In the future, scientists find out a way to send single-celled organisms to inhabitable planets with an implanted gene that makes the life be able to be controlled by a computer on Earth.
Years later, people on Earth are getting the “avatars” on the other planet like you would get an avatar in a sim game on the computer. And the people are playing this sim game, but the people in the sim game are the real people on this other planet. Because of this gene that was implanted into the first cells, the people cannot think for themselves and are controlled by the people on earth. So if the person on Earth wants their avatar be sad, they type in, “I am sad today.” And the avatar is sad. They can also type in reactions to things like, “Punch Bill,” or, “Tell Mary to shut up.” And the avatar person will have to do it.
So many many people in Earth are playing this game. It’s like playing God. But you aren’t controlling the whole world. On this game you have to react to what the other people playing in the sim game do too.
After so many years though, the implanted gene starts to wear off. Two people in the real world (blank and blank) have their sims (blank and blank) fall in love. Then, the absence of the gene that has almost completely left these two sims lets them begin to realize that their lives are being controlled by these two people in a different world. The two sims find a way to reply to the people on Earth, saying things like, “no, I don’t want to yell at Martha because she is my friend,” or, “I don’t want to jump off this roof cuz I might hurt myself and while it may not hurt you, it will hurt me.”
The two people on Earth realize that something is going wrong with the game. Their sims are becoming more and more like real people by the day. The two people on Earth contact each other and come to the conclusion that it is only their two sims who are acting this way and that is they split them up, the game will go back to normal.
But the two sims don’t want to break up cuz they love each other, but because the gene hasn’t completely worn off, they still have to follow the Earth people to a certain extent. They try everything they can to stay together, but it’s not working. Finally, in a last, desperate attempt, they talk to their Earth people, begging them to let them stay together. The Earth people, however, love playing the sim game and wont give in.
But the thing that changes the Earth people’s minds is when one of the sims says, “what if you found out that you were being controlled by someone? That your whole lives were made up by someone who would force you to do things that you would never want to do if you had a choice, only for their own enjoyment? How would you feel?”
Then the Earth people finally give in to their pleas and close the computer program.
The sims live happily ever after.
In the last scene, a person who you haven’t been introduced to before is found in front of their computer wondering why their “Earthing sim” is not doing what it wants them to...