4.6 • 68.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2025
⏱️ 136 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Rizwan Virk (The Simulation Hypothesis) is an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and bestselling author. Rizwan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the VR ping pong game that tipped him off we might be in a simulation, his ten stages of singularity that the physical world isn’t exactly what we think it is, and comparing the NPC versus RPG versions of the simulation. Rizwan and Dax talk about whether The Matrix was prophetic, if such AI advancement is inevitable how we would know if we’re in a simulation, and the observer effect in quantum physics as illustrated by Schrödinger’s Cat. Rizwan explains ancient Eastern religious and philosophical origins of the sim, the bizarre notion of consciousness that the past isn’t fixed, and the Mandela Effect as evidence of the existence of alternate timelines.
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0:00.0 | Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now. |
0:06.5 | Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
0:10.0 | Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. |
0:13.8 | Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. |
0:17.0 | I'm Dax Shepard and I'm joined by Lily Padman. |
0:19.6 | Hi. |
0:20.0 | Hi. |
0:20.5 | Today we have Rizwan Verk. |
0:23.1 | Rizwan is a MIT computer scientist, an entrepreneur, a video game pioneer, a professor, and a best-selling author. |
0:30.9 | His books are The Simulation Hypothesis. |
0:33.5 | Ding, ding, ding. |
0:34.4 | Startup Miss and Models, Zen Entrepreneurship, Treasure Hunt. |
0:38.2 | And now the second edition of the simulation hypothesis out now. |
0:43.4 | Guys, it's a Sim episode. |
0:45.5 | It's a Sim episode. |
0:47.3 | And it is so good. |
0:49.3 | We couldn't have had a better person on to discuss it. |
0:51.9 | No, it was great. |
0:53.7 | It was titillating. |
0:55.6 | Please enjoy Riz on the Sim. |
0:58.8 | We are supported by Audible. |
1:01.5 | Thanks to Audible for being the presenting sponsor of today's episode. |
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