To Believe: A Man’s Quest to Understand Reality

by M I A Harba

  ‘Yes, true,’ Sam answered, still not quite sure where the discussion was headed.

  ‘This is because computer power is getting stronger every year. Some say the processing power of computers doubles every 18 months. They call it Moore’s Law,’ Salaam said.

  ‘Yes, I heard about it,’ Sam answered.

  ‘If this trend continues, sometimes in future, the characters on screen will be indistinguishable from real. What you see on the screen will be indistinguishable from real humans playing those characters.’

  ‘Fine, but what makes you sure Moore’s Law will continue? Silicon, the material for the computers, will have limitations. Some say we are already feeling these limitations,’ Sam said.

  ‘This may be true. But have you heard about quantum computers? They say they will be 100 or a 1000-time more powerful than present silicon-based computers,’ Salam said.

  ‘Yes, but I know quantum computers are still in their infancy, and one cannot be sure if there will be such computers,’ Sam said.

  ‘Yes, there will be,’ Salam said.

  ‘OK, fine. Let’s say there will be, so?’

  ‘OK, you’ve seen these online games, where players from different locations play online the same game. Within the game, the players can see each other, when they are in view, and fight each other although they could be thousands of miles apart.’

  Sam nodded, but still unsure where Salam was heading.

  ‘Some of the characters are not related to actual human players, but are characters controlled by the computer, but within the game. In other words, some characters have intelligence and are related to the humans playing them, and some are governed by the computer and have no intelligence by themselves. But they look the same.

  ‘How about if I tell you we are all characters in a grand game controlled by a computer somewhere? I don’t want you to jump to any conclusion about my state of mind. Remember, we agreed that you keep an open mind, not to reject the idea outright as some people did 400 years ago,’ Salam said.

  ‘What do you mean? Are you saying we are characters built by software?’ Sam asked with a smile, which he removed immediately, remembering the agreement of keeping an open-mid.

  ‘Yes, we are characters built by software,’

  ‘Come on, Salam. This is wilder that the earth was round. I’m not software, I have a physical body I can feel. Look,’ Sam said, feeling his left arm with his right hand in a gesture of touching a hard object.

  ‘OK, let me explain some physics. You know we are built with atoms, and so is everything around us. You know that the atom has a nucleus at the centre and electrons orbiting around it? Did you know that the atom is 99.9999999999% empty space?’

  Sam remembered this from his physics classes.

  ‘The nucleus has two types of particles: the protons and the neutrons. Did you know these are built with even smaller particles, the quarks? So, once again, the protons and the neutrons are mostly empty space, with the quarks buried deep within them. So, we have empty space within empty space.’

  Sam was no longer smiling.

  ‘And, if the String Theory is to be believed, the quarks are nothing but vibrating strings of energy in a multi-dimensional space. So the atom is built upon vibrating strings of energy. There is no ‘stuff’ as such in the atom. Now, we are built upon atoms, and therefore we are nothing but empty space, or vibrating strings of energy deep within, that’s all,’ Salam concluded.

  Sam felt uncomfortable with this.

  ‘But, if we are empty space, how do I feel my body? How come if I put something against it, it doesn’t go right through it?’ Sam asked, looking bewildered.

  ‘Right, a good question. Although the atom and its constituent particles are empty space, they have fields associated with them. Some scientists say there are no such things as particles. They are all fields, even the electrons. These fields interact with each other and show resistance. For example, if you want to pass a foreign object through your body, the relevant fields of the atoms within the object and within your body interact and resist each other, giving the sensation of the body resisting the object.’

  ‘But I feel it. It’s not just fields opposing each other,’ Sam quickly responded.

  ‘Aha, I knew you were going to say this. But remember, you feel it because your brain tells you so. When the fields interact, signals are generated by your body, which are transmitted to the brain via the nerves. Your brain interprets these signals as something trying to enter your body. The brain, in a way, is tricking us into feeling a solid material is interacting with our solid body.’

