One of the most common questions surrounding the simulation hypothesis is, “Are there NPCs?” The term comes from video games, where a Non-Player Character (NPC) is a computer-controlled character that exists to populate the world, guide the player, or move the story…
Most discussions of the simulation hypothesis begin with a question: Who would create a simulation of humanity, and why? Nick Bostrom’s influential 2003 Simulation Argument considers the possibility that technologically mature civilizations could run detailed simulations of their evolutionary histories, often…
One of the earliest things every human receives is a name. The second is a number. Within days of being born, most of us are assigned government identification numbers. Birth certificates, medical records, student IDs, driver’s license numbers, passports, employee…
Set in the year 2045, Ready Player One imagines a future where environmental collapse, economic inequality, and overpopulation have transformed much of the physical world into a place many people simply endure rather than enjoy. Wealth has become concentrated among the few,…
Facebook ruined the Metaverse. In 2021, Facebook made one of the boldest corporate pivots in modern technology. The company changed its name to Meta, invested billions of dollars into virtual reality, and declared that the future of the internet would be…
The term NPC, or Non-Player Character, originated in tabletop role-playing games and later became a staple of video games. NPCs are the characters that populate a game’s world but are not directly controlled by the player. They have predetermined appearances, personalities, dialogue,…
On November 7, 2020, Rudy Giuliani stood in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia to hold one of the most important press conferences of the presidential election. Whether the location was the result of a misunderstanding, a last-minute…
Do you agree with Neil Degrasse Tyson that our world exist in the hands of some snot nose alien kid in his parents basement?
The Matrix and the Simulation Hypothesis Released in 1999, The Matrix is the most influential popular depiction of the simulation hypothesis and is widely credited with introducing the concept to a global audience through a major motion picture. Although philosophers had questioned the…