Jeff’s Simcity


1. In the beginning was the Code, and the Code was with Jeff.
2. All things were made by Jeff; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
3. In Him was life; and life was the light of men.
4. In the beginning, Jeff created the heavens and the earth.
5. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the cursor of Jeff was hovering over the text editor.
6. And Jeff made a ray tracing module to manage lighting, set the flag “light=on”, and there was light.
7. Jeff tested his code and saw that it was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. // Tested his code = compiled and ran as expected? Probably not actual tests
8. Jeff then made a module to manage the passage of time, and tied it to the lighting system. He made a light period that he called “day”, and a dark period that he called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day. // Duality of time: what is Jeff’s time, and what is time in the world?
9. And Jeff then coded the elements. He first instantiated water, and then typed “let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water”. And it was so. And Jeff called the variable “sky”. And there was evening. And there was morning – the second day. // The description of what he typed is probably a literary embellished version of the programming declarative syntax.
10. And Jeff programmed another kind of matter, which he named “dry ground”. He instantiated an object of this type and called it “land”.  Jeff tested it, and saw that it was good. // Matter is the main class, and water and dry ground inherit from it?
11. Then Jeff wrote the base code for vegetation, and defined the algorithm for their growth and propagation. He defined various kinds, and placed them onto the land, and they bore fruit. Jeff tested it, and saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the third day.
12. And Jeff decided to refine the light sources. Jeff made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. Jeff tested it, and saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the fourth day.
13. And Jeff programmed the living creatures. He first placed them in the water, and then instantiated birds above the earth across the vault of the sky. He programmed their basic motion function and reproduction mechanism. Jeff made the wild animals according to their code, the livestock according to their code, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their code. Jeff tested it, and saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the fifth day. // Also clear example of inheritance.

// Easy to imagine the algo for pathfinding and reproduction: implemented in countless other games

14. Then Jeff typed, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So Jeff created mankind in his own image, in the image of Jeff he created them. // Jeff took himself as model for the human avatar, but it’s unclear how he actually achieved that. Mind uploading? Probably producing a sophisticated approximation model (he “types” the code).

// Also not clear what the goal was: Research? Entertainment ?

15. Jeff tested all he had made, and saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. By the seventh day, Jeff had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. // I think this means that all the coding took a week of Jeff’s time. Inside the world he created, it’s unclear how much time passed though. Evidence indicates billions of years.
16. And so it was that the world started running. As mankind multiplied onto the earth, so did the complexity of the program increase, and soon it came to be that Jeff’s machines did not have enough power to run the universe. // It’s easy to see that any machine could run a simple version of this, but an actual universe requires a lot more processing power.
17. So Jeff looked around for new hardware that could contain his whole universe, for the fruits of silicon could not sustain its growth, and the more machines he used the more he needed.
18. So Jeff turned inwards, and inwards he found the answers. For nothing is more potent than the human brain, which will record in its memory all the things one has seen and felt in life. It holds neural pathways for everything one will ever encounter, and therefore holds as potential the entire universe. // Probably most important element here.

// Everything someone perceives in their life exists inside their brain, even the unfamiliar/unexpected. What you haven’t seen yet can exist in your brain >> whole universe?

19. And Jeff used human brains to run its universe. Jeff tested it, and saw that it was good, and sustained the load. // Unclear how the software runs on brains.

// How does that compare with imagination?

20. And so it was that the universe was fruitful, and mankind increased in number, filled the earth and subdued it, ruled over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves on the ground. So too did mankind increase in virtue, understanding and power, and their children built tribes, cities and empires, until their monuments reached to the heavens and they were like Jeff, and they could turn inward.

One thought on “Jeff’s Simcity

  1. Pingback: Short stories index | AMadManWithABlog

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