“From the point of view of science it’s a catastrophic idea, the purpose of science is to understand reality. If we’re living in a virtual reality we are forever barred from understanding nature.” – David Deutsch When we talk about video games, one of the main aspects of a great and engaging experience is immersion. We love to be pulled into the world of the game so much so that the world around us fades away. The concept of being fully submersed in the game world, be it through great atmosphere or virtual reality, doesn’t scare us. Do you know why? It’s because we can leave whenever we want. Games can be engaging, terrifying, frustrating, and many other things. No matter how much they pull us in though, we always have reality to retreat back to. Our real world may not be perfect, in fact, it makes us retreat into games to escape from it sometimes. What if it’s all the same though? What if the world you know as “real” is just a game too? You may be shaking your head, and why wouldn’t you? You know this world is real, you can touch your computer screen, you can taste food, you can breathe air, you’ve grown up, you’re growing older. So many reasons flood to your mind, assuring you that this is in fact, reality . You may be right, but then again, you could be wrong. I mean, Keanu Reeves was pretty convinced The Matrix was the real world in the movie, wasn’t he? Today, we’re moving past the PS5 and into another realm of philosophy. Today, we’re going to consider the reasons why our universe could be one giant simulation. The Science Side: The Holographic Principle and String Theory We know a lot of things about our universe, but in the grand scheme of things we know absolutely nothing. It’s frustrating to think about how much is still up in the air. For example, our current understanding of physics leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the nature of things like Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We don’t know much of anything about those two concepts, and yet they make up 95% of the total mass of the universe! One major pursuit of physics is something called a “theory of everything” which would explain how all the physical aspects of the universe work. One such candidate for this theory is something called “string theory” which suggests that the universe is composed of one-dimensional objects called “strings.” Without going to the point where we need a P.H.D to understand this, let’s move to a property of string theory called the “holographic principle.” This concept takes the idea that the cosmic strings in string theory exist in a lower-dimensional where gravity emerges in a way that seems projected or holographic. When we look into the universe, we’re seeing only the light that has traveled this far. The farther away we look, the older the image is. Light travels … Read More