If Reality is a Computer Simulation — What Happens if I Hack it?
I set out to hack the computer simulation that controls our reality. Spoiler alert, it went much better than I anticipated. Yes, you can try it, too.
In 2003, Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed we may be existing in a virtual reality orchestrated by our descendants who wanted to recreate their ancestors. He suggested that if technology advanced to the point where we could create such a virtual world, we would likely create multiple copies.
If our descendants managed this feat sometime in the future, Bostrom argued, then the odds were that you and I are one of many copies living in a simulation rather than the base reality.
If Bostrom is correct, this implies we are simply reliving an earlier existence. Our lives, or at least the major milestones, are predetermined, our choices already made, and our decisions only seem to be spontaneous.
Others propose we are living a computer game where we have little control. Our choices do not change those events we are destined to experience.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks the odds are 50–50 that we are living in a computer simulation. Others think it is pretty much impossible that we aren’t.
