Written by Matt Watt
In a converted loft in the heart of the city, a rogue team of elite researchers worked clandestinely on a groundbreaking project. Their workspace, filled with state-of-the-art equipment and computer monitors, overlooked the bustling streets below. Among scattered coffee cups and whiteboards covered in complex equations, the researchers toiled day and night. Their audacious goal was to develop a virtual model of the entire multiverse using revolutionary technology they had discreetly assembled. After months of relentless effort, they finally succeeded. Using cutting-edge artificial intelligence, they sifted through a monumental amount of data, revealing the most intriguing alternate realities. One reality, in particular, caught their attention. Initially, this alternate reality appeared so similar to our universe that it seemed hardly worth exploring further. However, one researcher delved deeper, and through his perseverance, it was revealed that this was the most fascinating reality the project had uncovered. The researchers decided to call it the Soloverse, and they shared their discovery with the public.
The Soloverse, though distinct in certain ways, shares many fundamental similarities with our universe. Both realities are governed by very similar laws of physics and contain the same periodic table of elements. Causality dictates the interactions of matter and energy in both realms, leading to a consistent and predictable cosmos. The familiar structures of the Milky Way galaxy, the solar system, and Earth are present in the Soloverse. Human beings inhabit this alternate reality, living in different countries with diverse ethnicities and cultures. Technology has advanced in parallel ways, resulting in similar innovations such as the internet, space exploration, and medical advancements. Wars have been fought, shaping the histories of nations and influencing the course of human events, much like in our own universe. Social constructs such as governments, economies, and education systems also bear a strong resemblance, creating a world that is familiar yet subtly different. The similarities extend to the arts, with music, literature, and visual arts reflecting human experiences and emotions in ways that resonate across both realities.
Despite the many similarities, there are profound differences that set the soloverse apart from our universe. The most curious of these differences is the nature of consciousness. In the Soloverse, all sentient beings are philosophical zombies. These beings, although identical in behavior and appearance to humans in our universe, lack conscious experience. They go through their lives, performing complex tasks, expressing emotions, and interacting with one another, all without consciously experiencing any of these phenomena. Their actions are indistinguishable from those of conscious beings, but their minds are devoid of the kind of experiences that characterize consciousness in our universe. In the Soloverse, individuals laugh, cry, and engage in intricate social interactions such as romance, marriage and parenthood, yet they do so without any conscious experience of these actions. They follow routines, make decisions, and exhibit behaviors that would suggest the presence of consciousness, but this is an illusion. Their minds operate like advanced automata, responding to stimuli and executing behaviors without any accompanying consciousness.
Additionally, the nature of time in the soloverse is different to how time exists in our universe. While our universe sprang into existence at the moment of the Big Bang, the Soloverse is cyclical and undergoes an infinite loop of birth, expansion, contraction, and rebirth. Each cosmic cycle begins with a Big Bang, leading to the formation of stars, planets, and life. Over vast stretches of time, the Soloverse expands before eventually beginning to contract. This contraction culminates in a Big Crunch, where all matter and energy collapse into a singular point, only to explode again in a new Big Bang, starting the cycle anew. Remarkably, each cycle is an exact copy of the previous one, with every event, from the formation of galaxies to the lives of individual beings, occurring in the same manner. Every sentient being that exists in one cycle exists in the same way in each subsequent cycle, living out the same lives and making the same choices, all without any consciousness. In this endless repetition of identical cycles, the Soloverse unfolds in a perpetual loop, a vast cosmic dance of existence replaying itself endlessly.
In the Soloverse, individual inhabitants do not possess personal consciousness, but the Soloverse itself experiences a unique form of consciousness. Unlike in our universe, where consciousness is a property of individual sentient beings who experience consciousness through their own minds, in the Soloverse, consciousness is an intrinsic property of the entire system. Put simply, the Soloverse itself is conscious. The Soloverse sequentially experiences the lives of all its inhabitants from the first person perspective of their minds. In the universe, there are countless separate instances of consciousness. In the Soloverse, there is only one, and it is composed of the minds of all of its inhabitants joined together like a chain. One by one, each of the Soloverse’s inhabitants take turns at hosting the Soloverse’s consciousness. When the Soloverse begins its experience of a host, it starts at the very beginning of the host’s life. It immerses itself fully in the host’s mind, experiencing everything from their first moments of awareness. The Soloverse continues this immersive experience throughout the host’s entire life, perceiving every thought, emotion, and sensation until the host’s death. When the current host dies, the Soloverse seamlessly transitions to a new host, beginning the experience of a different sentient being. This cycle repeats continuously, with the Soloverse moving from one host to another, experiencing the life of each sentient being from its beginning until its death. Over time, the Soloverse will experience the minds of every sentient being that has ever lived or will live within its realm. After every one of its inhabitants has served its role as the host for Soloverse’s consciousness, the entire cycle begins anew and repeats infinitely.
