Are we living in a simulation?

"How do you know anything is real? Some things you can see directly, like your fingers. Other things, like your chin, you need a mirror or a camera to see. Other things can't be seen, but you believe in them because a parent or a teacher told you, or you read it in a book. As a physicist, I use sensitive scientific instruments and complicated math to try to figure out what's real and what's not."

"The simulation hypothesis is a modern attempt to use logic and observations about technology to finally answer these questions and prove that we're probably living in something like a giant video game. Twenty years ago, a philosopher named Nick Bostrom made such an argument, based on the fact that video games, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence were improving rapidly. That trend has continued, so that today people can jump into immersive virtual reality or talk to seemingly conscious"

Human knowledge of reality depends on senses, testimony, instruments, and mathematics, but each source can be mistaken. Optical illusions, measurement errors, and calculation mistakes show that perception and data can mislead. Ancient thinkers like Zhuangzi and Plato raised doubt about whether waking life reflects true reality. The simulation hypothesis applies modern technological progress—video games, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence—to propose that advanced beings could run realistic simulations containing conscious beings. Nick Bostrom formulated a formal argument linking technological trends to the likelihood of simulation, yet empirical proof for a simulated universe remains absent.

Read at Fast Company