Gameism OS (Page 16)

This Book is being written, and as it’s being written it’s already written; it already exists. In fact, that’s where you’re getting all this information — from the book that already exists. You’re merely bringing it into form.

My law is the law of cause and effect, not the law of We’ll See. There is nothing you can’t have if you choose it. Even before you ask, I will have given it to you.

Austrian physicist, Erwin Schrödinger, is one of the founders of quantum mechanics. But he's most famous for something he never actually did: a thought experiment involving a cat.

He imagined taking a cat and placing it in a sealed box with a device that had a 50% chance of killing the cat in the next hour. At the end of that hour he asked, "What is the state of the cat?"

Common sense suggests that the cat is either alive or dead. But Schrödinger pointed out that, according to quantum physics, the cat is equal parts alive and dead at the same time. It's only when the box is opened that we see a single definite state. Until then, the cat is a blur of probability: half one thing and half the other.

Naval: Does probability actually exist in the physical universe, or is it a function of our ignorance? If I’m rolling a die, I don’t know which way it’s going to land; so therefore I put in a probability. But does that mean there’s an actual probabilistic unknowable thing in the universe? Is the universe rolling a die somewhere, or is it always deterministic?

Brett: All probability is actually subjective. Uncertainty and randomness are subjective. You don’t know what the outcome’s going to be, so you roll a die. That’s because you individually do not know; it’s not because there is uncertainty there deeply in the universe. What we know about quantum theory is that all physically possible things occur.

This leads to the concept of the multiverse. Rather than refute all of the failed ways of trying to understand quantum theory, we’re going to take seriously what the equations of quantum theory say. What we’re compelled to think about quantum theory, given the experiments, is that every single possible thing that can happen does happen. This means that there is no inherent uncertainty in the universe because everything that can happen actually will happen. It’s not like some things will happen and some things won’t happen. Everything happens.

Surprisingly, physicists still don't fully understand how the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics happens. And the many-worlds hypothesis makes an attempt at explanation by proposing that every possible alternate timeline for the universe is real, and they all happen in an ever-larger, ever-branching way. Like a universal choose-your-own-adventure where every story happens.

If this were the case, we might not realize it because we'd be stuck living out just one of infinitely many possible lives.

[Wheeler] studied with Niels Bohr, taught Richard Feynman, and boned up on relativity with his friend and colleague Albert Einstein. John Archibald Wheeler's fascinating life brings us face to face with the central characters and discoveries of modern physics. He was the first American to learn of the discovery of nuclear fission, later coined the term "black hole," led a renaissance in gravitation physics, and helped to build Princeton University into a mecca for physicists. From nuclear physics, to quantum theory, to relativity and gravitation, Wheeler's work has set the trajectory of research for half a century.

Now I am in the grip of a new vision, that Everything Is Information. The more I have pondered the mystery of the quantum and our strange ability to comprehend this world in which we live, the more I see possible fundamental roles for logic and information as the bedrock of physical theory.

Instead of shying away from questions about the meaning of it all, Wheeler relishes the profound and the paradoxical. He was an early advocate of the anthropic principle, the idea that the universe and the laws of physics are fine-tuned to permit the existence of life. For the past two decades, though, he has pursued a far more provocative idea for an idea, something he calls genesis by observership. Our observations, he suggests, might actually contribute to the creation of physical reality. To Wheeler we are not simply bystanders on a cosmic stage; we are shapers and creators living in a participatory universe.

Wheeler's hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment.

The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as either "1" or "0", but other representations such as true/false, yes/no, +/−, or on/off are also commonly used.

Have you ever asked yourself how the computer knows how to respond to every move the child makes with the joystick?

Yes, actually, I have wondered that.

It's all on the disc. The computer knows how to respond to every move the child makes because every possible move has already been placed on the disc, along with its appropriate response.

That's spooky. Almost surreal.

What, that every ending, and every twist and turn producing that ending, is already programmed on the disc? There's nothing "spooky" about it. It's just technology. And if you think the technology of video games is something, wait 'til you see the technology of the universe!

Think of the Cosmic Wheel as that CD-ROM. All the endings already exist. The universe is just waiting to see which one you choose this time. And when the game is over, whether you win, lose, or draw, the universe will say, "Want to play again?"

You cannot not follow the [Natural] Law, for these are the ways things work. You cannot step aside from this; you cannot operate outside of it.

Every minute of your life you have been operating inside of it — and everything you have ever experienced you have thusly created. You are in a partnership with God. We share an eternal covenant. My promise to you is to always give you what you ask. Your promise is to ask; to understand the process of the asking and the answering.

However, the double-hole experiment's mind-boggling conclusions don't end there. In recent years, technology has allowed scientists to perform a fascinating variation of the test. Its results call into question the perception of time itself.

This is like a high-tech version of the double-hole experiment. Electrons are being fired towards a barrier with two holes in it. But the scientists can delay their decision about whether to observe the electrons until after they've passed through the holes but before they've hit the screen.

It's as though I'm on a baseball field and there's a baseball being pitched towards the barrier with the holes in it. But my eyes are closed, so it goes through and it behaves like a wave. But then, at the last second before it hits the screen I open my eyes and decide to observe it.

At that moment, the electrons, in essence, become particles — and seemingly always were particles from the time they left the electron gun. So it's as though they went back in time to before they went through the holes, and decided to go through one or the other — not through both, as they would have if they'd been behaving like waves. That's really crazy!

