In this story, I try to present some ideas, which make it a bit complicated: I’m sorry, but I could simplify it only up to a certain point. The main idea is ancient and dates back to China and Greece. It was the subject of a famous film from 1999 and is coming back into fashion right now, attracting the attention of serious scientific magazines, such as Scientific American (an article appeared on 13 October 2020.) My story also contains a historical perspective: as a whole, it consists of three narratives and is a sort of cultural challenge. My only ambition is that a reader who reaches the end of the story will not think she/he has wasted all her/his time.

In the third edition, I have corrected an error (about the number of seats on the Red Baron’s triplane) and added a short “explanatory summary”, the absence of which had been lamented by a reader. The summary explaining the plot of my perhaps too elaborate story is now placed at the end of the text, so that a possible reader can finally find the explanation of what the story intends to tell.
Meanwhile, I note that on November 5, 2020 I have put further information and clarifications online in a text entitled “IS OUR UNIVERSE A SIMULATION?”, In response to the question that appeared on Quora, in the “Altro” page of the present site. An application of the idea of the present story I have always given on Quora in response to the question “The Fermi Paradox establishes the contradiction between the probabilities of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and our lack of proofs for that. Do you have any new explanations?”. I plan to add my answer as soon as possible on the “Altro” page in the present site.

For the fourth edition I have changed just a few lines today, September 7, 2022. The biggest change is on page 93 and makes the story more adherent to the Zoroastrian religion.

NOTE FOR THE USER
As for all other files in the present site, I advise the reader to click on the first icon situated immediately above the start of the file, on the left (the icon with the Acrobat Reader’s logo.) It allows having the whole post in a single .pdf file, thus eliminating the need to turn the pages. Besides, the text and drawings can be magnified, textual searches can be done, and the file can be downloaded by whoever wishes doing so.