meadowlark | anonymous ‣

I'm ruling out theories one through three.

1. I've thought mass hallucinations were possible, but that quickly proved to be a point of paranoia. It's unlikely to happen.

2 and 3. I've been there. Literally. Managing that many different simulations to the point where we feel like we have different timelines and worlds would be impractical, and wouldn't make much sense now that we're being pulled out of it. Plus ... that kind of simulation would be weird in my case. Let's just say we'd have a case of a simulation within a simulation.

Of course, I think you can argue we're in the simulation now. That might be risky when it comes to protecting ourselves. We have to assume we can die.

i'm with you on the mass hallucination, but it's always possible only one of us is hallucinating.

i agree, we have to assume we can die. but that doesn't negate the simulation as an option

How do you prove that something isn't a simulation?

i'm not sure
that's not exactly my area of expertise

[ but you bet she's going to ask fitz about it. ]

Well, in my experience there was a killswitch, but I imagine that if we're in a simulation, we're pretty far from it.

And that was ... more simplistic than this somehow.

it's probably too early to draw any firm conclusions yet
but it's good to consider the options

what's your experience with simulations?

An AI created a world called the "City of Light" where all of humanity would be able to live out the rest of their lives without any pain or suffering. As you can imagine, that also meant that anything good connected to the bad would also be wiped away. It gave the AI access to everyone's thoughts, feelings, pain receptors, and more. In real time.

The idea was that nobody could die in the City of Light.

I went there to get my people out. It was a city, but it felt unreal. Almost hazy in a way. I could feel pain there because of the circumstances that sent me there.

To get to the City of Light, you had to swallow a piece of technology that would then become embedded in the back of our heads. Given what we have there now, you can guess that I'm understandably concerned. El promised some kind of tutorial about the neural implants we all have.

who programmed the ai?

[ a short reply to a long answer, but it's the main question bobbi has. ]

as if the invasion of our bodily autonomy and the abduction and keeping us drugged wasn't enough yet
a tutorial would be good

A woman named Becca. For reasons I still don't totally understand, it wasn't possible to just delete what she had created. I didn't get to talk to her for long. She was in the simulation, too. It's a long story.

[Determining how much she's willing to share is what's stopping her. But Clarke doesn't see any reason to keep this a secret for now. Sharing what she knows can help them determine what happened.]

Well, don't try to rush El. Apparently that's a bad idea.

speaking from experience?

Unfortunately. Apparently helping us become comfortable with just one of the many aspects of the violation of our bodies isn't as important as us breaching their security when one of their own men led us here.

i understand prioritizing and that different people might have different priorities, but i'm not sure i agree with those

I don't get the sense that El really grasps that we don't know what's going on. Just a hunch.

i'm sure it'll become apparent sooner rather than later

If only I could more artfully and creatively embellish how weird it is that this many people are even alive and around me. But I'm sure Morningstar will figure it out once I'm outside.

(no subject)

covertness - 2018-08-21 12:33 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

strove - 2018-08-22 01:19 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

covertness - 2018-08-24 06:39 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

strove - 2018-08-25 05:46 (UTC) - Expand

[ bobbi directs him to the thread. ]

Different anonymous. Also been there with 2/3.
I agree that the uncanny timeline mismatch indicates this probably isn't a simulation, or at least one meant to fool us.
And regardless of whether it's a simulation, death in here could mean death in the "real."

I've seen someone go braindead because they were killed in the simulation. I've also seen someone's mind safely uploaded. So, that's where that was coming from.

But I think it's safe to say those corpses we left behind on the bus are very, very dead.

Have you dealt with a timeline mismatch of this scale before?

I see.

[ it's fascinating that their experiences are so similar. ]

Not of this scale. I've dealt with a 74-year jump, but that was comparatively straightforward: Two-way wormhole opening at points A and B.

Was that a wormhole between the same world, akin to time travel?

[Which she ... knows nothing about. Oh, if Raven was here. Raven probably knows things about theoretical physics somehow, at least by now.]

Or different versions of the same world? I assume if it's straightforward, it's simply going forward, but I ... don't know if that's actually how straightforward it can be for someone else.

Yes, exactly, akin to time travel.
Same "world" or universe, but time and space (or spacetime) travel within it.
Think more physical, like a tunnel. You enter at one end, and exit at the other. Each end is separate point in spacetime, differentiated by its location, time, or both. You enter on earth and pop out on a far-off planet or vice versa. Same goes for entering in your current year and exiting ten years ahead.

Travel between different worlds would be interuniversal. If you accept that mutliple universes exist, you can apply the same tunnel imagery. So, if we're all from separate universes, then we've all gone through different tunnels to reach the same endpoint: Here. Much less straightforward because of the numerous routes involved.

I'm really glad that someone here both accepts it when I say I can't possibly be from this version of Earth and offers an explanation for what happened. I'm not sure if they bothered to interrogate us for our knowledge before we were being shipped to another location, but it'll be good for us to have what you've just laid out as a reference.

Do you have any guesses on how difficult it would be to pull that off in this world? Based on the minimal amount of technology you've seen already.

[ !!! what a nice reply. ]

The same to you, honestly. It's a relief that someone else is thinking along these lines.

Very difficult. El and Gaby seem as confused by us as we are by them. And most theorists think interuniversal tunnels would collapse in on themselves before anything could make it through to the other side, so. This is beyond what I thought possible.

[ eating crow re: the multiverse theory is... the worst. ]

Well, I have a feeling that if we can figure out how we got here, you're going to really shake up your world with what we've found.

Because we're obviously returning home. In time.

[Though Clarke wonders if she'll be the only one uncertain about whether that's something she wants to do.

But that's far from a question she will propose to ... anyone.]

Yeah, we are.

[ he and jemma haven't crossed space and time, the virtual and the real, only to end up separated by universes. ]

If there's a way here, there's a way out.

I'd like to have more of an idea of who did this to us. And why.

While we're at finding the way out, anyway.