“2017-08-12-Matt_Duboff-Women’s Volleyball-94” by 2017 Canada Games // Jeux du Canada 2017 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
It was the day of the annual club volleyball tournament in Saint Lucia and the Lady Raptors from Key West, Florida were ready to sweep the whole competition and beat their rivals, the Lady Cougars, until the worst thing imaginable happened. It all started early in the morning when the team arrived at the airport, ready to head to Saint Lucia. They decided to head to a coffee shop in the terminal where they spotted the Lady Cougars. The Lady Cougars were led by their team captain, Ana. Ana and the captain of the Lady Raptors, Cara, had once played on the same club volleyball team, but they had a falling out and became rivals. Ana approached Cara and asked her if the Lady Raptors were ready to get taken down, trying to get Cara upset. Cara, being the bigger person, killed Ana with kindness and wished her and the rest of the Lady Cougars the best of luck in the tournament. Ana grew angry and her and her team stomped away towards their plane. The Lady Raptors then boarded their plane and eventually took off on their 7-hour flight. About halfway through their flight, something odd occurred. The plane experienced some turbulence in the air and the power on board flickered. The team did not think much of this as this is a pretty normal occurrence on airplanes and the rest of the flight went rather smooth. After a long 7 hours, the plane finally landed, and the team prepared to head to their hotel. When they stepped out of the plane, it was not at all what they had expected.
When the team walked out of the plane, they expected to be in an airplane terminal. As soon as they exited the plane, the team found themselves in a volleyball court identical to the one they’re supposed to play in for the competition. They didn’t have much time to think as a volleyball official had approached them and informed them that they have five minutes to warm-up for their first game. Out of panic, the team captain, Cara, took control of the team as their coaches were nowhere to be found. Cara gathered her team and created a strong lineup to compete in their first game. After their five minutes of warmup time, the team proceeded to the court and realized something was off. There was no fans and the opposing team looked too good to be true. They were all tall and built girls, almost professional looking. In addition, right before the match was about to start, a message appeared on the jumbotron of the gym. The message read, “Lady Raptors, you have 48 hours to beat your competition and make it to the tournament. Best of luck, LC.” The Lady Raptors were already confused and worried, and this just made things so much worse.
Cara sat her team down and they did their best to figure out what was happening. They first tried to figure out what the message meant and who “LC” was. They were concerned as to why the message said they had 48 hours to make it to the tournament because they had figured they were already at the tournament. The whole situation made no sense to the Lady Raptors and they decided the best option was to go off and find their coaches. The team got up and looked for an exit from the gym but had no luck. There was not a single exit located in the gym as well as no windows. The girls began to panic and realized they should just listen to the message from the jumbotron and compete in their first match. All shaken up, the Lady Raptors made their way on the court and began to play. They started off in serve receive and did not realize what had hit them. The opposing team served the ball at a speed of around 70 miles per hour which was unheard of in their league and one of the highest speeds of a serve in volleyball history. In addition to this, any of the balls they were able to actually play out either got completely blocked or they got spiked on badly. The Lady Raptors were then able to come to the conclusion that something was seriously wrong, and they needed to get out of there before something went terribly wrong.
After much debate, Cara and two of her teammates had figured out what was going on. They had previously taken computer science classes in high school and realized they were trapped in a computer simulation. They had discovered that on their plane ride here, they had passed over the Bermuda Triangle and that is why the plane experienced turbulence. While passing through the Bermuda Triangle, the Lady Raptors had been transported into a computer simulation controlled by their rivals, the Lady Cougars. They knew it was the Lady Cougars controlling the simulation since the message they received was signed from “LC” and there is a lot of tension and competition between the two teams so it makes sense that they would want to sabotage the Lady Raptors. Discovering they were part of a computer simulation was only the start of resolving their problems.
Although they had figured out what was going on, the Lady Raptors were not sure how to get out of that situation. It was time for their second match, and they had no choice but to play. They knew one possible way to escape was to beat their competition. Although they knew it was near impossible to beat the opposing team, they decided to go out and do the best they can in hopes of beating them. In the meantime, Cara decided to stray from her team and create a plan to escape the simulation. She knew you either had to beat the simulation in order to escape or hack the system. With some of her computer knowledge, she figured she can find a way to hack the system and enable her team to beat their competition. From her research on computer simulations, Cara knew one of the only ways to escape from a computer simulation was by communicating with the simulator. Finding out how to communicate with the simulator, the Lady Cougars, was something Cara was going to have to think long and hard about, but in the meantime, she knew she needed to go help her team in the match they were currently playing.
