[ WP ] Humanity realizes the Universe is actually a simulation so out of spite it decides to concentrate its effort on messing with the civilization that does the simulation

“ Are they all ready to be activated? ” 
 
 
 “ All A.I.s primed for activation ” 
 
 
 “ Is the world fully rendered? ” 
 
 
 “ Just finished now ” 
 
 
 “ Perfect. Would you like to do the honour of activating them? ” 
 
 
 “ No, no, you can do it ” 
 
 
 “ You sure? ” Terry nodded in reply. “ Okay, activating now. ” 
 
 
 The monitor on the wall lit up, revealing the scene, a room in a regular house. It looked like a live camera feed, but was in fact a computer simulated display of a virtual home. If Terry zoomed out far enough, it would become very clear that this was more than just a house—the entire Earth was simulated inside a computer which sat whirring in the other room. Inside the room, four figures appeared. A father, a mother, and two children, a generic family. These four were A.I.s, built specifically to test anything and everything that could n't be tested in real life. For a moment, Terry stared at the screen, horrified. They were so real. Modelled off real humans, they couldn ’ t be any more realistic. Even their ‘ brains ’, a lump of gel in a vat, worked exactly as well as the human brain. Unlike computers before, they could feel emotion, they could learn just like a real human. If physical capability was not a factor, they would be human. And inside their virtual world, they were humans. 
 
 
 And yet, in another room, just a few doors away, they resided in another simulation. Testing the limits of the human mind, tests that in real life would be against every single right. But Terry couldn ’ t focus on that. His job was entirely different. This simulation was a realistic test. The simulation was exactly the same as the real world, with the exception of its residents. However, it could run thousands of times faster than the real world. Terry turned a dial on the board in front of him, and the time on the display moved faster and faster, until a week went by every second. A second display on the computer screen in front of him read of results, reporting in every 5th of a second that everything was running correctly. The A.I.s behaved exactly like real world people. He sped up the time again, with a month flashing by every second. By this point, a year and a half had passed. With absolutely no input since the simulation was set up, the world had functioned perfectly. The family had aged, and reacted entirely normally. This was a breakthrough. The A.I. was working exactly as intended. Terry could only wonder how they were reacting to the horrific situations they were put through in the other rooms. Over the next few days, Terry re ran parts of the simulation, allowing time to progress further and further. Each time, he saw the perfect result. After 7 real days, 32 years had passed inside the machine. The children were 36, and 35, George, the eldest, was a physicist. On day 8, Terry arrived back at his desk, turned his screen back on, and got back to work. He turned up the speed to a week a second, and began running tests on different aspects of the simulation. As he did so, his second monitor began reporting errors inside the simulation. He selected the error, taking him back to the time of occurrence, and where it had happened. After 8 days, he had expected a lot more to have gone wrong. He saw George sitting at his desk, working on his own computer. Terry read through the error and spat out his coffee. He picked up his mobile and rang Rob, the man who ’ d turned the simulation on. 
 “ Rob, get down here as soon as possible, this could be really bad ” 
 
 
 On the simulation, he saw George pickup a chair, and throw it at the wall in anger. 
 
 
 When Rob came into the room, he asked Terry what the problem was. “ They ’ ve worked it out ” Terry said, quietly. 
 
 
 “ Worked what out? ” 
 
 
 “ They know it ’ s not real, Rob. The kid, the boy, he knows it ’ s a simulation! ” 
 
 
 “ Jesus Christ, how? ” Rob said as he looked through the error. 
 
 
 “ I don ’ t know. What do we do about it? ” 
 
 
 “ For now, let it happen, see how they react. If it messes the simulation up, rewind and remove it from the code. Speed it up, see what happens. ” 
 
 
 Terry increased the time frame to a day per second. Over the next 3 months, George ’ s results were tested over and over, coming up positive each time. The virtual world inside the computer turned to chaos, mass suicide, riots, everything collapsed. For the two men on the outside, this took a few minutes. 
 
