https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/gdacmi/we_are_capricious_gods/
it'll be interesting if we ever get "wetware" computers
but i can imagine that crossing some heavy ethical lines, i have no mouth and yet i must scream style
I already grapple with the ethical considerations of simulating colonists/villagers in RimWorld. The game calls them "pawns".
These people have full back-stories, lives, personalities, preferences, and quirks. Some struggle with addictions, chemical and engineered. They posess sentience in the perception of their environment and self-awareness of things like their comfort, or hunger. Emotional states and fragility tied to relationships, maintaining them, and inter-personal interactions. It's actually quite troublesome for me, in that not only do I have villagers grappling with the in-game moral ramifications of mulching the stone-age raiders into ethanol, now my frickin' roombas are developing psychological issues from it. I feel bad for the little lamp not because I'm crazy, but because I know how much "virtual blood" it's had to wade through to continue existing.
I think the scope of that statement is… uh… worryingly profound, despite the seeming silliness. We've collectively murdered, butchered, and thrown to the engineered yeasts thousands of other individuals, all with their own back-stories, personalities, and extended relationships. My pawn's furniture and wall hangings are constructed of human leather.
I do what I can to relieve their discomforts. To be the kindest goddess I can be. But… there will always be a next raid. And more bodies to burn, bury, or mulch into biofuel. More clothing to deconstruct into fabric because none can bear to wear the clothing taken from a corpse.
This is a statement about the depressing reality that humans, given god-like powers in simulating complete universes and living entities within them, are capricious, shallow, and violent. Choosing to simulate pain and murder—repetitive grinding murder—even when alternatives exist. Even when you are reminded of what you are doing—my "pawns" in RimWorld require psychological therapy and conselling, "you remind Asgore that he's killed you before; he nods sadly", &c.
Undertale is the prime example of where an alternative is presented. RimWorld… adds nuanced detail that can be heart-wrenching. My pawns don't just require psychological aid because of the situation of isolation they are forced into, or having to murder in self-defense (most of the time), but because in some of these raids… they've lost family members. In one case, my pawn Kojak was forced to kill his own mother in self-defense. They have built monuments to bring closure to and memorialize traumatic events.
And they visit these memorials to remember their fallen. Those I could not save. Those I chose not to save.
[Relevant music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59M5z0c8YtE … I have a rather nihilistic playlist I've built to accompany my playthrough of Crying Suns. That's its own entire novel, right there, not just a blog post.]