Simulacra

Even before the advent of The Sims, there were games purporting to simulate the complexities of a person's life. This one, for example, was first designed in 1860 – and there are other more venerable and ancient traditional games. For the idea of a person's life, lived vicariously and without real risk, has always captivated us. Hence, novels. Hence, movies. Hence, every kind of 'reality' show which places our chosen proxies at risk and in danger.

Here you will find one of the more recent incarnations. Having watched my virtual house fill with virtual files (or flies) and my virtual friends get slightly unhappy at my virtually perpetual virtual penury, I can say with some authority that if you like living the life of a virtual British bum (no, not what some of you are thinking), you will find this little gem intriguing. The demo is free; the upgrade is US$19.95.

But back to the idea of life-simulation. 'Simulism' is the slightly unwieldy word which handles the concept of life in simulation. Two divergent trees result: one path is through solipsism – the first-person personal approach; the other is through immersion - the Second Life option beloved of online gamers.

My intent was originally to explore the history of life-simulation from the perspective of one who has experimented with a lot of games of this kind. Upon further consideration, this isn't feasible; the fault is not so much in the medium, which is ubiquitous and varied, but in myself – I have had bouts of gaming obsession in my youth, followed by long periods of complete disinterest – and I have no desire to repeat that kind of cycle again.

Instead, let's explore just one line of thought: what does it mean for us as humans that we are getting so much better at simulating ourselves? Do we bring these skills, this arcane knowledge, to our real-life interactions? Do we play our own roles so well that we cannot distinguish self from persona? Or is self but the sum of personae? Yes, perhaps we are all sum people, easily divided in our duplicity.

"Kansas, I've a feeling we're not in toto any more!" said Dorothy.

White Space

In the Annals of Arda, concerning the fate of Al-Istari, the Wizards, it is written that the one whom men called Gandalf the Grey travelled to the Tower of Isengard to meet Saruman the Wise, head of his order. In this part of the account, the Grey One converses with Saruman, and towards the end of their converse, the Lord of Isengard reveals his true thought and ambition:

"For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman the Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!"

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

"I liked white better," I said.

"White!" he sneered. "It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken."

"In which case it is no longer white," said I. "And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1966). The Lord of the Rings, 1:252. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

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Sometimes, it is necessary to think of white as white, and avoid the perils of both Newtonian optics and Sarumanic thaumaturgy. Simplicity has always been a virtue, despite the frequent mockery of the simple - and in this age of complexity and doublethink (or groupthink), it is an even more important and valuable one.