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THREAD: The Simulation Theory 
The simulation theory or simulation hypothesis proposes that all of reality, including the Earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation. Some versions rely on the development of a simulated reality, a proposed technology that
would seem realistic enough to convince its inhabitants the simulation was real. The following are irrefutable reasons why we just might be living in a simulation. First is the Mandela Effect. Some people claim to remember TV coverage of Nelson Mandela's death in the 1980s even
though he actually died in 2013. The "Mandela Effect" is therefore supposedly proof that whoever is in charge of our simulation is changing the past. Additional examples of this phenomenon include some remembering the name of the Berenstain Bears children's-book series being
spelled as "Berenstein" and others recalling a nonexistent movie from the 1990s called "Shazaam", starring the comedian Sinbad as a genie. The second reason why we might be living in a simulation surrounds missing aliens. We've spent billions sending probes through outer space
and should probably have found evidence of extraterrestrials by now, right? Not so fast: Aliens would likely be far more technologically advanced than we are, the thinking goes, so the fact that we haven't located them suggests we live in a simulation they've figured
out how to escape from. Or maybe the computer we're in only has enough RAM to simulate one planetary civilization at a time. Next, on Earth, we have electrons that can't make up their minds. In physics' famous double-slit experiment, electrons are fired at a photosensitive screen
through slits in a copper plate, usually producing an interference pattern that indicates wavelike behavior. But when the same experiment is conducted under observation, electrons behave like particles, not waves, and there's no interference pattern. Some have taken this to mean
our simulation is conserving its resources and rendering certain things only when it knows we are looking at them. Reason #4 involves DNA that contains a computer virus. In 2017, a multidisciplinary group of researchers at the University of Washington proved that they could embed
malicious computer codes into physical strands of DNA. Their aim was to show that computers working in gene sequencing were vulnerable to attack. But they may have also inadvertently revealed that what we perceive to be biological reality was in fact computer code all along.
Next, Out civilization is (just coincidentally?) set on the cusp of environmental chaos, suggesting we could be an ancestor simulation created in hopes that we'd show our creators how to solve an energy crisis. This theory overlaps slightly with the aliens-as-simulator-quitters
theory above: if we found an innovative solution to the climate crisis, extraterrestrial beings might return to crib the results. Reason #6 of the simulation theory surrounds video games that look like real life. Elon Musk is a believer in Nick Bostrom's simulation hypothesis,
which posits that if humanity can survive long enough to create technology capable of running convincing simulations of reality, it will create many such simulations and therefore there will be lots of simulated realities and only one "base reality" – so statistically it's
probably more likely we live in a simulation right now. Further proof that we live in the Matrix, according to Musk, is how cool video games are these days. In 2016, he explained, "“40 years ago, we had Pong. Two rectangles and a dot. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic
3D with millions playing simultaneously. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, even if that rate of advancement drops by 1,000 from what it is now. It’s a given that we’re clearly on a trajectory that we’re going
to have games that are indistinguishable from reality. It would seem to follow that the odds that we’re in base reality is 1 in billions.” Another piece of "evidence" includes weird news. Some have proposed that recent unlikelihoods, including Donald Trump's election, Brexit, the
2017 Oscars-envelope mix-up, and that year's 25-point Super Bowl comeback, could mean that we are in a malfunctioning simulation or whoever is pushing the buttons is screwing with us. Another theory that asks, "Why does out universe have 'rules' in the first place?" MIT
cosmologist Max Tegmark has pointed to out universe's strict laws of physics as possible evidence that we live in a video game: “If I were a character in a computer game, I would also discover eventually that the rules seemed completely rigid and mathematical.” In this theory,
the speed of light — the fastest rate at which any particle can travel — represents the speed limit for transmitting information within the network of our simulation.
