Author: nivtric

The nature of reality

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We live inside a simulation created by an advanced post-human civilisation. An individual can’t build this universe alone or write the script in detail. That requires a civilisation. Science has established several laws of reality, or natural laws, with a sufficient degree of certainty. Therefore, if breaches of these laws occur, this world is fake. There is enough evidence of breaches. And so, the argument is:

  • Science has sufficiently established specific laws of reality.
  • Breaches of these laws prove that this world is a simulation.
  • There is sufficient evidence of breaches in these laws.
  • Hence, we live in a simulation.

We like to think we are unique and superb creatures, the apex of all that roams this planet, so we attach great value to our inner selves. And the consumerist society teaches us that we are also very deserving, and that only three people are of importance: me, myself, and I. So, if we have the technology, we would build personal virtual realities that allow us to fulfil our every desire. Because we think we are so wonderful, we probably won’t alter our human essence when we can, so post-humans likely have similar motivations to us.

These post-humans could run simulations of human civilisations for entertainment and research. If the technology becomes cheap, the number of simulations for amusement likely vastly outstrips those for research. Our purpose is probably entertainment, and breaches of the laws of reality suggest so. Simulations run for research are more likely to be realistic. Signs of a script indicate that our universe is not a game, but rather someone’s imaginary world. Someone could own this world, and we might call that someone God. God may use avatars in this simulation to play the role of an ordinary human being.

Coincidences, such as the licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car, indicate that there is a script, meaning a computer generates all our thoughts and actions. We aren’t sentient beings. We don’t think for ourselves. We have no intrinsic value to our creators, so God can let us suffer and kill us without remorse. The strength of the evidence outweighs the issues, such as the lack of scientific evidence for the paranormal, the limitations of the human mind, including our tendency to seek causes when randomness applies or to see meaning where there is none, the hindsight bias, and the difficulties in establishing probabilities. In other words, we can know beyond a reasonable doubt that we live in a scripted virtual reality. That is a remarkable conclusion, and it would be even more astounding if we identified some of God’s avatars to gain better insight into the purpose of this universe.

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus

Joan Osborn, One of Us

Latest revision: 24 July 2025

The Great Reset

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During the coronavirus pandemic, the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched a plan, The Great Reset. It aims to rebuild the world economy more intelligently, fairer and sustainably while adhering to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These SDGs include ending poverty, improving health and well-being, better education, equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, jobs and economic growth. That sounds great, but is it a reset? It would be up to so-called responsible corporations and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement the agenda before 2030. Not everyone thinks that is a great idea.

The change is supposed to be powered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a fusion of technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage and quantum computing. I get an uneasy feeling when I read that. It looks like an excuse for technology addicts to play with our future. Is it because I am against progress, or is it because of a rational fear that something is about to go seriously wrong even though I don’t know exactly what?

Under the umbrella of the Great Reset, so-called young global leaders of the WEF came up with new ideas. For instance, new technologies can make products like cars and houses cheaply available as a service, ending the need to own these items. A young global leader wrote an article titled, ‘Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.’1 She hoped to start a discussion, and the article produced a slogan that also became an Internet meme, ‘You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.’ There certainly is an economic rationale for sharing items like cars, most notably if they become more expensive to keep because of technological innovation.

Property, for instance, a home, can give you economic freedom. If you own a home, you don’t have to pay rent. And you own some capital when you retire. Some people think the WEF is a sinister elite club scheming to achieve a secret agenda where the elites own everything, and the rest of us ends up with nothing. And that might happen anyway if current trends continue because that is how capitalism works. Capital accumulates and ends up in the hands of a few because of interest. It is not a secret since Karl Marx figured that out. And it leads to a crisis when the impoverished masses can’t buy the things that capital produces. With negative interest rates, there is no need for that.

Property rights have become a semi-religious value in Western culture. That prevents us from taking the property of the elites and ending their stranglehold on our political economy. Marx advised that workers or the state would take over corporations. That might not be a good idea because workers and governments often do poorly at running corporations. Markets and private enterprises can efficiently provide goods and services, but it comes with wealth inequality and happens at the expense of future generations. Our societies must find the right balance. At some point, the disadvantages of the current political economy start to outweigh the advantages.

