ego.istic.org

The other week I came up with a marvellous idea for a computer game. Each player takes control of a civilisation, and has to guide its scientific and cultural development. Starting from the earliest days with iron tools and the invention of writing, through the development of experimental science, and of philosophy, through to postmodernism and the internet age, and beyond, the player carefully shepherds his race, facing competition from the other races over resources and cultural superiority. As the game proceeds into what to us would be the future, the play area expands to the stars, with each player's civilisation becoming a vast galactic empire. The winner is the player whose race is first to prove that they are living inside a computer program.

Of course, it's entirely possible that someone came up with this idea already.