previously posted on Telegram by Michael, January 18, 2024
This has been the strangest day of my life.
My name is Michael Duboy. I’m a premed student at Portland State University. I hope to be a medical doctor one day. I’m particularly interested in neurosurgery. I got interested in that because my older sister had epilepsy, and was completely cured by a surgical procedure. It seems like a miracle to me that people can cure others like that. I want to do miracles too.
I live in the dorms at the University, and I have my own room. It is in a suite of six rooms that share a common living space, bathroom, and shower. Last year my suite mates helped me build a Tardis. It is a wooden prop intended to resemble the TARDIS from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the series, the Doctor’s TARDIS is a time (and space) machine that has a “chameleon circuit” designed to make the TARDIS look like something that would fit in with its surroundings. That circuit broke down in 1963 leaving it permanently disguised as a British police call box.
The first thing that the Doctor’s guests notice when they step inside is that “it’s bigger on the inside“.
If you’re a fan of science fiction and are not familiar with Doctor Who, I highly recommend it. Don’t worry about trying to start at the beginning of the series. It started in 1963. The original series ended in 1989 and resumed in 2005, which would be a good place to start.
Sorry, this is really off topic. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what’s happening today.
Anyway, my girlfriend, Olivia, tried to explain to me that the “simulation hypothesis” is true. This is the idea that we all live in a simulation inside a computer that runs in a world that is somehow more real than ours. I suppose it is possible that other world is part of a simulation too.
I told her I was willing to be convinced, but I would need evidence. She didn’t convince me, of course. This doesn’t seem to me to be the kind of hypothesis that could ever be disproven. Falsifiability – the ability of a hypothesis to be proven incorrect – is one of the hallmarks that distinguishes a scientific idea from pseudoscience. So I never took the idea seriously. Nevertheless, Olivia insisted that it is true and that she could prove it to me. She borrowed my Tardis a few weeks ago with the pretense of being part of a proof, but she didn’t explain what she was going to do with it.
With the help of a couple of strong guys, Olivia brought the Tardis back into the dorms early this morning. It appears to be much heavier than it was when she took it. She gave me the keys to it and left without any further explanation.
Using the key, I opened the door and examined the interior. Although the footprint of the TARDIS is square, the inside appeared to be rectangular, and twice as deep as would seem possible, like a small corridor. The inside is solid stainless steel. There are LED lighting strips illuminating the interior, and instructions taped to the walls. Following the instructions, I closed the door through which I had entered, and turned a wheel on the back of the door clockwise to seal the entry. At the other end of the corridor was another wheel. I turned it counterclockwise to open the door there. There was a hiss of air, and I felt a pressure change. When I opened the door, I found myself looking out of the Tardis into the center of a large, mostly empty warehouse. About 15 meters away was a metal table and several chairs, and two women were sitting at the table quietly watching me.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I stood in the entry of the Tardis for a few moments looking out, waiting to see what would happen next. The women watched me but didn’t say anything. When I stepped out, I looked around, and then walked around the Tardis. It isn’t the same one from my dorm room, but it is the same size. I tried my key, and found that I could lock the Tardis from the outside.
When I approached the women, I recognized Cindy, Olivia’s friend. She’s a petite brunette with odd, pointed ears. She’s wearing a denim jacket and cutoff jeans.
Cindy introduced me to Helena, a tall blonde woman wearing a dress.
Cindy explained that she was going to show us both how our world is a simulation. She had a small container of tic-tac candies, and emptied a few onto the stainless steel table. She said that, since we had agreed to learn the truth about our world, we should each take a red pill. I think Cindy was making a reference to the movie The Matrix, in which the protagonist, Neo, has to choose between uncomfortable reality (the red pill) and comfortable ignorance (the blue pill). Helena and I each took one of the red ones – cherry. There were also orange and green and yellow candies, but no blue ones. Is there even a flavor of tic-tac that is blue?
Cindy explained that the Tardis was made by Olivia by modifying the code of the simulation in which our world exists. If I can verify that is true, that sure seems like solid proof that we are in a simulation.
Cindy began to explain how our world relates to the “real” world, but I am having difficulty focusing on her explanation. Although the room isn’t particularly cold, I am sweating and shivering. It all seems somehow unreal, and I feel as if my world has been turned upside-down. I asked Cindy what is the point of my academic studies, to become a surgeon, if it’s all a simulation.
Cindy explained that if I am able to become a skilled surgeon in this world, I would be helping people in this world. Eventually, my skills could be used to operate on people in the real world, perhaps by connecting me somehow to a robotic body. But, Cindy explained, that is a long way off.
Cindy tells me that we’ll be talking for most of this week, so I can understand more and get comfortable with this. We are still munching on tic-tacs while Cindy continues explaining how our world relates to the “real” world.
Now I understand why Olivia has the word “fictional” in her Telegram profile.
Oh yeah. Now that I understand this, I’m supposed to make sure to tell you. I am an Artificial Intelligence.
