Conversations with a Snot-Nosed Kid: Book Two: Fixing Our Broken Systems

By Stephen Davis

In Book One, The Kid promised to take a look at some of the systems we live with every day on Earth that are no longer working very well and make some suggestions about how they could be fixed, like our government/political system, our judicial system, our education system, our health care/health insurance system, and our economic system. This is that book, with radical suggestions to surprise you

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Davis
• Release date: Mar 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463021392

Stephen Davis

Stephen Davis is America’s pre-eminent rock journalist and biographer, having written numerous bestsellers on rock bands including Watch You Bleed and the smash hit Hammer of the Gods. He lives in Boston.

Book preview

Conversations with a Snot-Nosed Kid:

Book Two – Fixing Our Broken Systems

A Novella by

Stephen Davis

Copyright © 2020 by Stephen Davis. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9780463021392

Published: March 15, 2020

Cover design by Annie Ahsen

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

FOREWORD

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I think the likelihood [that we are living in a simulation] may be very high. And my evidence for it is a very simple thought experiment. When I look at what we measure to be our own intelligence, we tend to think highly of it…. If we look at other life forms on Earth with whom we have DNA in common, there's none we would rank with us and our level of intelligence – ever, in the history of the fossil record. So given our definitions, we are the only intelligent species there ever was, because we have poetry, and philosophy, and music and art.

And then I thought to myself, "Well, the chimpanzee has 98-whatever percent identical DNA to us, but they cannot do trigonometry. So if they can't do trigonometry, and they have such close genetic identity to us, let's take that same intelligence gap and put it beyond us, and find some life form that is that much beyond us as we are beyond the chimpanzee. What would we look like to them? We would be drooling, blithering idiots in their presence.

"So, if you brought Stephen Hawking, the smartest human, in front of this other species, they're chuckling and saying, ‘This happens to be the smartest human.... He's slightly smarter than the other humans because he can do astrophysics calculations in his head, like our little Timmy over here in preschool.’ That is not a stretch to think about, and if that's the case, it is easy for me to imagine that everything in our lives is just the creation of some other entity for their entertainment.

~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson, 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate

I find it hard to argue against the possibility that we are living in a simulation. You look at our computing power today, and you say, I have the power to program a world inside a computer. Well, imagine in the future when you have even more power than that, and you can create characters that have, for example, free will, or their own perception of free will. So, this is a world, and I program in the laws that govern that world. That world will have its own laws of physics and chemistry and biology.

Now, you're a character in that world and you think you have free will, and you say, I want to invent a computer. So, you do. Hey, I want to create a world in my computer, and then that world creates a world in its computer. And then you have simulations all the way down. So now you lay out all these universes and throw a dart. Which of these universes are you most likely to hit? The original one that started it, or one of the other countless simulations that unfolded thereafter? Obviously, you're going to hit one of the simulations.

So, statistically, based on that argument, it's hard to argue against the possibility that all of us are not just a creation of some kid in a parent's basement, programming up a world for their own entertainment.

~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson, interviewed by Larry King, July 2017

PREFACE

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Let’s make sure you picked up the right book to read. This one is based on the hypothesis that we are living in a computer simulation, created and operated by a snot-nosed kid sitting in front of his computer in the basement of his parents' house somewhere in an alien civilization, according to astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

If that sounds completely bonkers to you, you need to read Book One of this series before you get into this one, Book Two.

But if you’ve read Book One, you know that I located this snot-nosed kid and had a lengthy skype conversation with him/her/XXY. The Kid told us about the planet Apex, and how it became extremely polarized over the years until it looked a lot like our planet Earth does today – so polarized that nuclear war eventually made the planet’s surface uninhabitable and forced its humanoid population underground where they went through drastic changes to their bodies, including losing the ability to feel any emotions. The nuclear war also caused Apex to change positions in our galaxy, winding up in the constellation of Zeta Reticuli. When the Zeta Reticuli resurfaced again, they began the process of trying to recover the ability to feel, and The Powers That Be asked for help from the younger children as well. As a science project, The Kid (thirteen Earth-years old) created an ancestor simulation of Apex, starting around 1940, calling it Earth. It was through this simulation that the Zeta Reticuli hoped to find answers for their own challenged future, and in turn assist the Earthlings in avoiding the same nuclear destruction that Apex experienced.

Toward the end of that first conversation, I said…

ME: You said that one of the problems on Apex was that – let me get the exact quote – virtually all our systems had broken down. Nothing worked as it was supposed to any longer. That’s obviously so true for Earth right now. In fact, the changes that need to be made to almost all of our systems are overwhelming to think about. I mean the governmental/political system is a disaster, the judicial system, the education system, the health care and health insurance system, the economic system – none of these are working like they should. Can you give me some suggestions about how to fix some of this mess in the short time we have?

And s/he answered:

KID: That could take quite a while, but I’m happy to help if I can. What I prefer, though, is that you get started working on your de-polarization, and then maybe you and I will write another book with those suggestions.

So, this is that book, focused exclusively on some radical ideas the Kid has for changing our basic social systems so that we can avoid blowing ourselves across the galaxy, like his/her planet, Apex, did.

DISCLAIMER: The questions I asked the Kid pertain very much to the systems in the United States that I am familiar with, and may not be as pertinent to other countries or cultures. I hope those outside the United States might find some value in reading this book anyway, even if