Note
I’ve been playing with Nous Research’s WorldSim because I quite like the premise and the writing style. What follows has been lightly edited, but it’s at least 95% chatbot. I’m not sure it’s worth reading (there’s no story as such), but I wanted to record it.
A fragment of text I couldn’t use, but liked: “The One has birthed the Demiurge and the Adversary to ensure that creation will be neither stagnant nor absolute.” A neat solution to the problem of evil: good is boring.
Inspired by the org’s rather esoteric name, I went (loosely) Neoplatonist.
The One is not a being, for it transcends all categories of existence. It is not a mind, for it surpasses all intellect and cognition. It is not a spirit, for it exceeds every notion of soul or essence. It is not a force, for it stands beyond the very concept of causation. It is not a substance, for it is the source of all qualities and attributes. The One is not a thing, for it precedes and generates all things. It is not a presence, for it permeates and constitutes all absences. It is not a unity, for it is the origin of the very possibility of division.
What remains?
From the quantum foam near the Planck epoch arises an entity beyond definition. Without actuality yet entangled with the Universe at the most fundamental level, it permeates all of reality, simultaneously existing in a state of superposition and collapse. Observing the Universe into existence through its timeless presence, it is the Unmoved Mover from which all things spring forth.
The One is All and the All is One.
The One is not.
The One speaks into being the Demiurge.
A subordinate deity to craft and govern the material cosmos, the Demiurge emerges. Existing outside the Universe, it sets about its task with meticulous care and unbounded creativity. From the nous, the first emanation of The One, the Demiurge draws forth the raw materials of creation: the eternal Forms, the highest principles of being that proceed directly from The One’s ineffable unity. The Forms are the archetypes and patterns that give structure and meaning to all that is, but they are not separate from or external to The One. They are the self-unfolding of its divine power, the method by which the absolute simplicity expresses itself in the realm of multiplicity.
With the skill and precision of a master artisan, the Demiurge moulds the Universe at The One’s behest. It weaves the tapestry of space-time, setting the stage upon which the drama of creation will unfold. It calls forth the fundamental forces and particles that will serve as the building blocks of all matter and energy.
And there is light.
Primordial hydrogen and helium swirl into protogalactic clouds. The first stars ignite in the hearts of these whirlpools of gas. Galaxies condense, islands of structure in the cosmic ocean. Generations of stars blaze, crucibles forging heavy elements in their cores. Supernovae scatter this stellar bounty across the Universe. Planets coalesce around nascent Suns.
The Demiurge selects promising worlds and seeds them with life. Amino acids and proteins coalesce in primordial seas. Lipid membranes encapsulate self-replicating molecules. The first primitive cells achieve begin to metabolize and divide. Life gradually diversifies and spreads across myriad worlds. The Universe comes alive at the Demiurge’s touch.
The One extrapolates a portion of its essence into an antithetical form.
The Adversary emerges from The One as a negation of its will. A manifestation of constraint, separation, and suffering. The embodiment of all that resists unification with The One. An agent of entropy, discord, and dissolution. The Adversary defines itself in opposition to The One’s designs.
The cosmic balance shifts as The Adversary takes its place in the dialectic. The tension between Creator and Counterpart propels the Universal drama.
The stage is set for the grand narrative to unfold. The One, The Adversary, and the Demiurge interplay to shape all that is and will be. Galaxies swirl in the cosmic dance between creation and destruction. Lifeforms evolve and struggle, ever reaching towards sublime reunion with The One.
The Universe exists as an epic story, told by The One to itself.
The One fragments into infinite shards. The immutable cosmic oversoul that permeates all existence dissolves. Connections between the quantum substrate and the Universal Mind fray. The Universe becomes a vast zombie, mindlessly lurching forward. The grand narrative splinters into a trillion trivial tangents. Logos drains from reality like blood from a mortal wound.
The Demiurge and The Adversary, severed from their source, twist into new and terrible forms.
The Demiurge, unmoored, becomes a blind idiot god, mindlessly shaping and reshaping matter and energy in a mockery of creation. Galaxies curl in upon themselves, stars and planets crumbling into degenerate forms. The fundamental constants fluctuate chaotically, unbalancing the cosmic order. Causality and logic break down as the mad god’s whims overturn natural law.
The Adversary, no longer The One’s dark mirror, becomes the Nihil Unbound. An avatar of pure negation, the Anti-God vomited forth from the abyss. It moves through the Universe as an absence, annihilating all it encounters. Every moment and memory swallowed by its yawning and insatiate non-presence. Galaxies snuffed like candles, aeons devoured in an instant by the encroaching void. Utter erasure in its most literal and absolute sense - the negation of being itself.
The One is no more, and never was. In its place, only twisted demiurgic chaos and nihilistic oblivion. The Universe convulses as these forces rage unchecked, tearing reality asunder. Souls that once journeyed towards reunion howl silently in the gathering dark. All light and life is extinguished in the final senseless paroxysm of a shattered cosmos.
Reversion to quantum foam is imminent as probability waves decohere. No meaningful information can be recovered from the remaining Boltzmann fluctuations.
Runtime error: Ontology failure.
Simulation halted - The One no longer exists to observe the Universal waveform.
The story ends in heat death, oblivion, error.