We use far more resources than the planet can provide, and wealth inequality is now so extreme that we might need a genuine Great Reset. Taking the wealth from the elites and discontinuing enterprises that don’t provide for our essentials is not communism, as long as there are markets and private property. People should prosper if their work benefits society and enterprises often do better at providing for our needs. But we don’t benefit from the corrupting influence of oligarchs. Their wealth comes from inheritance, criminal and shady activities, and, most notably, accumulated interest on their capital. That arrangement may have suited us in the past, but not now.

Economists believe property rights are essential for economic growth, and that business owners should be able to do as they please. For instance, Elon Musk has the right to ruin Twitter because he owns the company. Should employees and others suffer from the irrational behaviour of their owners? In the Netherlands, a series of interesting trials took place, where corporations tried to escape the influence of their majority shareholder Gerard Sanderink, who allegedly didn’t act rationally in the interest of these companies.2 Limited property rights and a collectivist attitude have not prevented China from becoming a large and advanced economy surpassing the United States and may have contributed to China’s success.

The degree of individualism currently existing in the West may do more harm than good. They promote political fights and litigation and prevent us from doing what we should do. And perhaps, less privacy can go a long way in reducing crime. Property rights and individualism were crucial to start capitalism and made the West dominate the world for centuries. And so, we have learned to see them as necessary, inevitable or even desirable. But once the European imperialist capitalist engine ran, these features became less important than economic stability. If you start a business, you must be able to estimate your returns, but you can lease everything and own nothing.

Individualism and property rights also play a positive role in society. The cultural heritage of the West is extensive compared to other cultures, for instance, if you express it in the number of books written or discoveries made. Self-interest and personal responsibility can inspire us to work harder and do a better job. The Soviet Union failed to produce enough food for its citizens while there was enough arable land. In the Soviet Union, farmers had to work on collective enterprises where they could not do as they saw fit and didn’t share in the profits. The tragedy of the commons is that we don’t care for public spaces as much as our possessions. Homeowners usually take better care of their houses than tenants. The same is true for car owners.

As they are now, property rights protect the elites. And the WEF plan is just a fart in the wind, not a Great Reset. We face unprecedented worldwide challenges while wealth inequality is at extreme levels, so individualism and property rights need limits. And we need a proper Great Reset, or a switch from economic to political control of the world’s resources if we intend to live in a humane world society that respects our planet. It is what a corporation named Patagonia did in 2022.3 We can do that on a global scale.

It begins with seizing the wealth of oligarchs and criminals and all hidden wealth in offshore tax havens, including their so-called charities, placing them in sovereign wealth funds, and setting a limit on what individuals can own or earn. And perhaps, we need to build our future on values rather than balance sheets. And everyone should contribute. Capital accumulates by interest, and people who live off interest don’t work for a living. That might be as bad as being on the dole while you can work. And peddling unnecessary products that harm life on Earth could be as bad as being a criminal.

Laws should prevent people and corporations from doing wrong, but they often fail to do that. Corporations pollute the environment or exploit employees to make a profit. But consumers desire excellence for rock-bottom prices. It is profitable to break the law if you can get away with it or when the gain is higher than the fine. And if there are loopholes, they become exploited. The anonymity provided by money, large corporations and markets turn us into uncaring calculating creatures. That is why big pharma, the military-industrial complex, the financial industry, and the Internet giants threaten us. If corporations do right out of their own, many laws and regulations become redundant. If moral values can replace the law, it could be better.

Less efficiency, poorer service and a smaller choice of products can be preferable if that doesn’t lead to deprivation and starvation. For instance, why must you get your meal from a takeaway restaurant instead of preparing it yourself? Or why do you need to dress up in the latest fashion if you have ample wearable clothing? And you must work to pay for these things, so if you don’t buy them, you have time to prepare your meal or mend your clothes. We don’t want to give up these things, so in a democracy, we can’t fix this problem. Perhaps we might accept the change if God sends a Messiah who tells us this is for the best.

That might be wishful thinking, but what else can make it happen if it is not religion? Do you believe we will come to our senses, become one humanity, and do right on our own? That is wishful thinking. God is our only hope. As we are heading for the Great Collapse in one way or another, the End Times could be now. We might live inside a simulation run by an advanced humanoid civilisation.4 Hence, God might own this world, and you might soon discover that you own nothing and be happy. God’s kingdom might be a utopian society as early Christians lived like communists (Acts 4:32-35).

