In an article released by The Scientific American entitled, “The Metaverse Is Coming: We May Already Be in It”, MIT computer scientist Rizwan Virk argues that, at the rate computer technologies are advancing, it is more than likely that simulated reality will soon replace the human experience of physical reality. The “metaverse” is the hypothetical future evolution of the internet, where humans will interface with simulated worlds through VR (virtual reality) or AR (augmented reality) similar to the Matrix films, which Virk uses frequently in this article as an illustration.
Tech giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft are putting billions of dollars into research on this new scientific frontier, lending necessary weight to Virk’s optimism about a future metaverse. Virk adds that, according to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, we may already be in a form of metaverse. One argument for this hypothesis is that, if it is possible for a civilization to form billions of simulated worlds, it is statistically more likely that we are living in a virtual construction built by a more advanced race than that we are living in the real physical universe. The article concludes with Virk musing over the possibility that, if we are living in a simulated reality, some of us may in fact be real volitional entities while others are statistically more likely to be AI generated by the metaverse.
Worldview Assumptions of the Metaverse
The worldview behind Virk’s article, and presumably behind the major corporations which are laboring towards producing the metaverse, is a perfect example of that muddle of modernist optimism and postmodernist skepticism that has become standard in the west today. This worldview could only emerge in decadent ages, picking and choosing its beliefs according to its tastes buffet-style. It allows people to put their hope in the progressive achievements of science while reserving criticism for objective claims about a reality autonomous from themselves. There is a basic assumption in this worldview, shared with certain strains of eastern mysticism, that the experiential side of reality is all there is, and since we cannot say experiences occur outside ourselves, it is more likely that all reality occurs within us. According to this worldview, even if we did inhabit a real, objective space that is not illusory, it would still be preferable to exist trans-consciously in a simulated reality which we can control. The metaverse, as a neuro-transcendent escape from reality, is the logical conclusion of a worldview that esteems personal autonomy and freedom as fundamental values.
Upon first read, this whole article might be ridden off as someone’s personal science-fiction pseudo-philosophy. But, when we look at the volume of scientific study and funding behind research toward metaverse-related technologies, it becomes clear that the scientific world believes this is significant. This withstanding, the switch from conscious experience of physical reality to transcendent experience in a simulated reality, which Virk calls the “Simulation Point” of civilization, is still mere theory.
The closest technology at present which can give any validity to Virk’s hypothesis is the current research being done with BCI (brain-computer interfaces), which attempts to use brainwaves to interface with computers. But, even this technology still has not been achieved in any real form. Therefore, while Virk is able to rattle off theories which may have some acceptance in certain scientific circles, the entire argument of the article has its foundation in Virk’s philosophy rather than in real science. Like all science, the data is objective up until the point of application, at which point all scientists become amateur philosophers and theologians, applying their objective discoveries to their subjective preconceptions about how the world ought to work or what the good of humanity is. Virk is no different, only here his application of science is paired with a philosophy more imaginatively striking and culturally attuned than the musings of scientists fifty years ago.
Nothing New Under the Sun
But what does the dusty, black-coated theologian have to say to buoyant, white-coated scientists like Virk? First, I think she would say Virk is hopelessly behind the times. He doesn’t need to wait for BCI or AR technology to be perfected to escape into a reality of his own making. People have been doing this for millennia, exchanging the reality that confronts them with alternate mentally-constructed realities. We create and fantasize fictional worlds where we are kings and gods, where we can take anything and subjugate anyone to our will, all the time living within a world which presents our senses constantly with opposite conclusions. We reinforce these dreams by manifesting systems and structures in the real world which make them appear as if they were basic to reality. We tell lies to preserve these powerful dreams and invent mythologies and philosophies to reinforce them. We ignore, persecute, and murder people in order to silence non-advantageous realties which do not conform to the dreams we have constructed. We stack bricks and form whole governments in order to actualize our grandiose fictions and then memorialize them in art, songs, and films. Rich or poor, ancient or modern, all humans are masters of immersing themselves in unreality (Gen. 4:9; 11:1–9; 1 Kings 12:28–30; Rom. 1:18–23; Rev. 18:1–4).
To be fair, this impulse to invent realities is not itself an evil thing—it is a God-given gift hardwired into the makeup of the human being. We are made in the likeness of a God who creates, and does so with unmatched beauty and complexity. But what happens when creatures capable of inventing and creating whole realities divorce themselves from God, who is the only ground of reality? They will fill the God-gap with themselves and invent unendingly complex ideological frameworks to make this fundamental contradiction make sense. What you are left with is a vicious cycle, degrading and fragmenting into a meaningless oblivion, which has been the hallmark of human life on earth since the fall of our first members.
You might say the entire endeavor of human civilization has been to find more effective ways of numbing ourselves from any reality which tells them they are not gods. The theory of the metaverse is only another manifestation of this primal drive of sin which causes people to be gravitationally averse to God and His rulership. The tragic irony of the metaverse is something the scientists are blind to, and which the theologian knows all too well, namely that no matter where you go to try and escape the wretchedness of reality, you yourself are part of that reality.
Waking Up
In the article, Virk mentions an episode of Rick and Morty about the metaverse. In the episode, a character lives out an entire lifetime in a simulated world before realizing he was in it. But realizing wasn’t enough to get out of the metaverse, the only way to escape was to die. Rick and Morty is not far from the kingdom of God on this point. While we Christians know physical suicide is no viable method of escape from the evils of reality, which will only meet one with full force on the other side, a form of death is necessary to escape the endless cycles of imaginary and contrived realities.
The Christian knows that this death is enacted through, what we call, “baptism”, but is better understood as death to the human-oriented false reality and immersion into the only true reality, the world rightfully ruled by Christ (Dan. 7:13–14; John 18:36; Eph. 1:20–21; Rev. 17:14). In this act of dying we wake from the powerless dreamstate of sin into the cold light of reality. The theologian does not share the sunny naivety of the scientific philosopher, nor his contentment with lies and fictions, because the theologian knows no one can see reality without seeing it through God. This cannot be done until we know Christ, who manifests God to our senses and gives us entry into reality (John 3:3, 6:14; Col. 1:15; 1 John 4:12).
In this God-restored reality, humanity’s original ability to imagine and generate realities is recalibrated, having regained relationship with God, who is the root of reality. Rather than jettison any view of reality which affirms God’s rule and opposes the rule of the individual, the Christian is able to imagine reality perfected under God, and then labor with Him to put it in motion, “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
In this way, the kingdom of God (which is what the Bible calls this reality) is the only really objective reality, because it is the only one free from the warped desires and false recreations of the sinful human mind. God’s kingdom is the highest objective reality because it does not seek to escape reality, but rather to save and transform the world that has been perverted and damaged by humans imposing unrealities upon it.
Ultimately, the theologian remains unimpressed by Virk’s escapist utopia, because she knows where such utopias naturally end—the wretched man alone with his wretchedness, surrounded by wretched unrealities. The only advice she can offer Virk is the same advice our Lord offered Peter, “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24).
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