After another devasting loss to the opposing team, the Lady Raptors gathered back together and thought long and hard about how they could possibly communicate with the Lady Cougars. Some of the team went walking throughout the gym looking for any possible ways to escape while some others attempted to yell at the ceiling and walls hoping to receive another message from the Lady Cougars. The remainder of the team put their heads together and thought about how they can communicate with people outside the simulation. While this was going on, one of the officials from the matches approached the girls and informed them they had ten minutes before the start of their third match. After the official had turned and walked away, Cara had discovered something. The officials were clearly part of the simulation, so by talking directly to the officials, she should be able to communicate with the Lady Cougars. Cara knew she needed to try and talk to the officials as it was one of their only ideas on how to escape the simulation.
It was time for their third match to start and Cara was developing a plan to communicate with the Lady Cougars through the officials. They started off their match like normal and played to the best of their ability. At the end of the match, Cara approached the officials but referred to them as the Lady Cougars. She had explained to them that she knew exactly what they were doing and explained how she knew it was them controlling the simulation. She was very confident in everything she was saying and spoke with authority. She then proceeded to call them timid and cowardly for placing her and her team in a computer simulation instead of facing them directly at the tournament. She was hoping this would anger them but instead of making the simulation harder, they would make it easier so they can face the Lady Raptors in person at the tournament. After finishing her talk, they didn’t hear anything from the Lady Raptors and began to worry they would not find a way out.
After a little while, the officials approached the Lady Raptors again. The Lady Raptors began to worry that it would be the Lady Cougars responding to Cara’s comments, but that was not the case. The officials had informed the Lady Raptors that they only had five minutes before their fourth match. The Lady Raptors grew very disappointed as they had begun to lose hope in ever escaping, but they were also defeated after being destroyed three times already by the opposing team. In saying this, the Lady Raptors slowly made their way onto the court and prepared for their fourth defeat of the day. They started off in serve receive again and waited to get hit with another powerful serve. Surprisingly, the first serve was much slower than what they were used to receiving. For the first time, the Lady Raptors were able to successfully receive the ball and make a good play out of it. They were now able to serve for the first time in the past four matches. On their first serve, they were able to get an ace. The Lady Raptors grew confused and wondered why the opposing team was suddenly so easy to score on.
After a couple more aces, the Lady Raptors were close to their first victory of the day and beating the simulation. They had realized that the Lady Cougars must have made the simulation easier and allowed the Lady Raptors to win so they can escape and play the Lady Raptors in reality. In saying that, the Lady Raptors were able to defeat the opposing team and in return escape the simulation. After making the game-winning play, the team had been transported back on the plane and were experiencing turbulence again. After looking around and trying to figure out what had happened, Cara spotted her coaches and realized they must have returned to reality. Eventually, the plane landed in Saint Lucia and the team got off the plane and entered a plane terminal. They knew everything was back to normal now and they were on the right track again.
After arriving at their hotel, the Lady Raptors ran into the Lady Cougars. Cara approached them and asked to talk to their team captain, Ana, and get to the bottom of the situation. Ana told Cara that they were in fact trying to get rid of the Lady Raptors as they were the Lady Cougars biggest competition and they had wanted to win the whole tournament, but Ana also wanted to do everything in her power to make Cara miserable. Cara had thought that was the reason behind it all, but now that it was confirmed that was what was happening, she was ready to defeat the Lady Cougars. They ended up playing each other in the championship of the tournament. The match was a tough one and had gone into the fifth set. The fifth set was close and tied at 14-14 towards the end; however, Cara and the Lady Raptors were able to pull off a 14-16 victory. Little did the Lady Cougars know that the simulation had prepared them greatly for this tournament and made them a better team. In the end, the Lady Raptors went through a of trouble and hassle but ended up winning the whole tournament and became a better team in the whole process.
Canonico, Lorenzo Barberis. “Escaping the Matrix: Plan A for Defeating the Simulation.”
Medium, 11 June 2017, medium.com/@lorenzobarberiscanonico/ escaping-the-matrix-plan-a-for-defeating-the-simulation-4a8da489b055. Accessed 27 Mar. 2021
Canonico’s article provides insight on how to escape a computer simulation if ever trapped in one. It is informative and helpful in giving tips that can aid someone in finding a way out of a computer simulation.
Ratner, Paul. “Here’s how to prove that you are a simulation and nothing is real.” Big Think, 20
June 2019, bigthink.com/mind-brain/ are-we-living-in-a simulation?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1. Accessed 27 Mar. 2021.
Ratner’s article provides a great amount of detail on how to tell if you are trapped in a computer simulation. It describes in many ways how one would be able to decipher between reality and a simulation.
Thomas, Mike. “A DEEP DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF COMPUTER SIMULATIONS.” Built
In, 24 Sept. 2019, builtin.com/hardware/computer-simulation. Accessed 27 Mar.
2021.
Thomas’ article is an informative article that gives a great amount of detail about computer simulations and describe exactly what they are. The article provides enough detail to help someone who has no prior knowledge on computer simulations to understand them.