Perhaps the most famous investor of all is Warren Buffett, who, alongside his friend Charlie, ran Berkshire Hathaway for decades.
Warren always referred to Charlie as the “interesting” one, and I never quite understood why until I read Poor Charlie’s Almanack.
It became clear that Charlie was a highly curious person, which led him to become a learning machine in multiple domains, not just finance.
One of the mental models that he used was “invert, always invert” leading us to analyze a problem in both a forward and backward way of thinking.
So let’s do a thought experiment using the “Inversion” mental model.
As humans, one of the most important questions that lingers out there is:
“Why are we alive?”
Of course, we ask and try to answer that question from our vantage point, so what if we invert the point of view?
Then, we would start off as the creator, engineering all of the complex systems needed for life.
Creating life-
So, first off, let’s say we create these little “hamster”-like creatures because we love how they look.
Then, we have to start thinking, okay, I’ll give them taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch, to experience the reality I’m creating for them.
But should I give them consciousness?
I mean, that implies that they will also start to question their own existence and they won’t be able to find definite answers.
They will question everything and have to figure most of the stuff out on their own but will never be able to answer the most fundamental questions.
Hmm…that sounds harsh.
Some of them could end up with existential angst, depression, anger, but some others could also end up appreciating the mystery and the short span of their life, thus being happy, grateful, joyful.
Wow… it’s a wide range of possibilities.
Maybe I’ll just let the experiment run, and each of them can decide how to feel about and what to do and feel in their lives.
Maybe that’s what we call free will?
Then, how would we feel towards those creatures that are always complaining to us versus those who are very happy and enjoying the ride?
Probably there could be two outcomes:
-
Where we help and give more of the good things to the little beings that are grateful and happy
-
We remain impartial to any of the beings, neither giving nor punishing whatever their attitude may be.
If the first scenario were how our current reality works, then we can relate it very deeply to the teachings of many religions and philosophies that emphasize being grateful to the “creator” and seeing the “bright” side of life, which is quite interesting to me.
But what if scenario 2 were how this reality we experience actually works?
Well, even in that scenario, the actual “hamster-like” creature that we created would be living for a period of time, experiencing life through the senses, thoughts, and emotions-
So, probably if he wants to avoid being miserable and have a better time, focusing on gratitude and the positive “bright side” of life is still a better choice as he would at least enjoy the ride! It’s mesmerizing, but at least in this analysis, I would say no matter if reality works as scenario 1 or 2, the obvious choice is to live being fully grateful and happy, enjoying the ride!
Granted it’s not an obligation, they are free to feel angry, miserable, and complain just about everything they want, but that won’t change anything, and their “life experience” will be pretty awful, and it’s entirely their choice!
Complex systems evolve-
Now, if this weren’t enough, we want the experiment to run and see how much of this intelligence and consciousness evolves in our creatures to see what they can achieve!
Oh boy, this makes the experiment even more FUN!
That would imply they would need to reproduce more on their own and stay alive at all cost.
Because they learn pretty slowly at first and die pretty fast!
(Think of humans thousands of years ago, no previous knowledge to rely on, no antibiotics, medicine to save their lives)
So, if those two ensure the experiment to keep running, we would ingrain in them two things: “Survival Instinct” and “Sexual Desire”.
Those two would be at a very deep base layer that would ensure the experiment continues.
Societies emerge-
After a while, these creatures would create societies that breed more complexity into the experiment. They would have schools, healthcare, companies, etc.
At one point, the creatures would be so deep into the “rabbit hole” they would end up concerned with the “problems” of their own life and society.
Society also breeds complexity as new ideologies, patterns, and behaviors are transmitted through generations, and it would only get more complex from there onwards.
Deep into this kind of living they could end up forgetting the whole weirdness of their existence and/or the purpose of it.
Evolution-
Over a large enough period of time, these creatures would evolve enough to start creating shelter, discovering how to use more of their “ecosystem” that we fabricated for them.
Therefore, learning to use the elements to their advantage, plants, other living creatures, rocks, water, fruits, teamwork, use of tools, fire, transform the elements into different ones, create language, invent technology.
In this way, their progress starts to compound, so they are able to further evolve in shorter and shorter periods of time, by using all of the previous knowledge gathered by the ones who preceded them.
What comes next?
From this point onward, we could only speculate on what comes next. Do they develop technologies that are more intelligent than their own?
Basically, are they able to create and surpass their own intelligence by creating something of their own, or are they able to create consciousness?
If that is the case and our little hamster creatures can create their own “hamster-like” creatures, is that a simulation inside our own created simulation?
Of course, if they are even “thinking” of being able to create something on their own, then they would assume there is a very high probability they are on their own, a simulated experiment also done by someone else, in this case, us.
Is that full circle? Consciousness that is capable of creating consciousness and so on?
There is another possibility
Imagine we are bored and decide that we would like to experience being a dolphin and swimming all day and sleeping with half of our brain at a time, and all of that stuff that dolphins do (haha).
So, we go on and live the “dolphin experience” by living as a dolphin, to have fun and see what it’s like, just like using a Virtual Reality headset device.
What if the “creator” just wanted to be part of this cool experiment, and consciousness is just him seeing through the “VR headset”?
It’s crazy then, because imagine being able to put yourself in that “VR headset,” aka consciousness, of all living beings of planet earth, at the same time.
One moment, you would be scoring a goal for Real Madrid because you are a pro-soccer player, next, you would be lifting a humongous piece of donut that weighs 20x your body weight because you are an ant, after that, you would be entering a building that is on fire because you are a firefighter, etc
Lets also not get me started on the universe and galaxies.
Just imagine giving these hamster-like creatures a vision of multiple “ecosystems” such as their own, but they don’t have the capabilities to travel to any of those… YET.
Probably that’s another level of the game that I won’t be here to watch, or will I…?
Is it all a game? Is there an end purpose? or a moment where full-circle is achieved?
I wish I could tell you, but I’m just a happy hamster…
Much love!
Zifush