  ‘What about other things? I feel my body is heavy and if I jump, I get pulled back by gravity. When I sit on a chair, I feel my body heavy on the chair, and the chair pushes against me. How do you explain these?’ Sam asked because he couldn’t bring himself to believing this fantastical idea.

  ‘For gravity pull, this is field interaction. The fields extend everywhere, and not confined within the atom. The fields of your body and that of the earth interact and pull you down. When you sit on a chair, gravity pulls you down, and the material in the chair tries to resist your body, which the brain interprets as pressure on your backside.’

  ‘OK, I promised to keep an open mind. So we are open space, and everything is field interaction. Where does that take it to?’

  ‘Right, so we are not solid, but built of vibrating energy. Isn’t this similar to software characters? The characters are built on ones and zeros within the program, and these are energy components on a transistor or a capacitor within the computer.’

  ‘Fine, but I see in 3D, and everything around me is in 3D. The computer characters are 2D, so how do you explain this?’ Sam asked.

  ‘3D computer games can be demonstrated by Virtual Reality devices. Have you tried these?’ Salam asked.

  ‘As a matter of fact, I have,’ Sam answered.

  ‘You would have seen characters in a 3D environment, and I’m sure you found it hard to distinguish this from reality. When you are inside the 3D game, doesn’t it feel like being in a kind of real world? Even though, at a lower resolution? This is what you see in the real world. 3D objects and characters.’

  ‘Hold on, you are saying it as though you believe it is true, I mean this idea of whatever you want to call it,’ said Sam.

  ‘Let’s leave this for a moment. What I’m saying is what you see in the real world are things in 3D that your brain makes up for you. The fields of the various objects and things give you a sensation that the brain interprets as 3D solid objects. The brain is a huge con machine, so to speak.’

  ‘Obviously, this is not enough for proof. Is there anything else?’ asked Sam.

  ‘Indeed, and this may blow your mind. Computers are digital machines. What I mean, everything done by computers is done by numbers, 1’s and 0’s, at the lowest level. When they represent distance, for example, they use these numbers.

  ‘Distance is not therefore continuous but discrete or quantised. I mean the distance measure moves in steps, and the step size depends on how many 1’s and 0’s are used to represent the distance. The larger combinations of these 1’s and 0’s, the smaller these steps are. But, of course, there is a limit to how many 1’s and 0’s are used, and thus there will always be steps between the measure of distance within the computer,’ said Salam.

  ‘I think I get it. A 32-bit representation of distance has smaller steps that a 16-bit representation,’ said Sam.

  ‘Exactly. I’m sure you mean by 16-bit or 32-bit, the number of 1’s and 0’s used to represent the distance. This is great. Did you know that distance in the real world is not continuous, either? And measures in steps?’ Salam asked.

  ‘No, I didn’t know that’ responded Sam.

  ‘Well, there are steps for distance in the real world, too, called the Planck distance, which represents how the measure jumps as one moves along the space in the real world. But of course, the Planck distance is many, many times shorter tha
n any measure done in today’s computers. But it is still not continuous. One would never know any measure between those steps. Distance jumps in steps,’ said Salam.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Sam.

  ‘100%.’

  Sam kept quiet. This piece of information needs verification.

  ‘And time is also discrete or quantised. It is not continuous,’ said Salam with a smile.

  Sam’s head went backwards. How did Salam know all this? He was not a physicist, and from what he could remember, Salam did not excel at school.

  ‘You know that in a computer game, the image on the screen is refreshed every 50 or 60 times a second. The brain sees this as a continuous-time movement. This is precisely how the brain is tricked into seeing movements on the screen in a cinema. The refresh rate, or how many times the image is updated and displayed, is therefore in steps. i.e. it is quantised in the computer, the same as distance.’

  ‘Are you telling me that what we see in reality is also the same? Images changed at a refresh rate. Don’t you think this is going too far?’ asked Sam.

  ‘No, I’m serious. And what we see is updated every Planck Time, which is a very, very, very small time. And it is even given a name, Planck time.’

