Video Game Trees
example · technology: Video Games ·
retold in 3 talks
In a video game, background objects (like a tree) are not fully programmed because they are not accessible; this illustrates how quantum reality has gaps and is an 'unfinished project' itself.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“when you are in a video game... you have a tree in the background... it's not fully programmed”
“when god was programming the universe, he said people are too stupid to reach beyond the atom. so why should i bother their programming? he left it undetermined.”
“it's not part of the game that you can approach those trees... let's leave it open.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
reality is an unfinished project
×1
ontology
×1
ontological incompleteness
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Federico Faggin1Tabina1Sabine Hossenfelder3Roger Penrose1Akira Kurosawa2William Shakespeare2Carlo Rovelli1Heinrich Himmler2
alongside works
Every retelling 3
5:39 Quantum and the unknowable universe | FULL DEBATE | Roger Penrose, Sabine Hossenfelder, Slavoj Žižek2025-04-19 · 45:43
In a video game, background objects (like a tree) are not fully programmed because they are not accessible; this illustrates how quantum reality has gaps and is an 'unfinished project' itself., illustrating reality is an unfinished project
In video games, background trees are not fully rendered because the programmer assumes players won't approach them; Žižek uses this to argue that God left the universe 'undetermined' (quantum physics) because humans might not reach the atom., illustrating technology-ai-cyberspace,science-physics,ontology
In video games, background trees are not rendered in detail because the player cannot interact with them. Žižek uses this to argue that God 'left it open' in the universe because humans wouldn't reach beyond the atom, but humans did, revealing the universe's ontological incompleteness., illustrating ontological openness,caught god with his pants down