as real even if it was technically a simulation.

Or they could erase our memories before we leave.

[coolerjunpei]

now you're just being difficult.

there is no "technicaly a simulation." are you talking about true virtual reality? it's in the name! a real experience is a real experience.

[hopefanatic]

Am I?

[He absolutely is. But not intentionally... probably.]

But that's where you get into splitting hairs and debating how real something a computer is programmed to create is. Of course even if the world we interact with is generated you're right that our reactions are probably genuine enough.

[coolerjunpei]

so that should be enough, right? if the reactions are real, then that's enough.

[hopefanatic]

But do they matter once you're back in your body?

For example... Say someone you become close to here dies, but they're actually fine and just wake back up in their body wherever it is. Does that death matter?

[coolerjunpei]

of course it matters. you still feel something. they still feel something.

[hopefanatic]

Wow, I'm a little jealous! I don't think anyone thought that about me!

[coolerjunpei]

well... sorry? that's not up to me.

[hopefanatic]

Oh, I know! It's not your fault that I'm a despicable person who wouldn't be missed!

[coolerjunpei]

[aw jeez]

uh, sure. you're kind of annoying, but despicable sounds like a lot...? did you... do something?

[hopefanatic]

Well by most peoples' standards I'd probably be considered despicable, but to anyone with talent I probably wouldn't even register as a bug. But I've done lots of things!

[coolerjunpei]

yeah, you lost me. did you do something bad or what?

[hopefanatic]

Well aside from being born everything else I do is in the pursuit of hope, and I would never consider anything done for hope to be bad.