Wednesday Psalm - Suicide by Simulation
Discover more from Highway B by Brantly Martin
Suicide by Simulation
The preacher began and ended his weekly sermon with the same pulpit pounding refrain: “Suicide by any other name is Simulation!”
On its own, this declaration was fairly nonsensical, but put in context of the sermons it bookended every week, it was clear the preacher believed his entire nation-state, the most influential nation-state on B, was either under threat of becoming a simulation, or was already a “majority hellfire simulation.” (He alternated his assessment, and often within the same sermon.)
The preacher, somehow, went from fringe quack to divisive pillar. Most despised him, yet listened to every word of every sermon. Many thought he was a simulation.
To non-believers in simulations either impending or hellfire operational, as well as those that simply hated the preacher, this became a call to disprove his theory. And the only way to prove the preacher wrong, apparently, was to off oneself. The rationale being that there was no simulated suicide, which some argued was proof of living within the confines of a simulation.
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A version of that simulation—a simulation testing a simulation—was run again and again. The only variable being the degree to which the simulated preacher was despised. As there is no universal trait, or traits, for peak despicability, this had to be personalized per user, per simulatee. For example, if one thought running simulations on an unwilling population was the worst thing that could be done, the preacher—now their preacher—would evangelize to them on the efficacy and holiness of running simulations on an unwilling population.
It turned out, per the data, that once one reached peak disdain for an “elected or unelected leader,” one would believe almost anything about them, believe almost nothing espoused by them, and do almost anything (including offing oneself) to “bring them down, or prove them wrong.”
This simulation, once perfected, was sold to various nation-states on B, and later acquired, via the black market, by all nation-states on B.
It was only once this simulation—this technology—was available to all, that the early adopters, the more powerful nation-states, banned together to ban the simulation. (Labeling it an “undemocratic abuse of technology soon to eradicate life on B.”)
Of course, they only banned this simulation inside their own nation-states, leaving it to run its course elsewhere.
