Manny’s Reviews > Permutation City > Status Update

So, let's suppose you were God, and you'd done such a good job of creating the world that you couldn't break your own laws and make miracles happen, but you'd actually only created the solar system and a bit of space around it. Then if you wanted to manifest yourself, wouldn't it make sense to manipulate the external boundary conditions and appear as an alien in a UFO? I don't know why I never thought of that.

So you're a simulated person who's just been switched on, and your first thought is that you remember you're a perfect copy of another simulated person who's created you to undertake a hazardous one-way mission. What do you do?

a) Just head off towards the abyss, this was the plan all along.

b) Try to kill your creator and escape.

c) Offer to flip a coin, loser goes on the mission and winner stays behind.

Well, the city sounds intriguing, but I'm pretty dubious about the permutations. They requires more suspension of disbelief than Julian Barbour, and I don't say that lightly.

I want to know more about the relationship between the Church of the God Who Makes No Difference and the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. Has there been a schism or something?

- So when does this info-dump end?

- Honey, the whole book is an info-dump. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Don't you just hate it when you wake up and discover that you're not you, but just a copy of you that you decided to run in a simulated universe? You're sitting there thinking how unfair it is that you're in this crappy computer while you're having fun out there in the real world. Why couldn't you have been you instead?

Well, so far so good, but I bet it gets more complicated soon.