I literally just listened to an old Coast To Coast AM show today, from February this year, so i haven't read the book yet, and i don't know an awful lot about the concepts in general, other than those discussed on the show, Jim, and from what i've read on the forums.
But the one thing that did occur to me upon hearing some of the ideas and assumptions, was of a UK TV show called Red Dwarf, and an episode entitled
Back To Reality. My idea is only loosely based on this, so bear with me.
I'm not comfortable with the idea of another entity controlling our existence, or at least our perceived existence, maybe that's because i'm generally not comfortable about the lack of control, or maybe it's because i can't make sense of it, i'm honestly not sure, but either way, it doesn't ring true to me.
However, the idea that we ourselves are something more, perhaps even beings that never die, or face danger, looking for kicks, or a bit of fun, i can live with.
What if we are the ETs, living in a different dimension, where nothing is feared anymore, nothing is dangerous, we can't die or get hurt, we can't take risks or go wrong to any real level. Much in the same way that we ourselves (in this reality) might feel now about things like Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Demons, etc.
As we are now, we turn to movies, games, TV shows, for our escapism, or for a little excitement and danger and fear. Or we may even go to the roller coaster rides, which although appearing dangerous and scary, are quite, quite safe. Kind of a controlled danger/fear experience.
So, as these "other beings", we turn to this "alternative reality" game. We're sat in pods, hooked up to machines, slumming it if you will, experiencing a life we can't possibly experience in our real time/existence.
Because we're unable to die, time obviously isn't an issue, we could literally play this "game" for 70 years, from birth to death of the character, experiencing every facet in real time. Like the choice you get in playing sports games, sometimes, where you can choose the lengths of game you will play, from 5 minutes per half, to real time.
We could get to make all of the choices, even down to choosing our character in the first place, but rather than choosing "Jimmy 'The Chin' Soprano", whose special strength is fist fighting and shootouts in alleyways, we get to choose which family we want to be born into.
There would be a real time list of which other characters in the game are pregnant and choose something that offers a suitable challenge, or chance of real fun. For a real challenge for example, you might choose to be the newborn baby of a crack addict, or for some real fun you might choose to be the spoilt first child of a wealthy couple living the dream.
We that play the game, might even be like a bunch of teenagers sitting around smoking pot and injecting the latest drugs into our arms on a weekend, because we're bored and disillusioned with the real world we live in. Much like a rich kid, bored with the disingenuous and comfortable life their parents offer, turning to drink, crime and depravity as a way of going against the machine and conjuring up some excitement and risk.
I won't bore everyone with the full details of my imagination, and to be honest i literally only came up with it half an hour ago, so it's not finalised or complete in any way, in fact, in another half hour it might be nothing but a ridiculous, mock-worthy brain fart.
One other little thing though, which did occur to me, which i haven't had time to think about yet:
What if we are in fact the "bad angels", from the bible. Ie. Lucifer and the third of heaven that took his side in the great battle. And this is our punishment, to live life as human beings, vulnerable, fallible, finite and without our knowledge and understanding of the past. Either this life is a 2nd chance, hence suffering and tests, to prove us worthy or show God we're worth another chance. Or, this is just God kicking us around a bit, taking pleasure in his revenge.
