Can you draw me a princess?
Our ideas of life are shaped by forces all around us. A constant stream of simulacra creating an amalgamation of culture and a version of simulation.
If I asked you to draw me a princess, you will likely draw me Jasmine, Cinderella, or Belle.
If I asked you to describe love, you'll give me feelings inspired by A Walk to Remember, Hallmark Christmas movies, or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
We often hear about "the matrix".
A sort of conspiracy, the "matrix" is out to get you. The AI will have us all swimming in pods hooked up to the Matrix!
However, I would conjecture that most people are already in the simulation.
Kids at Disney world point to Mickey Mouse walking around and say "look, it's the real mickey mouse".
When we all know that there is no real Mickey Mouse. It’s only a product of imagination in a world that Disney created.
Our ideas of how to interact with the world are shaped and driven by simulacra constructed by entities like media, journalism, and corporations to drive what they want to drive.
You were told Tate, bad, so he's bad.
You were told Fauci, good, so he's good.
You were told throughout the decades a number of things and you believed it. I remember a few years ago I was asked who my favorite American Civil Rights leader was and I remarked “Malcolm X”.
Immediately several people said, “wasn’t he a terrorist?”.
Could I blame them? That’s what most public schools taught.
The "simulation" is not some entity dropping you inside a vat of liquid hooked up to a machine to induce a dream state.
It is the reality that surrounds us feeding us thoughts and feelings daily.
Telling you how to feel, love, believe, and think.
There are versions and levels of the simulation. I break it down as follows:
Print Journalism
Radio
TV
Desktop Internet / Readily available TV
Slow Mobile Internet / On Demand TV
Fast Mobile Internet / Social Media (We are approaching the end of this)
AI Internet
Cyborgs
The singularity
Each level and version takes you further and further away from what is real. If you’re not out of it before the next version, it’ll only become more difficult.
The way out of the "matrix", out of the "simulation" is to enter the real. Muslims have an objective reality. Our truth comes not from an amalgamation of cultural ideas, but from God. Our ideas of love, hate, courage, etc...don't come from constructed fairy tales. We have a real, living, and rigorous chain of Isnad for our Hadith corpus, the Quran is a real, living, oral tradition. We are asked to pray with our bodies, attend communities, visit the sick, give zakat, get married, and perform Hajj, all in the real. Our understanding of reality and the world around us is informed by God, bringing objective truth with his Messenger ﷺ.
The way out of the simulation is to live in the real and understand the real.
Iqra. Read. Study. Study Fiqh, Aqeedah, History, Seerah.
Read a book from before 1950. Go to the Masjid, and visit the sick. Travel without taking pictures, embrace the real.
(reminder to read Surah Kahf every Friday which is a prescription for all of this)
Get off the TikToks, off Netflix and the newest new show or movies, get off the animes, and break away from the constructed reality around you. Get off the constant traveling for the sake of travel and move away from the consumption economy.
Most importantly, slow down.
The modern world is full of acceleration, and a need for speed.
Trains, planes, and automobiles.
Videos on 2x, books in audio, summarized books on youtube, speed dating, binge-watching.
We gain efficiency but lost time.
In the old world, we lose efficiency but gained time.
An easy way to do this is to read Quran or read the Shamail.
No goal, no set time limit, no checklist.
Just lose yourself in the pages allowing time to stand still. don't speed read it, and don't try to "finish" anything.
Just read.
The matrix may be forced on you, but remaining in it is a choice.
And Allah and his Messenger ﷺ know best.
~muin