Lao Tzu held that the Tao is the origin of the universe and the law governing all things—invisible yet omnipresent, analogous to the source code of a virtual world.

Taoism advocates that “All things in the world are born from being, and being is born from non-being”. The essence of all things lies in the convergence and dispersion of qi, a logic similar to “data generating entities” in virtual worlds. Its magic centers on the unity of man and nature: human thoughts are like input commands, magic is like a validated instruction set, and the Tao is the underlying rule for it all.