There is a technique in computer graphics, mostly in the context of gaming, known as “skyboxing”, where you simulate a sky by drawing a textured box around the player and moving it around as the player moves. The game universe is defined by the player’s perception – we see a sky and we don’t feel the need to ask questions about how that sky was rendered.

This got me thinking this morning about the “unfairness” of the universe. The objective, physical universe, of course, can care less about you or your well-being; it’s governed by intransigent laws, none of which take “is this a sentient being?” into account.

There is, however, one way the universe can be actively against you in a certain sense: if your body presents an additional struggle to overcome. Just as the skybox around the player *is* the sky in the game world, what we perceive within the real world defines our universe (despite the existence of objectivity given infinite knowledge of the world). If our perceptions are faulty, if our actions are limited, if our attention is constantly drawn away by pain or malaise, our universe has become more difficult to act within. Such a struggle is intrinsic to our own bodies, so it follows us everywhere. Like the sky, it has become a physical fact of our universe. It can thus be said that the universe is in fact working against us to the extent that our bodies are.