Cogs in the Machine or Twigs in the Wind?

Written and posted April 2026

(Disclaimer: Gemini helped me edit and format this).

Following my thoughts on the "Many Worlds" theory and my grandparents, I started thinking about how we categorize these alternate realities.

In The Gone World, one timeline casually mentioned that Al Gore became president, so I mentally labeled that the “Al Gore” world. In The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., a ripple in the past changes the U.S. military headquarters from "The Trapezoid" to "The Pentagon."

If our existence is a simulation and there are "Super Scientists" or higher beings observing our reality, is that how they see us? Do they just label our entire existence based on the biggest branch? “Oh, that is Timeline B-42, the one where the internet was never invented.”

The Simulation vs. The Sacred

Years ago, I watched an AsapScience video about the mathematical probability of God. At the time, I walked away with this lingering thought: It is statistically more likely that we live in a simulation than in a world with a traditional God or gods. (Note: upon recent rewatch I don’t think that was precisely the message).

That thought brings a specific kind of sadness.

If we are living in a simulation, we are just data points in an experiment. In that framework, you only "matter" if you are a person who makes or breaks a major branch in history. You matter if you’re the scientist who cures a disease, or—morbidly—if you’re the "Big Bad" (the Hitlers or bin Ladens) who shifts the world toward darkness. If you aren't a "main character" of history, you're just background noise in the simulation.

The Beauty of the Small Twig

This is exactly why the idea of God—or a purposeful universe—is so much more comforting than Simulation Theory.

In a simulation, you have to be a "trunk" of the tree to be significant. But in a world with a soul, or a God, or even just inherent human value, everyone matters. Every life has a purpose, regardless of its "macro" impact on the timeline.

I’ve realized that I don't want to be a data point in a Super Scientist's lab. I want to believe that impacting only a couple dozen people—or even a few thousand—is enough. If my life is just a small "twig" of time, it still has a right to grow.

Maybe that’s the real reason we reach for the divine: we want to know that even if we didn't change the name of the Pentagon, we still changed the world for the people who loved us.