Are we living in a computer simulation?

The question seems absurd. Yet there are plenty of smart people who are convinced that this is not only possible but perhaps likely.

Jus...

In an influential paper that laid out the theory, the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom showed that at least one of three possibilities is true:

1) All human-like civilizations in the universe go extinct before they develop the...

The simulation hypothesis is the modern equivalent of an idea that’s been around for a while. For example, in Hindu culture, the world around us is called Maya, an illusion.

A fresh version of the idea is that the physical world that we live in, including t...

In The Matrix, Keanu Reeves plays the character Neo, who meets a guy named Morpheus, who is aptly named after the Greek god of dreams, and Morpheus gives him a choice of taking the red pill or the blue pill. And if he takes the red pill, he wakes up and realizes that his entire life, inc...

There are lots of mysteries in physics that are better explained by the simulation hypothesis than by what would be a material hypothesis.

There’s much we simply don’t understand about our reality. It’s more likely than not that we are in some kind of a simulated universe. ...

Everything we see as physical is really the result of bits of information

Computers do follow rules, but the fact that the rules always apply doesn't rule in or rule out that we could be part of a computer simulation.

If we are conscious beings, we are more likely to be a simulated b...

There are 10 stages of technology development that civilization would have to go through to get to the simulation point, which is the point at which we can create a hyperrealistic simulation like this.

We’re at about stage five, which is around virtual reality and augmented reality. Stage ...