Life Could Be A Simulation, Yet It Still Matters
A personal essay exploring the intersection of quantum physics, spirituality, and whether we have free will through the lens of the TV show Devs.
*SPOILERS*: This write-up contains spoilers for Devs. If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend you watch it first, and then return after it leaves you confused about the nature of reality.
Devs was amazing. I'm still sitting with it. Not just the story itself, but the implications of it all. And the connections it opens up between science, spirituality, philosophy, and experience.
It left me thinking deeply about topics such as determinism, karma, consciousness, and God. Honestly, it’s been a spiral in the best kind of way.
What particularly intrigued me was how Devs explored cause and effect, ultimately taking a deterministic stance. Until the very end, of course. The idea that everything we do, everything that happens, has already been encoded into the universe from its first moments.
The "tramlines" of reality, as Forest often called it. A fixed track. Every choice we think we’re making has already been made. Free will being merely an illusion.
And yet...that’s not quite the whole story.
The many-worlds interpretation, a theory in quantum physics the show leans into, says that the wave function never collapses in the way we think it does. Instead, all possible outcomes branch off into different worlds. So when an observer observes a wave, they're just becoming part of one branch of an infinitely expansive tree.
Pretty meta right? The more I learn about quantum physics, the more my understanding of everything grows while also realizing just how much I don't know.
That framing, of everything happening at once and branching endlessly, assumes a kind of nonduality, doesn’t it? A deep interconnectedness between mind and matter, between the observer and the observed. Not a separation.
Not "dualist bullshit,” as Katie puts it during that episode when she was in a lecture hall. Just everything, everywhere, unfolding at once. All part of the same field.
It reminds me of certain non-dual Hindu spiritual traditions, especially Kashmir Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta, which speak not of separation but of unity.
Where God is not apart from creation but expressed as creation. Where consciousness is not a passive observer but an active manifestation of the same divine source that gives rise to matter.
(This is known as a “yantra” which are geometric diagrams often used in worship and meditative practices to emphasize interconnectedness with the divine)
From this perspective, reality is not made for us, rather it happens through and around us.
And then there's karma. Often framed spiritually, but honestly, not far off from determinism when you strip it down. Karma is really just another language for cause and effect.
Our actions have consequences. Not always immediate nor obvious.
But they're there. You push on the world, and the world pushes back. We’ve all heard the phrase you reap what you sow.
And that karma builds, life over life or moment to moment.
And yet there are obvious gaps in cause and effect. Disruptions. Synchronicities as coined by Carl Jung. (meaningful coincidences with no apparent cause). Accidents that feel like something more. Moments that make you pause and wonder if there's a crack in the system.
Or maybe just a fleeting glimpse of a realm so vast we can't see all the wiring. Either we don't understand all the causes, or there's some genuine other force peeking through. Some force we can’t name, but still feel.
That’s where Devs hit me the hardest. Because despite its deterministic framework, the ending subverts that. Lily makes a real choice to drop the gun, guided by genuine awareness. One not accounted for by the machine.
She breaks the “tramlines” of reality. She refuses the script laid out for her. Her act is rebellion and revelation simultaneously. That is why I found it be so powerful.
And that moment of interruption implies something profound. That agency matters. Consciousness, when awake, can reshape the story.
We can be agents in our own lives, if we learn to recognize where we have allowed the universe to take us wherever, rather than taking it along for a ride once in a while and letting it support us.
The show completely shifts afterward. It’s not just Devs in terms of the code, the machine, and logic. It’s Deus.
God. Whatever that means to you. A force beyond the system.
Beyond us and all around us. Within it, but not bound by it. In that crucial moment, We live in a universe with rules, structures, and laws. But sometimes those laws get bent. Sometimes life doesn’t follow the algorithm.
Sometimes it cracks open. And we feel something stir. In the form of a presence, a spark, or freedom we often can't articulate.
I think that’s why karma, science, and faith don’t feel incompatible to me anymore. Karma isn't fatalism. It’s responsiveness. It’s a structure we move within, not chains we’re bound by. That is unless we give up our agency.
We might not control everything. Most of it, we probably don’t. But we still move the needle, which can have massive implications.
We can still choose. Still change. And with awareness, those changes ripple.
That’s what Lily’s ending shows. The same goes for Forest. They wake up in a simulated parallel world. Yes. But they remember. They know the nature of reality.
And that awareness gives them newfound agency.
Forest realizes that strict determinism allowed him to avoid any sort of responsibility or agency after losing his wife and child, but in believing so, he lost his soul. After all, he was on "trial" with Devs the whole time.
Realizing Devs was completely accurate up until a breakdown at a critical juncture allowed him to regain his moral agency in life. It was what he so desperately didn't want to happen, yet it was the key to him truly living and being with his family once more.
He came to accept the world as it is, rather than how he so desperately wanted it to be in response to immense pain, grief, and loss.
On the other hand, Lily chooses Jamie. She sees through Sergei. Her world is familiar but fundamentally altered. And so is she.
Because recognition is power. It doesn’t undo the world’s structure, but it lets you respond to it with intention. With clarity and love. If you're lucky.
So what does that mean for tomorrow?
It means maybe most things are written. Maybe we do live in a simulation. Or maybe not.
But regardless, it’s not finished. Our lives might be running on tramlines, but we can still steer. We’re not outside the system, but we’re not passive and hopeless within it either.
We may live in a rigid, law-bound universe. And yet, it’s also mystical. The laws themselves are divine. The unfolding is miraculous in and of itself.
Maybe God isn't some external force tweaking the code. Maybe God is the code. And awareness, and the act of choosing within it, is the key to our liberation.
So in my opinion, all we can do is recognize the structure and try to move through it with clear sight. Choosing kindness and compassion whenever we can.
Because maybe that’s the way out. Or the way through. Or the whole point to begin with.
Either way, life could very well be a simulation indistinguishable from reality, yet it still matters.
That's the conclusion I drew from it all, and I'm curious to hear what you think of the show or these topics in general. Please share this post with anyone who you think might be interested and discuss in the comments below!
As always, thanks so much for reading. Until next time :)
- Sain