#simulation-hypothesis

#simulation-hypothesis

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.

In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, " The Matrix," a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in isn't real. It's a virtual reality, created by artificial intelligence. At the time, the idea seemed like science fiction. In the years since, however, that concept has become an increasingly credible theory: " the simulation hypothesis."