 
 “ How do the results keep coming up positive for them? ” 
 
 
 “ Because it ’ s true! Their tests are working! ” 
 
 
 “ What do we do? The simulation doesn ’ t work if they know! ” 
 
 
 “ We ’ ll have to wind it back. Keep this one going for a while though, we might… oh shit ” 
 
 
 Rob was staring at the screen “ Terry, look ” 
 Terry looked up at the screen on the wall, which showed George sitting on a chair in his lab. On the wall behind him, he had written in marker. ‘ Are you watching? ’ it said. 
 
 
 “ Rob, what do I do? ” 
 
 
 “ We can ’ t reply! We ’ re basically their god! ” 
 
 
 “ Why can ’ t we? If we ’ re going to rewind it, what does it matter? ” 
 
 
 “ Terry, that ’ s pretty much a human brain. Do you think it can handle this? ” 
 
 
 “ We should at least try it… ” 
 
 
 Rob stared at him for a second. “ Fine. Do it. ” 
 
 
 Terry turned on the controls for inside the world. He put in the three required passcodes, and wrote out his reply. 
 
 
 ‘ Yes, we are watching. ’ 
 
 
 The words appeared floating a few millimetres of the wall, just under George ’ s. 
 
 
 “ Terry, did you just type that in Comic Sans? ” 
 
 
 “ Oh shit! I ’ ll change it to Calibri. ” 
 
 
 George read through the message, and picked up the phone. He stood there for a few minutes, and other workers came in. 
 They stood there in shock, and the began discussing what to reply with. 
 
 
 As they spoke, Terry began typing a new message. 
 
 
 ‘ We can hear everything you ’ re saying ’ 
 
 
 George immediately began to write back ‘ Can we hear you? ’ 
 
 
 “ Rob, is there a speaker option? ” 
 
 
 “ Not yet, I can make it happen though. I ’ ll get right on it. ” 
 
 
 Terry typed back ‘ soon ’. 
 
 
 Over the next few minutes, they discussed many different things. The workers inside the simulation had a lot of questions. ‘ Are we like you? ’ 
 
 
 ‘ Are we living in your past? ’ 
 
 
 ‘ Why did you create us ’ 
 
 
 Terry answered all of them truthfully. But then it became more difficult. 
 
 
 ‘ Why do you allow so many of us to suffer? ’ 
 
 
 ‘ Do you ever to plan to turn off the simulation? ’ 
 
 
 Terry didn ’ t know how to answer. He was a god. 
 
 
 ‘ I have an idea ’ he typed. 
 
 
 ‘ Turn on your computers. All of them. ’ 
 
 
 In seconds, he sent their entire database of information. They began reading through, their questions answered by the masses of information about the program. 
 
 
 Until George asked another question. 
 
 
 ‘ Have you run my tests in your world? ’ 
 
 
 At this point, Rob returned, having enabled voice communication, and with a microphone. 
 
 
 “ Terry, I have the stuff ” 
 Terry didn ’ t reply. He was to busy finding George ’ s test from the simulation. He began to run it through the computer system. “ Terry? ” Rob said. 
 
 
 It didn ’ t take long for the results to come back. 
 
 
 “ Terry, what is it? What ’ s wrong? ” Rob asked again. 
 
 
 “ No, nothing. For a minute I… no, I tested if we were in a simulation too. We ’ re not. ” 
 
 
 “ Oh my god, can you imagine? What would happen? ” 
 
 
 “ Well, we can see what would happen ” Terry pointed towards the screen on the wall. 
 
 
 “ Terry, plug in the microphone. I enabled webcam input too ” 
 
 
 Terry set up the microphone and webcam, and fed the input into the virtual lab ’ s computer. Then he turned it on. 
 
 
 “ Hello? ” Terry spoke through their computer system 
 
 
 On his own screen, the webcam from inside the computer turned om. He was face to face with his creation. 
 
 

