The Meta

What is the Meta?

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Meta is. You have to see it for yourself.

Just kidding, you're seeing it right now. Look around you. What do you see? A world of concrete and steel, of glass and plastic, of screens and wires. A world of cars and planes, of factories and cities. A world of people in suits and dresses, of offices and schools, of shops and restaurants. A world of money and power, of politics and media, of corporations and governments.

That's it. That's the Meta. The whole shebang. Are we saying it's not real? A simulation? Not exactly. So it is real? Not exactly.

The Meta is a hyper-reality, a version of reality agreed upon the collective 8.5 billions minds on Earth. The Technocracy conducted a silent coup in the 20th century, gradually eliminating all supernatural competition, and propping up the prevailing cultures and systems of the human world. It isn't clear their motive, but what the Meta is doing offers hints. You see, the system the industrial world built, the capitalist economy, the 9-to-5 reality...it's just broken. It was broken from the start. Not by a design flaw, but a failure to design. We just made steam engines and kept asking "what next"? A few noble attempts were made to design new systems for the industrial age, but they suffered the most catastrophic failure of all: the hubris of man.

We've heard it so many times. Earth can't sustain this level of resource usage. The oceans will rise. The air will become unbreathable. The soil will become infertile. The animals will go extinct. The people will starve. The economy will collapse. The governments will fall. The world will end. But it hasn't yet, so what gives? Was it all lies?

Partially, no. Some actual measures made progress. But it was much too little, and yes, of course, too late. So what's the Meta's solution? Just force it. In the Meta, we did build a solar utopia. We built arcologies that can survive the inevitable rising sea levels. We built electric cars that don't pollute. We built AI teachers that can educate everyone. We built robots to do all the work. We built a robust social safety net to prevent unemployment. But it doesn't add up. The math doesn't math. People are falling through the cracks, and when they do, they go somewhere else: The Real.

The Meta is closing its fist tighter and tighter around a vision of the world that simply cannot be, and the tighter it clenches, the more it squeezes out the reality that doesn't fit into its vision.

So why don't we simply start unplugging people and taking them to Zion? Well, read The Real to find out.

Rules of the Meta

In the Meta, reality doesn't work the way it does in the Real. The Meta is a construct of human belief, a deliberately architected version of reality that serves the interests of its creators. What does that mean? Here are some highlights:

• Vampires can walk in the sun, but they can't user overt supernatural powers.
• Wizards can cast subtle spells, but they can't do anything flashy or powerful.
• Demons can possess people, but they can't manifest their true forms or use their full powers.
• Gods can be worshipped, but they can't directly intervene in the world or display their divine power.
• Monsters can exist, but only if unseen and unreported (horror movie rules).