Recently while on my way to uni I was thinking of what is probably the most ambitious “game” ever designed, what I like to call the game of life. This project isn’t so much a game but more-so a simulation of human behavior in a three-dimensional interactive form which lets you control any aspect of it via an incredibly powerful Pc which probably hasn’t been invented yet.
Firstly this concept is completely hypothetical however it’s actually fun to think about the results if this simulation were real.
I’ll try to make understanding this concept easier by introducing one aspect at a time starting with the people in it. To visualize this project firstly think of a person, any typical person and then isolate everything about them that makes them human such as: Personality, Hair Color, Likes, Dislikes, Emotional Tendencies, Perks, Ingenuity, Size, absolutely everything and use them as variables in the game with a moderately random realistic range. Just taking a wild guess but i’m estimating it would take around 10k variables to sum up human behaviors and interactions.
Then comes in the AI programming for the individuals, basically it’s a massive calculation based on all the variables that define the individual. This code would be approx 500Gb in size of pure text and be around 1 trillion characters long. The code would define the person depending on the circumstances that may arise and lets them understand and learn as if they were actually alive. Now so far we’ve got an entire person down to their current thoughts in a text-based program outputting in real-time as if they are actually thinking. We’d be able to see their individual reactions to wherever they are currently and read what their thinking on-screen. So far this is easily beyond anything we can do at the moment, mainly due to the lack of time to type the AI code, but also because of the lack of what I call a “Plexius Core” which is a piece of code which simulates consciousnesses in artificial life. This core would require some of the most advanced coding ever designed and studies of consciousness not to mention it would require around another 1GB of pure code, it’s basically the brain or CPU of the person using their “senses” to made decisions based on the variables defined above.
Now assuming this has also been invented we’ve got a person capable of thought with a full range of emotions, movement (purely in code), ideas and consciousness. We don’t however have anything on-screen other than all that code that’s going through their head. Using all the individuals variables regarding their “visible” body, we now use them and create a virtual body for them. This is where it gets really complicated, the simulation won’t have typical rigged animated and textured assets, but by using the variables it’ll design and create a unique body of the person down to the heart, bones, nerves and cells in the correct places. It will also rig/unrig itself during the game, I say unrig because bones commonly break and this changes people’s disposition and emotions in life. Now to complete this, a programming side of every known object in the body is required along with its function and how it all works flawlessly to create the amazing human body. We don’t however understand the brain’s working fully yet which again makes it impossible to understand and in turn replicate the brain and AI processes. It’s essential to make the coded individuals exactly like the real deal to have the correct results later on, but keep reading to find out what this “game” is actually designed to do.
So now on-screen we’d see a person in a 1-1 scale with a full range of aesthetics and emotions and consciousness. If we slice, say their arm off they would react in extreme pain and puzzlement from how this has happened to them… and they would eventually die from blood loss. If this were a real simulation that actually existed i wouldn’t be sure if this was unethical or not due to it just being code and the person isn’t actually feeling pain. Anyway, if this stage were real i’d be fully content to watch their reactions to different objects and watch them struggle to work out what torch is used for.
This is just the beginning however…
Now this is where it gets fun… The next leap is to add objects and the environment to the simulation, just like the beginning of the universe people had to survive by creating their own tools from rocks and sticks, so do these people. This would involve having to create every element known and unknown to man and generate a 1:1 scale of the world similar to earth atom by atom. This would involve basically having another Gig of code on each object known like a tree and how it reproduces and what the element of wood can used for along with it’s pliability depending on size etc.
The textures would be generated again purely by code, almost like a built-in photoshop that the simulation known how to use, which then automatically textures the atoms and objects to their optimal colors depending on location, season, color etc. Sound again would be generated purely by code based around the objects size, density, speed and many more variables. An example being if you hit a metal bowl half submerged in water it’ll make a different sound if it’s being pulled out and hit, the program will calculate the water’s position on the bowl, the instrument used to hit it and use sound points to create the sound it would realistically make. So here’s what’s in the game so far, to catch you up… basically look outside… Except remove any technology and man-made objects and add one male and female to populate the world, sound familiar? Then there’s the simple task of adding an extremely detailed heads-up display to be able to navigate the world and let the player to scroll out to see the entire world or zoom in to view atom, as well as letting you click on people to see their ideas. I would love to see what’s going through the cave man’s head when he invents fire for the first time.
Now the impossible it out of the way it’s time to reap the rewards! The question then becomes what can’t this game do? You’ll be able to watch the civilizations rise and fall over time, see the future of technology if you fast forward the world, learn advanced medical techniques from doctors in the 50th century, play and extract games and music your world has created and even look inside people’s heads to see how they tick and possibly even diagnose more medical conditions.
If you haven’t realized already if you fast forward the world you won’t get exactly what we have today, the simulated world might have invented the automobile 50 years earlier or even learnt about cold fusion in the 18th century, you could however fast forward to the 25th century and copy their plans for a hoverboard and make a massive stack of cash today, of if your bored watch some of the Tv shows they have on in their parallel world, if the television’s been invented of course. If your really cocky you could fast forward to the 1000th century and stare in awe of what technology they may have or even if the earth or the human civilization is still alive. I’m almost defiantly sure in the 100th century this project would be possible but by then the internet would probably be replaced and this post would be gone.
If you somehow get bored of watching the future unfold in front of you, you could even change the world by giving an iPod to people in the 12th century, start a cyclone or world war or change a person’s thoughts to make them do something else. This would literally be the “Game of Life” and provide the most invaluable insight into the world ever known. Too bad this concepts impossible though… Although there have been breakthroughs in AI recently. We’ve now able to simulate the AI of a bee or wasp over the course of it’s life and we’ve also got a few very basic but promising online bots that reply to you if ask questions or strike up a general conversation and it even remembers who you are are what you last talked about.
Well that’s about it, feel free to comment on what you think but remember this is all hypothetical and I highly doubt it’ll even become reality, I only created a blog about it because I thought the concept was intriguing to consider.
