There's an interesting thought experiment that's been around since the early days of

artificial intelligence, and it's that we are all right now living inside a computer

simulation.

Not the real world, but one of countless simulations running on some futuristic computer in someone's

basement.

Now and then, some prominent personality expresses his belief in this, and the internet goes

wild.

But not to worry, we can be assured that it's not real.

Living in a simulation is coming up next, UnSkeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Are you living in a simulation?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've heard at some point in the past few years

that some very smart people believe that we are, or at least that we are almost certainly,

living inside a computer simulation.

That your life, as you know, it is not a reality in the physical world, but a fantasy

of bits and subroutines and memory locations, and semi-conductive gates that open and

close as electrons race to form your ghostly virtual universe.

Today we're going to turn the skeptical eye on the pop culture fad of belief in the

simulation hypothesis.

The claim that our entire universe is one of countless billions of simulations running

somewhere in some transhumanists godlike supercomputer.

...