Going Meta in My Own Simulation
Edinburgh… family visits and familiar territory, simulation or not…
During my stay in Amsterdam last week, I experienced an unfortunate incident. Outside my hotel, there was a young homeless man camped out. I stopped and chatted with him for a while, checked he was doing okay, and gave him a few euros for smokes and food. A short conversation with the guy confirmed that he was not quite alright. He was struggling, ranting about Illuminati conspiracies, and claiming that we were living in a simulation. This is not the first time I’ve heard this, by a long shot.
The following morning, as I left my room to get a coffee, I saw the man surrounded by police and medics. He was in a distraught state, wildly flailing and shouting while the responders kept their distance. I asked the police if I could speak to him for a few minutes. I, at least, knew his name. The police welcomed my intervention. The man had himself called the police, it turned out, and when they arrived, he refused to accept that they were real police. He had called them because he believed the hotel staff had tried to steal his identity during the night. How (or why) this was attempted was unclear.