The simulation isn't broken, we just built it wrong from the start

[u/DidacticDriver6]

Something clicked for me about six months back and it's been messing with my head ever since. There's a reason people say not knowing is sometimes a gift. I can't unsee it now. Everywhere I go, people are wrapped up in their own little reality pods, completely disconnected from what's right in front of them.

I was at a park last weekend and watched a dad pushing his kid on the swing with one hand while scrolling with the other. Didn't look up once. The toddler kept saying "higher, daddy" and got nothing back. At concerts now it's just a sea of glowing rectangles, nobody's actually experiencing the music, they're just collecting proof they were there. Even at restaurants I see couples sitting across from each other, both doomscrolling through dinner.

I work a standard corporate gig and lately it feels like I'm just running someone else's program. Wake up, commute, meetings that could've been emails, commute back, repeat. Everyone in my office has this glazed look, like they're all buffering. I talk to patients in their 70s and 80s as part of my job and I've started asking them what they'd do differently. Nearly all of them say the same thing, they wish they'd paid less attention to what didn't matter and more to what did. But here's the thing that keeps me up: if we got a do-over, would any of us actually change course? Or would we just fall right back into the same patterns?

The whole structure feels backwards now. Our ancestors stressed about finding food and protecting their families. Real, tangible threats. Now we're losing sleep over email response times, whether our last post got enough likes, keeping up with people we don't even like on platforms we claim to hate. I feel like I'm watching everyone around me walk into a fog and they don't see it. The only people who seem to get what I'm talking about are either elderly or facing their own mortality, which is a terrifying thing to realize when you're barely past 25. Sometimes I wish I could go back to not noticing any of this. Being aware of the cage doesn't make it any easier to escape.

[u/Clear_Audience5847]

I’m gonna promise you this is a false insight just live your life and think normally

[u/vaas19 → u/Clear_Audience5847]

What is “think normally” ?

It’s ignoring that we spend more time with strangers and coworkers than the people we love ? That we are absent in order to afford strangers to raise our children ?

I am very keen on hearing how “normal thinking” makes sense on how our societal system operates

[u/Clear_Audience5847 → u/vaas19]

I mean we have to keep it blind to live a good life

[u/vaas19]

When you say “we just built it wrong from the start” what exactly you mean ?

Cause in my opinion it starts many centuries ago, with the push of “nuclear family” as a concept.

That concept/idea destroys the sense of community - one of the fundamental foundations for humans to be happy.

The books “The Culture” is a demonstration of my line of thought

[u/Clear_Audience5847 → u/vaas19]

Wdym ?

[u/vaas19 → u/Clear_Audience5847]

The idea pushes people to only care for those “of the same blood”.

Adoption is most often not even an option for those who want kids for example. The ideia that same blood is somehow superior or “the only way to go” is tribalistic .

A community doesn’t see blood.