Meta-Hell and VR Underworlds

Inventing digital punishment realms—a thought experiment in Liminal.

Welcome to Meta-Hell: Underworlds for Bad Guys

An image I made in Wombo with AI and the prompt “Mark Zuckerberg in Hell.”

Suggested music for your liminal journey:

What would an effective virtual "Hell" be like?

In the novel Surface Detail, by Ian M. Banks, the 9th book in his sci-fi “Culture Series,” a murdered sex slave digitally reincarnates into a new body and seeks revenge on her former master. A subplot in the novel follows people who don’t get to "revent" into a new body, but instead are ported to virtual Hells for eternity as punishment for their actions in life.

Some kind of authority (it’s kind of unclear) determines who goes to Heaven—a land of infinite fun—and who gets sent to Hell. If you get chosen for Heaven, you have an alternative option: the choice to return to the real world in a new body if you were wealthy/lucky/advanced enough to have that tech.

BUT—if you’re marked for Hell, that’s where you go and there is no way back.

We’re already directed and heavily influenced (controlled) by the algorithm Gods, but could you imagine if they could also send us to hell?

In the novel’s subplot, the two activists, Prin and Chay, organize a clandestine, risky trip to Hell, planning to escape using a secret code they’ve developed to alter the Hell software. After their escape, they hope to tour the world raising awareness about the terrors of Hell. This works for Chay, but Prin gets stuck in Hell and faces more and more terrible things as the Hell overlord, a sadist who volunteers to admin Hell, inflicts intensifying torture on her. The Hells in the novel are literal underworlds, which reside on servers buried in the main evil overlord’s backyard, like dead bodies.

Bank’s virtual Hells primarily contain:

• Demons

• Slavery

• Being forced to murder and torture others

• Physical torture

• Repeated deaths

• Fire/Brimstone

• Psychological torture, including false escapes

Cold Hell Demon, made by AI using Dream by Wombo

Some cultures/worlds in the novel have Hells, and some don’t. Some people think all the Hells should be abolished, and others don’t. This political conflict is one of the main vehicles that drive the book’s plot.

Which side would you be on?

Would you support VR Hell or its abolition?

My first instinct was to ban the Hells, but as I sit with the question, it grows murkier...

Keep Reading on Liminal.

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The full essay entitled, Welcome to Meta-Hell: Underworlds for Bad Guys, appears in the Underworld Edition of a literary journal called Liminal, a publication that pushes boundaries and “deepens understanding, finds the beauty in crisis, connects the personal to the planetary,” and embraces uncertainty.

Liminal

Liminal is the brainchild of psychonaut, psychedelic thinker, activist, and author Daniel Pinchbeck.

The concept of liminal intrigues me because it’s often the in-between moments of things that are the most telling and poignant. Liminal spaces are the eerie places where our selves reflect and refract back to us in hindsight or mid-sight, containers for our internal quandaries and uneasy truths.

Cover image from Liminal

Daniel Pinchbeck

I first became aware of Pinchbeck’s work when Canadian journalist, writing teacher, and alcohol-writer, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall read an early draft of an unpublished essay I wrote about ayahuasca use amongst alcoholic recovery groups. He recommended I read Pinchbeck’s book, Breaking Open the Head, to deepen my understanding of ayahuasca, as well as his book, When Plants Dream, co-authored with Sophia Rokhlin.

Pinchbeck and Brand from Pinchbeck’s website.

Pinchbeck hangs out with Russell Brand and his mom used to bang Jack Kerouac. They met on a BLIND DATE ARRANGED BY ALLEN GINSBERG. I mean, what could be cooler?

I’m also an avid reader of his Substack, which is my favorite Substack on the entire platform and the first publication I actually paid to read. He writes a lot about climate change, which isn’t a topic that normally interests me because it feels so hopeless and unwieldy, but he approaches it from a different and more philosophical angle than the norm.

Who are your favorite non-fiction/niche authors?

Prior to submitting to Liminal, I attended a one-month summer writing workshop with Pinchbeck, which I highly recommend for non-fiction writers interested in psychedelics, philosophy, or climate change. He usually announces the workshops on his Substack and social media.

Though Pinchbeck was semi-canceled for a minute due to his #Metoo-ish behavior, however, unlike most male perpetrators, he went on a public mission to own, understand, explain, apologize for, and correct his ways, so I’m fine with him and his work. Though no apology is ever complete, the interview above is fascinating. Others may feel differently, but it’s everyone’s right to determine who they want to read.