So what can we achieve by taking political control of the world’s resources and means of production by seizing the elite’s wealth and placing it in sovereign wealth funds? You can think of the following:

  • We can direct our means to the goals of a humane society, be respectful of this planet, and plan long-term.
  • We can dismantle harmful corporations or give them a new purpose without starting an economic crisis with mass unemployment.
  • We can make corporations employ people in developing countries and give them an education and decent salaries.
  • We can fund essential government services in developing countries and eliminate corruption insofar as it is due to insufficient pay of government employees.
  • We can make corporations produce sustainably and pass on the cost to consumers.
  • We can determine the pay of executives.
  • We can halt developments like artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nuclear energy if we believe they are undesirable.
  • We can end the incentive to produce and consume more and stop the advertising industry from tracking us.
  • We can end stress in the workplace if we axe bullshit jobs and redirect workers to the needs of society. A twenty-hour working week might be enough.

Interest stands in the way of a better future. The economy ‘must’ grow to pay for the interest. We ‘must’ work harder in bullshit jobs to pay for the interest. Corporations ‘must’ sell harmful products to pay for the interest. Corporations ‘must’ pay low wages or move production to low-wage countries to pay for the interest. And because of interest, money disappears from where it is needed most and piles up where it is needed least. Interest is our tribute to the wealthy. If we hope to live in a humane world society that respects creation, ending interest might be imperative. That is where Natural Money comes in.

Latest revision: 28 April 2023

Featured image: You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy. WEF.

1. Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better. Ida Auken. World Economic Forum (2016).
2. Zakenman Gerard Sanderink tierend in rechtszaal: ‘Deze rechtbank deugt voor geen meter!’ AD.nl (2023).
3. Patagonia’s Next Chapter: Earth is Now Our Only Shareholder. Patagonia (2022).
4. Are You Living In a Computer Simulation? Nick Bostrom. Philosophical Quarterly, 2003, Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255.

The farm

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Nearly every Sunday, we went to our grandparents. For most of the afternoon, we visited my father’s parents near Vragender, a village close to Winterswijk. They lived on a remote farm with my father’s youngest brother, Paul, my uncle, who had continued and greatly expanded it. On our way home, we went to my mother’s parents for an hour and a half. In 1976, they sold their remote farm near Beltrum, another village nearby, and moved to a small apartment for seniors in Eibergen. And to stress the remoteness, the Dutch call this area De Achterhoek (The Rear Corner). Winterswijk is at the rear of that area. Thus, a farm outside a village near Winterswijk is as remote as it can get in the Netherlands, at least if you look at the words. We live inside a story, so you should. The Netherlands is a tiny country, so De Achterhoek is not as remote as the desert of Algeria, the mountains of Chile, or the taiga of Siberia. Enschede is only 25 kilometres away, and Amsterdam is 125.

The atmosphere at both venues couldn’t be more different. My father’s family was noisy and outgoing, while my mother’s was quiet and withdrawn. If we visited my father’s parents, all the aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. The men played cards in the living room and blamed their mates vociferously for each other’s mistakes. A dense smoke of cigarettes filled the room, so I often went outside with my cousins to play and get some fresh air. It was always fun to be there. At my mother’s parents, there were never aunts, uncles or cousins. Most people my grandparents knew were old too and gradually dying. They discussed diseases like tumours, heart attacks and strokes, hospitals, treatments, mostly failing, and funerals, so my sister and I went outside together to escape the gloom.

Part of the local folklore in De Achterhoek is the rock band Normaal. Their greatest hit was Oerend Hard (Bloody Fast). It is about speeding on motorbikes and the accidents that come from that. They also made a song Ik ben maor een eenvoudige boerenlul (I’m just a simple farm prick). The wording reveals the mood in De Achterhoek. The local tradition is not one of pretence and elevated taste. If you asked the locals what Normaal is about, the answer would be høken, which is having fun by excessive drinking and being rough. I was not a fan of Normaal, but they were popular in De Achterhoek and adjacent Twente.

For those who don’t like to say they live on the edge of civilisation, De Achterhoek has yet another name: De Graafschap (The Shire). That is also the name of a place where an imaginary tale about Hobbits started. That is noteworthy because my life’s story begins here, and the character Frodo in the film looks like me when I was young. It illustrates how much effort has gone into this story. And the name Vragender might relate to questions about gender. My father’s youngest brother, Paul, lived there with my grandparents.

