Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 1 - The Last Train to Rallsburg - I

Part I
A Quiet and Lonely Town

  On the last train to Rallsburg, a god and his lover were having a friendly debate.

  "Okay, so, check it out. You've got a bunch of people thrown into a game, right? And they have different backgrounds, different nationalities, everything—but once they're playing the game, they're all identical to start. There's no real threat to these people; they all know it's a game. In the game there are tools to work together, and by everyone working together across the entire system they can progress faster and unlock more parts of the game together. The most efficient method is always working together."

  "But they don't."

  "They don't, yeah, and here's why: they always flock together. They form groups. The groups might be based on what language they speak or they might have a shared history outside the game, or it's none of the above. But it's still inevitable that every single player—to some degree—will associate themselves with a group. There are no exceptions, except to quit playing the game entirely. You either join a side or you're forced out."

  "The groups could still cooperate though."

  "Once you're part of a group, anyone not part of your group is a threat. That's buried deep in the lizard brain of humanity. It's pure tribalism, and this particular game showed a perfect analogy. Allegory?"

  "Microcosm."

  "Sure, that. Anyway, logical friendly people who might have seen through the prisoner's dilemma showed overwhelming loyalty to their group instead of to the collective whole."

  "Surely someone found a way to collaborate."

  "No! That's what's crazy about it. The tribes had spies and informants. They would cannibalize their own members long before giving an inch, despite virtually nothing separating them in the eyes of the game. If you even talked to the enemy, you would be tracked down and kicked out."

  "How could they get anything done if they were that paranoid?"

  "Well, it was still a game. The mechanics allowed them to make progress because it was a fair system. In the real world it falls apart. Tribes like that don't survive without trade and cooperation. They die off one way or another. Maybe it's revolution, maybe it's war, or maybe it's just high-minded protest rhetoric, but they stop being tribes. It's all individuals again, but then they build up a new community—now with the faces they excluded from the last time around."

  "Maybe at first, but there's always more groups. Layers of groups."

  "Yeah, but can you ever really trust someone outside that closest circle?"

  "Well, when it's someone you love—"

  "That's the greatest folly of the human race. Chemicals in our brains that make emotional connections to outsiders and fool us into trusting them beyond all logical reasoning."

  "So you're saying there's no hope."

  "I'm saying that if you can detach yourself from all that, you can finally start to see the big picture. Problem is, no one ever can. We're all lonely and desperate to attach ourselves to the first thing that comes along with a smile."

  "Speak for yourself."

  "Or maybe I'm just the lonely detached soul and I was lucky enough to find you."

  "That's cute. Thank god, there's the train station ahead."