For years, the idea that reality might be a sophisticated computer program has drifted from late-night dorm debates into mainstream culture and serious philosophy. Now a new wave of theoretical work ...

It’s not surprising anymore to encounter someone who works in tech and entertains “the simulation hypothesis,” which is the idea that we are probably living inside a virtual reality program. But I ...

If you've heard of simulation theory -- the idea that our entire universe could be running inside of some sort of extra-dimensional computer -- there's a good chance you encountered it from a high ...

Few scientific ideas have leapt from philosophy seminars to dinner-table debates as quickly as the claim that our universe might be an artificial construct. The simulation hypothesis promises a ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask ...

Have you ever wondered if you’re just a character in some elaborate simulation? You shake the thought off because you’re a real person, living a real-life, in a concrete reality. But can you be ...

Elon Musk and others find it plausible that our experiences result from events in a computer simulation, just like the characters in the Matrix movies. An alternative view, supported by both common ...

I’m going to interpret your question in a slightly different way. Let’s assume these extraterrestrial beings have a computer on which our universe is being “simulated”. Simulated worlds are pretend ...