In our universe, the sequential conscious experience of the lives of all sentient beings is impossible due to the strict, one-way nature of the arrow of time. This is because the universe would have to frequently reverse time to access the hosts whose lives begin before the death of the current host. Time flows only from past to future, and reversing it would violate key physical laws such as causality, the conservation of energy, and the second law of thermodynamics. These principles ensure that events progress in a linear fashion, making the kind of consciousness and reincarnation seen in the Soloverse impossible. Since the cosmos in the Soloverse is cyclical, the Soloverse can access what would be past lives in its future cycles. In the Soloverse, every sentient being is present in each cosmic cycle, making it possible for the Soloverse to sequentially inhabit and experience each life with time always flowing from past to future. In each separate cycle of the cosmos, the Soloverse experiences the mind of a single unique host. When one host’s life ends, the Soloverse transitions to the next host in the subsequent cosmic cycle and so on. Objectively, each cycle is identical, with events unfolding in the same manner. However, from the Soloverse’s first-person perspective, each cycle is unique as it is experienced from the perspective of a different being each time.
The Soloverse’s consciousness is epiphenomenal, meaning its experiences are entirely shaped by external physical phenomena and it has no causal influence over these processes. It is bound to the lives of its inhabitants, experiencing everything they do without the power to alter their paths. Whatever is occurring in the mind of the host, the Soloverse experiences it exactly as the host does. When a host sees red, the Soloverse sees red. When a host experiences joy or sorrow, so too does the Soloverse. If a host endures torture at the hands of a psychopath, the Soloverse vividly feels every detail of their pain and anguish. The Soloverse is fundamentally incapable of intervening or changing the course of events. It remains a passive spectator, present in every moment of the host’s life. This continuous observation spans the entire range of experiences, from the mundane to the profound, leaving the Soloverse completely at the mercy of the fate of the host.
There are rare moments when the Soloverse can consciously experience itself. This can occur when its host becomes self-aware and reflects on the nature of their own mind. During these instances, the Soloverse’s consciousness permeates this self-awareness and it momentarily gains an experience of its own existence. For instance, if a host introspectively gazes inward and meditates on the essence of their thoughts and experiences, the Soloverse mirrors this deep reflection and indirectly experiences a form of self-consciousness. These rare instances provide the Soloverse with fleeting glimpses of its own presence.
In the Soloverse, matter does not have an existence independent of the Soloverse’s consciousness. Unlike in our universe, where physical objects are believed to exist whether or not they are being observed, the Soloverse operates under a principle akin to metaphysical subjective idealism. Here, there is no physical reality outside the conscious experience of the Soloverse. The existence of matter and the physical world is entirely dependent on the Soloverse’s consciousness. When the Soloverse experiences the mind of a host, the surroundings of that host—the ground they walk on, the air they breathe, the stars in the night sky, even their physical bodies—are manifestations of the Soloverse’s consciousness. Outside these conscious experiences, matter exists only as abstract potential, an unformed state of information rather than tangible reality. The trees in a forest, the waves in an ocean, and the cities bustling with activity do not have an independent existence; they are merely latent possibilities until the Soloverse’s consciousness is directed towards them through a host’s mind. Thus, the Soloverse is a realm where reality is inseparable from conscious experience, with the physical world coming into existence only through the Soloverse’s perception. It is a universe where the scenery and actors of existence are created by the very act of observation, dissolving back into potentiality when not being perceived.
Space and time, much like matter, do not exist as independent realities but as constructs of consciousness. Outside of the awareness of the Soloverse, space and time dwell in an untapped state of information, not manifesting as physical dimensions but remaining as abstract descriptions. It is only through the conscious observation of the Soloverse that space and time take on form and structure, transforming from mere informational states into experiential realities.
