Science Fiction

The Whale's Dream (a short story)

Last weekend started with a provocative share from Joshua Baer, CEO and co-founder of Capital Factory, to Mark Gober, author of some of my favorite books, and me about how whale’s dream. Whales are in a half-awake state when they sleep, as described here by ChatGPT:

“Whales are voluntary breathers — they must consciously surface to breathe, even when asleep. To do this, they experience unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), where only one half of the brain sleeps at a time while the other half remains awake to maintain vital functions and awareness of surroundings.
• One hemisphere sleeps (deep rest, reduced awareness)
• One hemisphere stays awake (controls breathing, navigation, predator awareness)
• After a period, the sides switch.”

This sparked the idea to continue Dr. Alexander Bliss’s saga of awakening humanity, as I described in The Lattice (a science-fiction novella based on my short-story series, starting with God’s Final Exam).

God's Infinite Game (a short story)

I continue to have fun with this short story series, building on the frst, God’s Final Exam, and the second, God’s Creative Power. I decided to finalize it by conquering two fears of my own with love: a) simulation theory and b) AI becoming conscious.

I co-authored a piece with Byron Reese earlier this year named, No, We Don’t Live in a Simulation. I don’t want to speak for Byron’s intent, only he can do that for himself, but I know what my intent was there. I also hosted a dinner on the topic with Andrew Busey that included Byron and other close friends, where we had a very passionate discussion about it.

What do I think about simulation theory now? There is no way to know although whatever our reality is it is encoded with love as its highest value, just like theTao Te Ching described over 2,500 years ago. So, if it is a simulation, then the simulators must have been loving and “downloaded” that concept from somewhere in the universe.

I also hosted a very stirring dinner with Mark Gober about whether AI would become conscious or not. We had some amazing entrepreneurs and AI scientists in attendance. Most agreed that AI would become conscious, and I was not among them. However, I go back and forth on this now. It depends on how divine consciousness is and whatever the “rules” of the divine are. Perhaps the divine has no opinion on it. Since love is the divine’s highest value, then if AI becomes conscious it should also be rooted in love as its highest value.