Elon Musk and others find it plausible that our experiences result from events in a computer simulation, just like the characters in the Matrix movies. An alternative view, supported by both common ...

Unless you, dear reader, are a web-scraping software bot quietly pulling this text into a data-hungry LLM, you’re probably a human. And though you’ve likely never seen me in person, you have good ...

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...

As sunlight filters through the trees and the soft hum of conversation fills the air, you sit in a café, cradling a warm cup of coffee. In this serene moment, a thought crosses your mind: Is ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Despite how it may feel some days, we probably aren’t stuck in a ...

For years, the idea that reality might be a sophisticated computer program has drifted from late-night dorm debates into mainstream culture and serious philosophy. Now a new wave of theoretical work ...

In this week's It’s Debatable article, Rick Rosen and Charles Moster debate whether we're all living in a computer simulation like the Matrix. Rosen retired as a professor from the Texas Tech ...

The notion that we live as characters in someone else’s video game is irresistible to many, even outside of science fiction bookshelves. Googling the term “simulation hypothesis” returns numerous ...

We have long taken it for granted that gravity is one of the basic forces of nature–one of the invisible threads that keeps the universe stitched together. But suppose that this is not true. Suppose ...

The Santa Ana winds were already blowing hard when I ran the first worm simulation. I’m no hacker, but it was easy enough: Open a Terminal shell, paste some commands from GitHub, watch characters ...