Slavoj Zizek: God’s Creation is (not) Incomplete

Slavoj Zizek often provides as an example of a ‘world’ (e.g., big Other) incomplete maps within many video games. This is supposed to demonstrate the basic coordinates of the symbolic Other, and the problem that we must face is the ‘lack in the Other.’ In other words, “God’s creation is incomplete.” There is a certain arrogance in presuming that you understand God’s creation and that everyone is lacking, that, right through into nature itself, we can find constitutive lack.

Since at least 2014 there have been video game universes which demonstrate another more troubling thesis: infinite generative universes. For example, in 2014 the video game “No Man’s Sky” was released which involves survival and exploration of infinitely generated universes. The problem is not with the incompleteness of God’s creation but rather with its infinite generative capacity. In a word, we require limits, boundaries, and so on. Take, as an example, the video game Minecraft: within this universe, we are invited to invent our own rules, our own boundaries, our own worlds.