Sea of Tranquility

The second high-concept premise in Sea of Tranquility is the “simulation hypothesis” (111), that the world exists inside a computer. While the hypothesis has its roots in philosophy and computer science, it is far more recognizable from its fictional portrayals in works such as The Matrix and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick (later made into a film as Total Recall). The original version of the hypothesis, as proposed by Nick Bostrom, is that as computational power increases, and the complexity of simulations in computers grows, it becomes increasingly likely that observed reality is a simulation. This relies on the theory that technological capacity will increase forever, which is subject to not just debate but recent issues regarding the end of Moore’s Law, the axiom that technology would continue getting better and smaller over time. Simulation, as a philosophical term, extends far beyond the premise that the world exists in a computer, however.

Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (a book that appears in the first Matrix movie) predates the work of Bostrom and describes the relationship between media, symbols, and culture. Baudrillard’s thesis describes how things, whether food, cultural artifacts, or behaviors, are duplicated into new forms for new purposes, until the thing has become a signifier for a variety of other concepts and things. Eventually, objects known as simulacra arise, things that describe themselves and are described as copies of a thing but are entirely original, or whose originals have long stopped existing. Simulation, in Baudrillard’s thesis, is the repetition of these processes, until the world consists of copies without originals and signifiers without signified.

In Mandel’s novel, the question of whether the world is a simulation occupies both of these threads. Not only does Gaspery question whether the world is a literal simulation, inside a computer, but his experience in time traveling and the experiences of those around him witnessing him also reflect the process of simulation and simulacra. The successful replication of an earth sky on the dome of lunar Colony One is a good example of simulacra, and the dome lighting of Colony Two breaking (creating Night City) reflects its artificiality. Gaspery’s accents, throughout different periods, are definitive simulacra: He is a time traveler faking long-dead accents to blend in. The blending of the two theories of simulation in the novel creates a backdrop of unreality that allows the characters to interact with the nature of their world, and the importance of a setting in interpersonal relationships.