Would You Know If You Were Living In The Truman Show?

Cristian Nedelcu
2 min readNov 24, 2022

The Truman Show is a 1998 American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and co-written by Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, and Adam Schroeder. The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a guy who grew up in a normal family only to find himself the topic of a 24-hour-a-day reality television program that is aired live across the globe.

In reality, would a person be aware that he was in a Truman Show? It’s a fascinating question. The Truman Program is a film about a guy who finds that his whole life has been recorded and aired to the world as a reality television show. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) has no clue he is the star of The Truman Program, a 24-hour-a-day TV show seen by millions of people worldwide. His whole life has been meticulously written and produced for the cameras, and he is completely unaware that he is being observed.
Truman’s world is a sham, but it is a compelling one. Everything in his environment is set up to fool him and block him from learning the truth. Everyone in his life is an actor, and they all do an excellent job. Even his wife, Meryl (Laura Linney), is in on the scheme.

The issue is whether a human being would be able to detect if he was in a Truman Show. Truman is only able to see through the lie because he is provided hints that enable him to put together the reality.

It would be impossible for the typical individual to discern whether they were living in a Truman Show. The fabricated world would be so compelling that it would be difficult to realize it was not genuine.

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