He was a kind man, and we could get along very well. It began when I was five. He praised my calculation skills and made me do sums on his lap while I became interested in his farm. And so I stayed with my grandparents quite often during the holidays. My uncle bred pigs. I fed the pigs, saw piglets being born and pigs going to the slaughterhouse, witnessed the artificial inseminating of sows dubbed KI, and saw tails being cut from piglets because they would otherwise injure each other by biting them off. It made me familiar with his business operations. Paul greatly expanded the farm to achieve economies of scale. He focused on efficiency. The farm was clean because the manure fell through a grate, and the pigs lived in confined spaces.

Sows that didn’t give birth to as many piglets as the others went to the slaughterhouse. Paul selected sows based on the number of nipples for his breeding to improve his pedigree. A sow with twelve nipples could raise more piglets than one with ten. From his piglets, he chose the best sows. The others, including the boars, went to the slaughterhouse after being fattened. It was a necessity. His business could only survive with efficiency and economies of scale. Humans slaughtered pigs since time immemorial. Little has changed since then, except for the scale and efficiency. Paul was my favourite uncle.

Paul’s work never stopped. If there was an emergency, like a sow in agony, he set the alarm clock to check on it in the middle of the night. My father worked hard, but Paul worked even harder. There always loomed dangers so that Paul could fret. An infectious disease could erase his pedigree. And the price of pigs fluctuated wildly. He had years with high profits and years with massive losses. But overall, his business went well. The old farm was from the 1930s and poorly constructed. When he married in 1977, he had it demolished and a new farm built. The new farm was in traditional style and an eye-catcher. It was huge and included a home for my grandparents. He had spent 500,000 guilders on it, more than three times the average home price, or so I heard. People came to the farm to take a picture of it. It was indeed exceptional. You can ask yourself, how many pigs died for it? But that is not only Paul’s fault because most of us eat meat.

Latest revision: 5 February 2025

Featured image: the farm that belonged to my uncle. Google Streetview. [copyright info]

My guide plausibility

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Plausible means that it can be true, but what we think is plausible depends on what we believe, and that often depends on the information we have. Humans are imaginative beings who invent stories, such as religions, but there is only one truth. The truth doesn’t depend on what you or I believe. An advanced post-human civilisation may have created us for the personal amusement of one of its members, who is God to us. That has remained hidden behind some of the world’s religions. The evidence suggests that God is a woman who assumes roles as an ordinary human in this world to pass the time.

You can speculate too wildly or fail to see the bigger picture if you only accept what can be proven. I have tried to avoid those pitfalls. This account leaves no significant questions concerning the reason for our existence unanswered. It is plausible as an overall explanation, but it doesn’t answer many of the irrelevant questions scholars are debating. And there is still the Great Unknown. We are inside the simulation and don’t know what’s outside, just like a Holodeck character doesn’t know it’s on the Starship Enterprise.

We all connect the dots in different ways. We can easily get lost as we make up stories and believe them. In other words, we are religious creatures. The quest for truth is different. Using the available information, we can rule out options. Information affects probabilities, but the quality of information matters. Most of the Bible is doubtful. With the help of scholars’ work, we may make guesses about what happened, but it remains a leap to arrive at an account that explains it all. That still requires a clue, which I received. Apart from God being a woman from an advanced humanoid civilisation, there are other possibilities, such as:

  • This world is like a Big Brother house. Our creators entertain themselves with us. Mary Magdalene wasn’t God, but something made Jesus believe it.
  • There are no humans left. Artificial intelligence has completely taken over. It runs this script to keep itself busy. The AI may think of itself as a woman.
  • Or, I am the post-human who wrote this script for myself to become the hero who found it all out and finds the perfect love. I don’t think so, but it is possible.

The evidence suggests God is a woman from an advanced humanoid civilisation. Each piece of evidence is insufficient on its own. Their validity lies in the combination. The findings answer several questions without resorting to religious dogma. To name a few. Why is Christianity about love? Why does this religion have such baffling teachings that differ from Judaism and Islam? Why did the Jewish God gather so many worshippers via Christianity and Islam? Why was Jesus the Son of God? Why was he the Bridegroom? And was Muhammad a prophet of God? You now have answers that make sense.

