I recently read a couple of articles online that posited the idea that we are living in a simulation: a sort of computer program created by post-human entities that want to study the past. If this is true, the implications would be enormous: moral and ethical reasoning would be thrown into question, as would our understanding of religion. If enough people within the simulation understood the un-reality of this place, there would be a VERY big backlash.
Or would there be? I've wrestled with this idea since I first watched the matrix, and i've never been able to shake the feeling that, at some level, my actions and thoughts are controlled by an external source. Recently, i've reached a point where it doesn't seem to matter much. My actions, my goals and dreams, are still relevant. My life (as I perceive it) would be no less real to me: think about how many people nowadays use the Internet for dating, and for the pursuit of online friendships through Facebook and MMO video games? Those are no less 'real' than our face-to-face encounters with these people: the interactions are essentially the same.
Because of this, I see no question of futility. Maybe what we do doesn't really matter in the big picture - so what? Our actions are still important to US. The pursuit of finding (or constructing) meaning in our lives matters more, on a practical level, than the reality of that meaning. But with the knowledge that reality is an illusion, I (and others like me) can bend and break the rules without a guilty conscience, if the ends justify the means.
I just hope that, whatever the case may be, we humans find a way to conquer sleep once and for all. It's such a critical thing, but the time one spends asleep is all but wasted. Ugh.. I need to get to bed soon. That 18 mile run yesterday killed me.
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