(The Conversation) — 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 ...

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 ...

The simulation hypothesis—the idea that our universe might be an artificial construct running on some advanced alien computer—has long captured the public imagination. Yet most arguments about it rest ...

The idea that reality might be a kind of cosmic software has shifted from late-night dorm debate to a live question in physics and philosophy. A growing body of work now treats the “simulation ...

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 ...

In this week's It’s Debatable article, Rick Rosen and Charles Moster debate whether we're all living in a computer simulation like the Matrix. Rosen retired as a professor from the Texas Tech ...

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 ...

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 ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...