  ‘Wait, but scientists are not even in agreement about what time is, so how can you be sure that time moves in steps and not continuous?’ asked Sam.

  ‘I agree, but several renowned scientists believe this to be true even though it is difficult to measure it or ascertain it,’ Salm quickly answered.

  ‘OK, go on,’

  ‘So what I’m saying is that time is also in steps or digitised. Can you see now the similarity of the game on a computer, as you see it in a Virtual Reality set, with the real world? Isn’t it something that gets into you? That we are living in a kind of 3D computer simulation?’

  Their discussion was interrupted by a knock on the door, as some late visitors arrived. Salam avoided this discussion in the presence of those visitors.

  Sam left shortly after, feeling his brain completely blown away. He would need further sessions with Salam. These ideas looked strange, and surely, this simulation idea couldn’t be right, although some logic was behind it.

  Sam recalled this discussion with Salam as he sat watching over the works, with his back resting against the sand at the south side of the house. He designed the house to face westwards, to be able to watch the sunset from his living room or when sitting on the patio at the front.

  His search for a suitable location in the wide expanse of the Western Desert wasn’t difficult. He hired a pickup in Rawa and asked a man familiar with the area, to show the way. He wanted it to be at least 100 km away from the nearest city or town.

  The location he chose was in featureless terrain, mostly dunes and rock outcrops. Dunes are not suitable for sturdy house foundations, but rocky outcrops might be.

  After a day’s search, they found a sand mound, with rocks protruding at the base, black against the brownish grey of the sand. Its shape suggested it was a rocky outcrop buried in the sand. Indeed, with some manual excavation with spades, and using long metal rods, they confirmed it was a rocky outcrop. The rock base was not level, but he would worry about this later.

  The area west of the outcrop was flat, and one could see for kilometres. That was exactly how he envisaged it in his daydreams. He recorded the GPS coordinates of the place, took pictures and a video of the outcrop and returned home -- mission accomplished.

  There was no problem with planning or building permissions, as no one cared; it’s in the middle of nowhere. The whole area is uninhabited for 100 s of kilometres south, north, east, and west. No one would come complaining Sam infringed on their territory. For all he knew, the area belongs to the government, and, almost certainly, they won’t send inspectors for permit violations. It will be a futile effort and a waste of money. Further, all the Bedouins living in the desert would be considered to have violated permissions.

  Next were arrangements for labour, building materials and logistics to commence the works. The nearest town was Rawa, and that was where he looked for these.

  He reckoned he needed 10 labourers, a foreman, and a cook, which makes it a total of 13, including himself. He needed sleeping arrangements, a store for drinking water and food supplies, a cooker and cooking facilities, medical supplies in case any fell ill, lanterns and torches, and a standby pickup for emergencies. He purchased a satellite phone, as there was no coverage for normal mobiles. Without telling the others, he took a handgun for emergency use: wild animals, thieves, out of control labourers, etc.

  There was the matter of building supplies: cement, rebars, concrete blocks, gravel, door and window frames, and building tools: spades, crowbars, trowels, etc. There was no need for sand, it was abundant there. For a concrete mixer, he opted for a manual one due to cost. He tasked his foreman, Mo, for arranging these.

  Water was an essential part of his planning, both for drinking and concrete mixing and other related building activities. He found a used storage tank on sale, suitable for water for construction activities. For drinking, he bought five large water bottles and a water dispenser, with a good supply of disposable cups. He arranged with a lorry tanker to fill the storage tank, and a smaller lorry to haul food and drinking water, at regular intervals.

  The cook decided on an LPG-fuelled cooker. He purchased 10 LPG bottles, which would be re-filled as needed. He also arranged for a barrel of paraffin oil for the lanterns and the heaters. For toilets, a spade and a jug of water, as per Islamic tradition, were provided for all.

