Mr. Musk has done a lot of good for the world; he was an idealist trying to make things better. I suspect his more recent destructive, self-destructive, and just plain pointless and trollish behavior can be explained by the fact that he genuinely believes that the universe is one big computer simulation. When he mentioned this in his TED talk, most people thought he was joking, “strange old Elon being weird again,” they said. however, I have learned to take people with dogmatic beliefs at their word. Whether it is an Islamist in Afghanistan earnestly explaining during a ceasefire how they want to “save women” by enslaving them, an American Evangelical sympathizing with my imminent hellfire destruction, or a capitalist communist from the USSR trying to convince me that there is nothing wrong with killing the slightly more economically privileged. I found it best to just go ahead and believe people’s professed motives. Absurd beliefs in Dear leaders (be they terrestrial or celestial) may start as childhood indoctrination and grow into teenage coercion, but it often mutates into sincere belief in adulthood. I now no longer try to convince people that their gods don’t exist because the burden of truth is not mine to bear. Anything I may point to as a way a god or a simulation is not real will simply be woven by the true believers into their conviction into just how clever their god or reality is. Now I take their belief at face value, and instead work to help them question whether an evil sky monster or any other dear leader is deserving of their worship, or, as in the case of people like Elon, whether existing in a simulation is really something to despair over. Full disclosure, I harbor an authoritarian impulse in an exasperated desire to better the world along with a rather self-obsessed spiritualistic side and an on-off belief in a simulated world. My peculiar neurodivergence affords me empathy and insight into many different perspectives on existence, which is why I both understand and actively detest the harm-causing behaviors of my would-be fellows. I used to feel all the time that the universe was the lab of a sadist, and I was the mouse, and that the gods/demons/aliens/programmers (whatever the source of the delusion occupying my mind that day) were keeping me in an awful world just to torment me. And you know what? It was true because reality IS perspective within the world of our own minds. To us, our “delusions” are the most immediate truth. It is why I am now in prison. What we believe dictates what we do, and I hurt an innocent because I Believed something that was not so. That is why an empirical consensus baseline reality is of such importance to my values; I was very high functioning until I wasn’t. All it takes is one bad night, and things suddenly spiral out of control. If your Values are not in line with Reality then Tragedies ensue. It has now been years since my Tragedy, and these days, even living in a prison, I choose to control my own fate. I have no fear of Darling Death. And I am in love with Life. I choose happiness even in a dungeon. I am now amusingly more Free than I’ve ever been because true Freedom comes from within. I try to see the world as it is; I try to see the world as others perceive it; and I try to see it as I want the world to Be and then work for it. This reverie is one such effort, the manifestation of a Better world. One of understanding and Compassion. Musk, I suspect is acting out because of despair, but he still has the potential (as do we all) to do great good. So Elon, be we A.I. in some historical recreation, Players in a procedurally generated universe, or what have you, it is no reason to go renegade. We are conscious. To us, this is reality. It makes no difference if beings outside our universe think we are their creation because, for us, it changes nothing. Either gods, aliens, or Skynet: who cares? Even in a videogame, we shouldn’t be monsters but act ethically (for all we know the NPCs have feelings too). Our suffering is Real to Us, which means Real is what it is. There is no distinction, and, therefore, logically we should also sympathize with (and assume consciousness in) all other beings. This assumption is the safest and most ethically sound position to take. The suffering of all living and potentially conscious beings is what we should seek to diminish, and their well-being is what we should seek to improve. Solipsism or not, we should always extend to those around us the benefit of the doubt regarding their consciousness. If another being acts conscious, be they human or nonhuman, organic or synthetic, why not extend to them that courtesy by default? We lose nothing with that assumption; we only lose when it is deprived. We should not repeat the atrocities of Descartes on animal automata nor mingles experiments on “subhumans.” Blunting our sympathy is the surest path to a detachment from the reality of suffering and leads to acts of monumentally idiotic cruelty. It is always easiest to surrender one’s motive force. To profess in-cognizant faith in fiscal gods or pretend that intelligence is through shallow cynicism only makes it far harder to become mindful of the self and work for a better tomorrow. Perhaps this is a matrix-like hellscape, a demon-infested purgatory, or a brutish planet of violent apes; there are many perspectives and many may be true at the same time, but (perhaps paradoxically coming from a prisoner) I choose to make my destiny myself. All I can control is myself, and I work to change the minds of others, free from despair. One either lets their circumstances dictate their mood, or one can make their mood dictate their circumstances (these may sound the same but I find the perspective shift quite helpful). There is so much suffering and it is all so needless. Instead of attacking others in some preemptive zero-sum prisoner’s dilemma, we must have the courage to be obstinately decent in the face of all injustice. Defend yourself but do not be consumed by senseless rage because, be we carbon or code, we are all in this together. Remember my motto- be this a dream, a delusion, or a dystopia, always do the Least Harm. Always Do Better. There is no one else living Your life, no magic pill no magic man no perfect postmortem, just You Here and Now and then again Tomorrow. You are the hero of this tale, so, if the world frustrates you, heal it starting with Yourself.