It's okay, I already thought of that. (Edit: and it's probably meaningful that I *don't* treat horror movies flippantly. I hate horror movies and generally find them psychologically damaging.)

I *do* see possibilities that are in between. There's the possibility that we are, not deliberate *games* of higher beings, but more like *dreams* of higher beings: that this is a thing that just happens to them sometimes unless they go out of their way to prevent it (and maybe even then). Since *I* don't contort my life much around having as few dreams or even as few nightmares as possible, I can hardly blame a version of me who thinks on much longer timescales for accepting the risk of having to be me for a few decades. It's not ideal, but there may very well be lower-hanging fruit for improving their life.