I wrote this not to upset you but to tell you the truth. I may have encountered God in a dormitory when I was a student. She was one of the students living there, an overbearing figure who dominated the group. She made my life miserable and forced me to leave because I didn’t fit in. Since then, I never saw Her again, but over the years, a few strange incidents occurred, reminding me of Her, and nineteen years later, during a psychosis, She had a message for me, which was, ‘I am Eve, and you are Adam, and together we will recreate Paradise.’ It implies that I am the stand-in for Jesus. And so, I have checked to see if that could be true. This book is the result of that effort. My name isn’t Enasniël Drogoel, but you will know my identity soon enough if this is for real.

Tribes have myths about common ancestors. It enables them to unite, feel connected, and cooperate for the common good. The myth of Eve and Adam is a story that can unite humankind, encourage cooperation, and prevent an impending apocalypse. And we are a self-destructive species. Only when we believe we are not worthy of God’s grace and need a saviour, and follow this individual like sheep, can we save ourselves from our foolishness. So, if God is willing, this will become The New Religion, and you can save yourself by embracing these wonderful tidings.

Latest revision: 16 July 2025

Eibergen

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Near Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands, is a village called Eibergen. I was born there in Iepenstraat, which means Elm Street. The assassination of US President Kennedy took place on Elm Street, and that event became part of a web of remarkable coincidences. A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror film first released in the United States on 9 November 1984 (11/9) and in the Netherlands on 11 September 1986 (9/11). 9/11 refers to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, another event marked by an array of remarkable coincidences. These words indicate that this is the beginning of a most peculiar story full of coincidences that aren’t coincidences. And it is a story inside a story.

Eibergen means egg mountains, which could be a cryptic reference to a womb. The initials of my last name, KI, make the Dutch abbreviation for artificial insemination, a way to become pregnant without sexual intercourse so that a virgin can give birth. By the way, it is also the Dutch abbreviation for artificial intelligence. The name of the nearby city, Enschede, may refer to the female reproductive organ. And the initials of my first and middle name, BH, make the Dutch abbreviation for a bra. The song A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash is about funny names, particularly of this kind, building strong character. The meaning of songs relates to this story, too.

I lived in Eibergen until the age of four. I recall a little of that time. As far as I remember, nothing unusual happened. You might expect something extraordinary if you know the plot of this story, but it didn’t. Often, I went out on a tricycle to feed the sheep in the pasture at the end of the street. Being a shepherd may have been my calling. I was afraid of the clock on television. If it appeared, I took cover behind the sofa. I remember that my mother was pregnant. She was ironing. My sister Anne Marie was born in 1971. I sang songs for the baby in the baby room while my mother changed diapers.

Our home was in a block of similar houses. Next door lived an older lady, probably in her sixties. She came from the former Dutch Indies and had a fish tank in the living room. On the other side was another young family with children. They had a daughter of my age and a younger son. I remember playing with them. And I once electrocuted myself by putting the chain of the stopper of the kitchen sink into a wall outlet. Others later said I had used scissors, but I am sure it was the stopper’s chain, which then was confirmed by my mother. It suggests my memories are of good quality.

My father went to work around 6 AM and returned around 9 PM. He loved his job. On Saturdays, he often went out with his friends, hunting, I suppose. And so, I hardly saw him. At home, he caught up on his sleep on the couch to wake up when sports started on television. So, when I was three years old, I once said to my mother, jokingly, I suppose, ‘Who is that man sleeping on the couch?’ That is what my mother later told me. My father probably took the hint as I remember that he took me out of bed every morning before he went to work and played with me for a few minutes for a few weeks.

When I was three, I fell on my teeth on the wooden table in the living room in a brutal smash. A piece of the wood broke off. My front teeth turned black shortly afterwards until my permanent teeth came. And so, I became an ugly duckling for years to come. We also had a biking accident. My mother was biking, Anne Marie was in the front, I was in the back, and my mother had trouble handling the bags full of groceries at the handlebar. And then the bike fell over. In early 1973, we moved to Nijverdal, which means ‘industrious valley’. It suggests we left the mountains for a life in a valley, but the Dutch mountains are imaginary, and the name of a song by my favourite band, The Nits. The music you love may reveal your character. And that might be correct in my case.

Latest revision: 18 December 2024

Featured image: my mother, my younger sister, and I (in the foreground)