The Theory

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 technological capacity to create simulated realities;

2) If any civilizations do reach this phase of technological maturity, none of them will bother to run simulations;

3) Advanced civilizations would have the ability to create many, many simulations, and that means there are far more simulated worlds than non-simulated ones.