Philosopher Jean Baudrillard would take up the concept and run with it in Simulacra and Simulation (1981), arguing that we now live mainly in the map, in the recreation of reality, rather than in reality itself.
I will probably make a post on some of the ideas from this EXTREMELY short story. With incredibly deep ideas while using essentially one paragraph. One of my favorite short stories ever.
Mirror
Yesss one of my favorites too! Strongly recommend this to anyone. Its magical realism for anyone wondering
slrpnk.net is another but for some reason i didnt consider them as interest based. Probably bc science, tech and nature are everywhere.
I know I made stating genre a rule, but my god it's tough to decide lmao.
Yeah that's what I thought too. The idea is very famous in itself
A link to view the written version.
(The original idea and most of the writing was oc, I then used chat gpt to clean up the writing and structure rhe story better.)
Funnily enough the idea to write this came from reading a story about book banning which led to me wondering how we alienate children and use them for political clout more than actually caring about them.
The theme of the story revolves around the consequences of scientific curiosity, the alienation induced by relentless experimentation and the general exploration of existential loneliness within the context of extraterrestrial existence.
Yet that was just a way to make the more general idea of how we use other beings for our benefit no matter how inconsequential. I deliberately didn't specidy any details about the alien while naming the scientist to create a gap in personhood where one has privelege and power over the other.
What knowledge is worth the loss of our empathy?
Quick idea I havent yet put any thought into. Are we in thr digital world in the simulation? Where everything is an exactitude of society? Social media being the way we interact with each other bla bla bla, you get the point. The metaverse being the next intended step, this would lend credence to the idea of a digital simulation woth google maps literally existing already.