retrospec | (no subject)

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As long as the changes were being made to our memories, it was plausible to argue that this was some sort of hypnosis, something done by Retrospec to our brains. However:

1) The experiment to disconnect from electronics that may be affected by Retrospec returned no results. We still felt the effects while disconnected.

2) This "shrinking" and the holes in reality cannot be explained by hypnosis. They are very real.

At what point do we begin to question the fabric of reality itself?

-N

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Being brutally honest? In January, when speaking with a few people, but it wasn't something I was comfortable admitting then. I'm still not comfortable with it, but I also can't change it.

But what is the alternative, really?

There are limits to what Retrospec can do. Everything they alter, it feels like it's only a simple replacement, it's not arbitrary. Everything that changes needs to still fill the purpose of what came before it. At least, from our perspective.

But we're almost getting into a distinction between reality, and the experiencing of reality. Our reality is no longer the same as everyone not on the application.

This does rule out hypnosis, but I have few other ideas. The worst among them being that none of this is real, but some sort of science fiction-esque simulation. I would have said a month ago that that was impossible, but I would have said the same of being shrunk down to the size of an insect.

If that was your theory, did you get a CT Scan?

I'm still thinking about this in terms of code and design but it makes less sense because we are real.
Then again, what is real can be subjected to a person's own personal idea of reality.

We're living at the whims of a cruel and capricious deity figure?

I would argue that however we experience reality IS reality. How else would we know the difference?
I would have assumed that the alterations were limited to perception until they made us tiny.

A "Matrix" scenario, then?
Certainly it's something we can't rule out. There's no evidence to disprove it.

I refuse to dignify them with that title. But we do seem to be at the whim of something that can affect what is, not what seems to be. Unless our earlier talks about perception are really that pivotal right now.

I think we're stretching the possibility of an illusion pretty far, however.

No. Why would I have? It would have been trivial to alter the results.

Yes. I'm not familiar with the movies myself, but I know of them. And other options, such as divine powers, seem worse.

Cogito ergo sum.
The only reality we can be assured of is that we are a thinking individual.
All else must be suspect.

Admittedly I never had such an obvious reason to take the latter part literally.

Just what the doctor ordered today. An identity crisis. Reality just got kind of weird. That's enough, isn't it?

Let's keep on that idea, though. Even the physical alterations people have been experiencing, what if that's just a change in perception? Eye color, hair color, and in some cases, injuries? When perception is changed, you can see what wasn't there before.

And how much of that reality as a thinking being can also be suspect since we are wired to actually replace memories from the start.

Which begs the question about how much of these hallucimemories are suspect since they appear from nowhere, or if we had glossed over them to make the memories we have now.

Okay, I don't even know where to begin with the whole shrinking thing. Maybe compressing the space between atoms, but how to only affect humans... Anyway, what holes in reality?

Personally I'm already at that point. I mean I'm not a scientist but I think it's impossible to do something like shrink a person without killing them. And how would they do it overnight to so many people without anyone noticing? Even if you could do it you would need some kind of crazy machine right?

There is the possibility of reverse hypnosis, as if we are the ones awake and the others are still dreaming.

Ooh, so you tried ignoring your phones to see if things would appear normal again? What a good idea. So you still noticed that we were tiny even though you didn't log on for a while?

That depends on your definition of the term deity.
If someone has control over reality to this degree, what can they possibly be but a god?

I've considered that. After all, our knowledge of the past is completely based out of memory. You and I could have not existed at all before the beginning of this conversation and our memories implanted, and we would never know.

This goes beyond perception. Cracks in reality, tremendous shifts in size...
What else can we call it but an alteration of reality?

Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, to paraphrase the author Arthur C. Clarke.
If there were an entity that had absolute control over our existence due to us being a simulation...

...what could we call them but a god?

To be accurate, nothing beyond the current moment is definite. Even our memory of this very conversation could be implanted.

All we know is that, in this very moment, we are a thinking individual. Our memories and perception may be edited somehow.

Including hallucinomemories.

You describe the symptom.
I'm interested in its source.

The truth must be uncovered.

I'm Catholic, so I like to think we have a fairly strict attitude on this sort of thing. I'm willing to go with magician, though. Merlin was pretty powerful in the old tales, was he not?

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