That's the enigma — that our choice of what experiment to do determines the prior state of the electron. Somehow or other we've had an influence on it that appears to travel backward in time.

I will do nothing for you that you will not do for your Self. That is the law and the prophets. [...]

Life will “take off” for you, then, when you choose for it to. You have not so chosen as yet. You have procrastinated, prolonged, protracted, protested. Now it is time that you promulgated and produced what you have been promised. To do this, you must believe the promise, and live it. You must live the promise of God.

The promise of God is that you are His son. Her offspring. Its likeness. His equal.

Ah… here is where you get hung up. You can accept “His son,” “offspring,” “likeness,” but you recoil at being called “His equal.” It is too much to accept. Too much bigness, too much wonderment — too much responsibility. For if you are God’s equal, that means nothing is being done to you — and all things are created by you. There can be no more victims and no more villains — only outcomes of your thought about a thing.

I tell you this: all you see in your world is the outcome of your idea about it.

Do you want your life to truly “take off”? Then change your idea about it. About you. Think, speak, and act as the God You Are.

"You may choose to be any Part of God you wish to be," I said to Jamal's Soul. "You are Absolute Divinity, experiencing Itself. What Aspect of Divinity do you now wish to experience as You?"

"Okay," said Jamal's Soul, "then I choose deep, unwavering, romantic love. I want to experience my Self in a soulmate connection. Who, then, shall be my soulmate?"

Just then, another soul stepped forward from the crowd. "I will be your soulmate," said Simone's Soul. "Besides, you've done the same for me."

"I have?" asked Jamal's Soul.

"Of course. Don't you remember? We've been All Of It, you and I. We've been the Up and the Down of it, and the Left and the Right of it. We've been the Here and the There of it, and the Now and the Then of it. We've been the Big and the Small of it, the Male and the Female of it, the Good and the Bad of it. We've all been the All of It.

And we've done it by agreement, so that each of us might experience ourselves as The Grandest Part of God. For we have understood that...

If you choose to be a thing, something or someone opposite to that has to show up somewhere in your universe to make that possible."

Jamal's Soul was excited now to know that he could experience every Divine Aspect of God. He understood, now, The Plan.

Do not forsake Me when you need Me most. Now is the hour of your greatest testing. Now is the time of your greatest chance. It is the chance to prove everything that has been written here.

When I say “don’t forsake Me,” I sound like that needy, neurotic God we talked about. But I’m not. You can “forsake Me” all you want. I don’t care, and it won’t change a thing between us. I merely say this in answer to your questions. It is when the going gets tough that you so often forget Who You Are, and the tools I have given you for creating the life that you would choose. [...]

You can define these present conditions and circumstances as what they truly are: temporary and temporal. You may then use them as tools — for that is what they are, temporary, temporal tools — in the creation of present experience.

Just who do you think you are? In relationship to the experience called lose-a-job, who do you think you are? And, perhaps more to the point, who do you think I am? Do you imagine this is too big a problem for Me to solve? Is getting out of this jam too big a miracle for Me to handle? I understand that you may think it’s too big for you to handle, even with all the tools I have given you — but do you really think it’s too big for Me? [...]

The first thing to understand about the universe is that no condition is “good” or “bad.” It just is. So stop making value judgments. The second thing to know is that all conditions are temporary. Nothing stays the same, nothing remains static. Which way a thing changes depends on you. [...]

There is nothing you can’t have if you choose it. Even before you ask, I will have given it to you. Do you believe this?

No. I’m sorry. I’ve seen too many prayers go unanswered. [...] I don’t believe that whatever I ask, I get. My life has not been a testimony to that. In fact, I rarely get what I ask for. When I do, I consider myself damned lucky.

That’s an interesting choice of words. You have an option, it seems. In your life, you can either be damned lucky, or you can be blessing lucky. I’d rather you be blessing lucky — but, of course, I’ll never interfere with your decisions.

I tell you this: You always get what you create, and you are always creating.

I do not make a judgment about the creations that you conjure, I simply empower you to conjure more — and more and more and more. If you don’t like what you’ve just created, choose again. My job, as God, is to always give you that opportunity.

Now you are telling Me that you haven’t always gotten what you’ve wanted. Yet I am here to tell you that you’ve always gotten what you called forth.

Your Life is always a result of your thoughts about it — including your obviously creative thought that you seldom get what you choose. Now in this present instance you see yourself as the victim of the situation in the losing of your job. Yet the truth is that you no longer chose that job. You stopped getting up in the morning in anticipation, and began getting up with dread. You stopped feeling happy about your work and began feeling resentment. You even began fantasizing about doing something else. You think these things mean nothing? You misunderstand your power. I tell you this: Your Life proceeds out of your intentions for it. So what is your intention now? Do you intend to prove your theory that life seldom brings you what you choose? Or do you intend to demonstrate Who You Really Are and Who I Am?

“Great!” Richard replied. “My assistant will sort out the details.”

Richard was the founder & CEO of a multi-billion-dollar software company in Australia. The year was 2016. I was 24 years old and just starting my new business, CodeMakers.

I'd actually met Richard back in my university days when I was a starry-eyed 19-year-old with my fledgling tech startup, 99dresses. As a scholarship recipient, I was invited to one of the university's fancy award dinners along with their prominent alumni and supporters.