  He needed a fridge and a chest freezer to store food, fresh and frozen. There was the option of gas-operated fridge and freezer, but he decided on normal electric ones. Solar panels could provide the necessary power, and he needed these panels anyway to power his completed house. A solar panel dealer advised on the best combination of panels and batteries. He was surprised by how low cost and how more efficient the panels had become.

  He planned to install the solar panels next to the store tent but eventually move them to the roof of his building. The solar dealer agreed to send his technician for the wiring and to get them started. For lighting, he purchased two bulbs of LED type, to be erected on poles at evening meals.

  He paid for the solar power equipment and went to an electric appliances dealer, based on the recommendation of the solar dealer, and ordered the fridge and the freezer,

  For labour, he recruited Mo, who came highly recommended for the role of foreman. Mo then arranged for 10 local labourers. They were expected to work four weeks on, one week off. Wages were generous, an incentive in return for the harsh environment in the desert.

  Five 2-person tents for the labourers, 2 persons per tent, and three 1-person tents for the foreman, cook, and himself, were purchased. A separate large tent, with a canopy, doubled as a store and a cooking place. He also arranged for sleeping bags, blankets and camping roll mats for warmth.

  For food, he purchased three 100 kg sacks of rice, three large tins of cooking oil, a sack of dry beans, lentils, chickpeas, salt, pepper, tomato paste, and other long-lasting foodstuffs. Fresh food such as eggs, cheese, butter, cream, fruit, vegetables, etc., would be delivered in the regular supply’s run. Vegetables like potatoes, aubergines, okra, tomatoes, pepper, gherkins, onions, etc., which are the basis of Iraqi cooking, were ordered by the cook, Zak, and would be replenished in the regular supply’s run.

  Sam led a convoy of these supplies in pickups and lorries to the house location. When they arrived at the site, they unloaded the food and construction material where he planned. The labourers’ tents were erected in two rows, 2 in each row. Mo’s and Zak’s tents were at either end. His was next to the foreman’s.

  The large water storage tank was placed where it’s most needed. The store tent was erected next to the storage tank, and the store supplies were stowed inside. Folded chairs and a large, folded table provided the eating arrangements. No paraffin lanterns were
issued to the labourers’ tents for fear of fire.

  Zak did a good job storing all the supplies away and levelling a sand patch for the cooker under the store-tent’s front protruding canopy. The cement was covered with a tarp, pegged down to the ground.

  The solar panels technician got the fridge and the freezer wired up and going. He also wired the two LED lights, erected on wooden poles, to lighten up the area. He suggested after a full day of sun, the batteries should have charged enough to last the night. That night, therefore, was going to be dark.

  It was a tiring day, and after dinner, sandwiches bought in Rawa and served under a lantern light, all went to bed early that evening. The hectic day meant the cook could not prepare hot meals for dinner.

  Sam lay in his sleeping bag in his tent, thinking of how events had culminated into this. He planned to record all the daily happenings in a diary, to be started that night. But he wasn’t able to write and kept wondering if he made the right decision embarking on this adventure. Here, it looked as outlandish and mad as many people saw it before.

  He had 12 people he felt were his responsibility. What would he do if there were work accidents, snake bites or scorpion stings, being 150 km from the nearest help? He had a pickup on standby, but it was at least a 3-hour drive from Rawa. It was too late, however, to start worrying about this; he was already committed.

  He was sure the labourers thought he was mad. Why build a house here? Why waste all this money? To them, it showed like a rich man's fallacy. He had the money and could afford this lunacy.

  It was a cold night, and the quietness was like nothing he experienced before. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears. It sounded as though the world stood still or nothing existed outside.

  It didn’t take him long to fall asleep, and when he woke up, it was the crack of dawn. It was a struggle to leave the comfort and warmth of the sleeping bag. Outside, the sun had not risen yet, and the air was still and smelled fresh at the end of a desert night.

  He took deep breaths to flush out his lungs. His eyes were mesmerised by the faint golden glow coming from beyond the horizon, slowly getting brighter. A new day was being born, and that sight was unforgettable, never seen in the city on the best of days. Yes, the effort was worth it.