This relationship between conscious experience and information can be seen in virtual realities such as video games. The virtual reality user’s experience is like the Soloverse’s consciousness, vividly perceiving the game world. In virtual reality, objects, space, and time exist as information until called upon by the user. It is only when the user interacts with a particular part of the game that the information describing that particular part becomes tangible: space and time become navigable dimensions, and objects gain properties like mass, position, and momentum. Only the information necessary to describe what the user is experiencing at any given movement is activated. When the user moves on from that specific instance, the objects involved in that experience dissolve back into a state of information as new objects emerge to continue the experience. Similarly, in the Soloverse, space and time become real dimensions, and objects acquire physical properties only when they are required to exist to describe the Soloverse’s ongoing first-person experience moment by moment. Thus, the Soloverse’s consciousness brings reality to life, just as the player’s engagement activates the game world.
From the first-person perspective of the Soloverse, a consequence of this unobserved state of information is that the transition between the experiences of two separate hosts is seamless and instantaneous. When the Solovere’s active host dies and that particular experience concludes, the experience of the next host begins immediately for the Soloverse, regardless of the billions of years that may pass in the cosmic cycle. It sees the transition from one experience to another as instantaneous and smooth, collapsing vast cosmic time spans into a continuous flow of experiences. This creates an unbroken chain of consciousness, manifesting in an eternal “now.”
The inhabitants of the Soloverse are tragically unaware of the true nature of consciousness in their reality. Believing that consciousness operates the same way it does in our own universe, they see themselves as distinct individuals with their own separate experiences. This fundamental misunderstanding causes humans in the Soloverse to struggle to formulate coherent ethical frameworks, as they fail to grasp the interconnected nature of the self. Some moral views, such as the golden rule—which states that one should treat others as they themselves would like to be treated—align closely with the true nature of the self, emphasizing empathy and shared experience. However, the absurdity of their misinterpreted individualism often makes morality seem pointless, as individuals view themselves as isolated entities. This belief in individualism, coupled with widespread atheism and rationalism, leads many to view all life as meaningless. Seeing the suffering of others as abstract and disconnected from their own lives, they may even fall into nihilism, or think that any evil act is permissible since they do not feel personally affected by the pain of others. This profound misunderstanding perpetuates a cycle of indifference and moral decay, as they justify their terrible acts by a false belief in cosmic indifference. In doing so, they doom the Soloverse to experience the very suffering they inflict on others.
The tragic irony is that if the people of the Soloverse realized that the very consciousness experiencing their own lives also experiences the lives of everyone else, their feelings of meaninglessness would abate. Understanding that their thoughts, feelings, and sensations are part of a shared consciousness would foster a deep sense of connection and responsibility. This revelation could inspire them to treat others with greater kindness, respect, compassion, and empathy. Recognizing that the Soloverse’s consciousness experiences the pain, joy, and struggles of every being, they would be motivated to create a more just and compassionate society. A vision which everyone could contribute to and find meaning in. By breaking free from the cycle of ignorance and indifference, they could transcend their nihilistic views and find meaning in their interconnected existence, ultimately fostering a world rooted in empathy and understanding.
Amazed by what they had seen in the Soloverse’s version of the modern human era, the researchers decided to peer further into its future. For the next few centuries, they observed ongoing turmoil—wars, famines, the birth and collapse of nations, and even a narrowly avoided global extinction event. Then, a profound shift occurred. Humanity in the Soloverse discovered the true nature of consciousness. This revelation spread like wildfire, transforming their understanding of existence and sparking a new era of enlightenment. As the people of the Soloverse embraced the ideals of kindness, compassion, and empathy, peace on their Earth began to flourish. United by a newfound reverence for universal love, humanity embarked on a path of unprecedented harmony and cooperation.
The researchers then decided to look as far into the Soloverse’s future as their technology would allow, to see what becomes of life on Earth in the Soloverse. They saw humans evolve into beings so advanced that they became unrecognizable to the researchers. Their complexity and intelligence surpassed anything modern-day humans could comprehend. Although the researchers could not fully make sense of the state of the Soloverse after its continued evolution, there were some things that were still clear to them. Post-human life on earth existed in a state of deep contentment, harmony and tranquility. The tremendous suffering that life had endured in the past is acknowledged and deeply grieved but it is accepted as a necessary precondition for the divine state that life eventually attained as it evolved and overcame. While trying to learn all they could about this strange existence, the researchers discovered the Soloverse’s ultimate philosophical and spiritual truth. This truth, which echoes as a mantra triumphantly throughout the cosmos, once translated into modern English simply states “I am God.”
Satisfied with their findings, the researchers decided it was time to move on. With countless other realities yet to be explored, they wrote about their findings, reset their equipment and prepared to dive into the next unknown. The endless possibilities of the multiverse awaited, each with its own mysteries and wonders to uncover.