What should John do?

[Losty]

That is very confusing, and I'm not a scientist, but I'm pretty sure that's not even possible.

Well there's a whole lot of discussion regarding simulated reality and its physical plausibility, but those things aside, let's just say John have one handy on his PC in the text-conjured universe he's living in

Simulated reality...sure I can see that. With actual sentient beings somehow living inside it....for real? No. What is the purpose of the exercise? What are you actually trying to learn from us? How would we behave if we were god?

[strawberryBacteria]

but if these people posses actual sentience rather than the mere illusion of it, then this 'game' has frightening moral implications. Or maybe that was your point... 

Yup, that's the spice of the story

Maybe John could compromise and have them rescued by aliens? Aliens with crazy technology that resets the star to an age where the civilization could mature and escape in time.

May I ask why how/why you came up with this particular scenario?

That's a pretty creative way around John's dilemma, I wouldn't have thought of that

Well, I like good hard sci-fi stories with bits of personal dilemmas in them, so I thought of writing a short one and posting it here for the fun of a healthy collaborative brainstorming!

Simulated reality...sure I can see that. With actual sentient beings somehow living inside it....for real? No. What is the purpose of the exercise? What are you actually trying to learn from us? How would we behave if we were god?

No, I just wanted to know what people think of how John should tackle his personal dilemma. (and what's the purpose of the offtopic section if not for something like this! )

[ignoramus]

Losty, I hate to break it to you, but no-one here can tell you that we AREN'T those people in a VR Simulation.
The only thing you know for sure are that your mind is creating thoughts.

If I was John, I'd just let the sim run its natural course. Then again, I don't believe life is precious.

[Bob Kelso]

Brain in a jar and all that.

John should give them the truth, these sentient AI's are level-headed enough not to believe in deities so they should be able to grasp the situation if he spells it out for them. Then he can halt the star's progression.

[ignoramus]

HAHA, Starv! you made me think of something. Let's say that we are in a VR.
Let's say our sim creator decided to reveal himself because he didn't like the way the sim was progressing or he was getting cocky and wanted to reveal himself. What does he do? He sends "Jesus" down to interface with us to hint to us about his existence!

Everyone down on your knees, let us pray to our one true creator and saviour, he goes by the name of errr, uhmm ....John?!

John, if you're watching, doin' it a little tough dude, can you just help me out by letting me win the lotto in the next week or 2? thanks Brah!

[Cato]

The idea that the simulation can simply be re-run is what's mistaken here. The arrow of time still applies and only flies one direction. This means there isn't really any going back in time. It's destroying the current scenario and replacing it with another; more like Project Genesis from Star Trek II than the TARDIS.

[Ben Davis]

---

It's the year 2107, and pretty much every personal computer but the ones sitting in museums, has more than enough computing power to run a then popular and prominent, yet controversial, but still legal, simulated reality "video game", complete with the ability to have sentient AIs living inside it if the player so desire. While every single variable of the simulation is fully customizable to accommodate the player's creative take on how their universe should work, there are some presets to simplify things, such as one that was made to very closely mimic our own universe. 

Then there was John. A simple, happy, married man. John was an atheist, but he fancied the idea of being a god - and he liked to play video games, so when the simulated reality game came out, he got so excited and decided to grab one despite all the critics and controversies surrounding it. Fast forward a few weeks, and John have focused his attention on this particular world, where its intelligent inhabitants have made it to a level of civilization that resembles the first quarter of 21st century Earth, without its dilemmas. What intrigued John was the fact that this world's inhabitants were unique compared to the rest that he have observed. They have never been interested to the idea of a god, religion, or any superstitious fallacies throughout their entire development, all without John's intervention. Their world was a utopia, the dream of every sensible person, John thought to himself.

But then came a terrible realization, they were too late. The intelligent life on that particular world emerged just before its host star was going to go nova. All thanks to the fact that the planet was previously orbiting the cold, inhabitable outermost region of its host star, and it had only became a habitable, lively planet that it was when its host star turned into a red giant. This made John thinks hard. Should he delay the star's nova until the civilization got advanced enough to escape their doom? But then they would notice that extraordinary, unexplainable anomaly. They were no fool, they knew their math and physics, they knew they were doomed. They have been constructing a generation starship, planning to take refugee in the deep reach of blackness in space, but both the people of the utopia and John knew they won't made it in time to escape the star's fiery explosion.  

Since it was a simulated reality, John could go back in time and alter some variables, but what can be changed? What if John dragged the planet closer to its host star back when it was still just a normal star, another kind of civilization would emerge? One that's fundamentally different than this one. What if John altered anything in the past, they just won't be the same for one reason or another? No, John wanted this one, this very special one that came to existence all without John's intervention. He was curious, curious to see whether or not this particular civilization would eventually realize they were living in a simulated reality even though John have never meddled with them, and how they are going to make that happen. So no, John cannot intervene, at least not in the past, not by changing the universe's constants, and not in a way that its inhabitant would realize that there was a 'divine' intervention.

What should John do?

---

If the society is utopian, I don't think there's anything stopping John from interfering directly to help. I'd suggest that honesty is the best policy here and John shouldn't try to fool them; simply tell them who he is and that he can help them. If he has to be clandestine, he could always take action whilst reprogramming the lifeforms so that no-one notices the difference.

[Cyberman]

Why doesn't he Kirk the shit out of it and reprogram the simulation so it's possible to save the planet?

[TheRocketSurgeon]

... of if you've made yourself into an electronic god.

[Longhorn]

This shit is too bizarre for me to be a brain in a jar ._.