The idea that we’re living in a simulation is not new. It’s the premise of the entire Matrix movie series, and at least one controversial billionaire has frequently floated the possibility. However, that concept is the foundation of a new novel, When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory. It examines the aftermath of “The Announcement,” which informed the world that they’ve all been living in a simulation under the watchful eye of dispassionate programmers.
A commentary in thriller’s clothing, When We Were Real (published by Saga Press at Simon & Schuster) doesn’t focus much on that momentous and obviously jarring occurrence (there are flashbacks and reports of people losing it) as much as it does what it’s like to “live” in this new reality.
The story isn’t propelled by simulation revelations as much as it is by a Canterbury Tour bus traversing the US to visit “Impossibles,” geographical, physics-defying anomalies dotting the US landscape, all appearing after the Announcement.
They include a lightless and perfectly rectangular mountain tunnel that stops external time no matter how much time you spend in it, geisers that appear to suspend gravity, landscapes and rivers that take sharp perpendicular angles down or toward the sky (while maintaining tilted gravity), living, headless wireframe sheep, and a frozen tornado made out of something approximating razorblades.
Filling the bus is a cast of characters who more or less appeared to have reached the acceptance stage of learning you live in a sim. There’s a comic book artist, an ailing, retired engineer, a pair of nuns (one who is deeply questioning her faith for, perhaps, obvious reasons), a pregnant influencer, a podcaster and his son (a reluctant partner to the podcaster and later the influencer), a quad of octagenarians with a secret, a veteran bus driver and an out-of-her-depth, rookie tour guide.
Struggling with an AI reality
Even though people have accepted the news of their simulation, they’re still struggling with what it means, especially with the implication that they might simply be complex programs and their understanding of global history might also be a programming construct that, instead of being millennia old, might’ve been programmed just weeks or months ago (if you’re an AI living in a sim, how would you know the difference?).
When We Were Real is not just some morose look at the sad, sorry lives of AI bots living inside a simulation.
When We Were Real is a funhouse mirror look at our rapidly changing world.
Things take a dramatic turn when Gillian shows up and convinces the engineer to help her join the tour. Gillian, who is going under an assumed name, is actually a brilliant scientist who, we learn, is working on something called The Devil’s Toolbox, which might be a kit they can use to control or escape from their sim.
Gillian’s research team was killed by a terrorist group known as The Protagonists, who are taking the simulation thing literally. They believe that while they’re sentient programs, many of the other people around them are NPCs (Non-player Characters in gaming parlance) and that they can be killed for experience points. They, along with the FBI, are chasing Gillian.
AGI’s logical conclusion
Even though Gillian and other characters are ultimately complex AIs in a vast simulation, they’re also working – as we are in the real world – on developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). As Gillian explains it, the knowledge that they’re living in a sim accelerated AGI development to the point that they’ve now been able to use it to create a fully programmed human entity within the simulation.
I know, it’s confusing, but what that means is that new, sentient beings could be added to the sim, but they would lack the free will of all the other people living in the sim who were theoretically created by more natural means.
Adding another wrinkle to this intrigue is a version-hopping entity known as Aunty Tim (he has another, longer and harder-to-pronounce name). It’s thought he might’ve been tapped by the simulators to traverse the simulations and, perhaps, help. He may be a version of Gillian’s daughter. Aunty Tim has experienced many versions of this story, but it never ends well for Gillian or her daughter. Maybe this trip/version will be different.
Living in a simulation leads to questions about faith and purpose.
The descriptions of the Impossibles are mind-bending, but it’s in The Tunnel where the characters learn the most about themselves. The questioning nun writing a book on faith ends up spending years inside and emerges decades older and with a fresh perspective. For those on the outside, barely any time has passed.
One character notes that if this is a simulation, solving the world’s problems (climate change, hunger, economic disparity) doesn’t matter. Death also might not be a problem since, if you are just a program, you can be rebooted.
It’s especially tough going for theologians who realize that God is likely just a collection of disinterested programmers.
A gripping AI thriller
If this sounds like a dense slog of a read, it’s not. Gregory keeps it madcap, sometimes funny, and, yes, contemplative. There are emotional beats, and the last third of the novel is page-turning chaos,
I don’t know if the denoument is entirely satisfying but I think that’s because I already long to return to this simulated world. I want to understand Gillian’s fate and get a wider glimpse of the simulators’ real world, assuming one exists. Unless, of course, this is a sim inside a sim, inside…you get it.
When We Were Real is a funhouse mirror look at our rapidly changing world. Artificial Intelligence is developing at an unprecedented space, and AGI is likely arriving far sooner than we expected. There’s no evidence we’re currently living in a SIM, but the possibility of us creating a vast sim inhabited by sentient beings seems more likely every day. I wonder if they”ll read this book.