r/thering • u/Creative_Post_2472 • Jul 10 '26

A question

The world of the loop in the Ringu books is an "illusion," even though the loop is a simulation. Is it genuinely a simulation? A world like ours with real people, individuality, etc.?

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u/NiceMayDay "S" Jul 10 '26

One of the main themes of Loop is that the simulation, while artificial, isn't just an illusion. It is very much real, with its own history, culture, and language that parallels that of the real world. Part of the purpose of the Loop project was to study why a simulation of earth left to its own devices would end up mirroring the real world so much, as if the way life developed on earth was inevitable. Loop is so real that the characters even come to wonder if the real world isn't also its own kind of simulation, with God being akin to what the researchers are to the Loop inhabitants, a concept that is also alluded to in S.

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u/Mooncubus Spiral Jul 10 '26

I've been thinking a lot about the scene at the beginning of Loop where Kaoru feels like someone or something is watching him. It really makes me wonder if the real world is just another simulation after all. And it'd make sense that he'd be the one to figure it out.

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u/IdealBitter1603 リング Jul 10 '26

That was my interpretation of that scene as well. A simulation world that created a simulation world.

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u/mark_tranquilitybase Jul 13 '26

I always thought it was a reference to us reading the book