What if we are just a scrap of metafiction inside somebody's history book?
Digital-era journalist extraordinaire John Tierney just published an essay that will undoubtedly float a million new science fiction stories and their hack movie versions.
He talks to a couple scientists who are floating a new twist on the "brain in a vat" theory of human consciousness, guessing that we are really living inside a super-advanced, futrististic computer program that future people are using to recreate or study the past. Run, don't walk, over to the New York Times to read all about it.
I know, I know, we've all heard these ideas before, but these playful theories are like jumping-jacks for your writing muscles. Go ahead and dream up a couple ways to impress these future historians with your own story.
Check out his blog post for hundreds of comments from readers about this mind-bender:
"Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University ... concludes: 'If you might be living in a simulation then all else equal you should care less about others, live more for today, make your world look more likely to become rich, expect to and try more to participate in pivotal events, be more entertaining and praiseworthy, and keep the famous people around you happier and more interested in you.'"
(Thanks, SF Signal!)
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