Word
Simulation hypothesis
The proposal that everything you experience is a simulation running on someone else's computer rather than the bottom level of reality
Examples
Ask whether we live in a simulation and you are asking an old question in silicon-age clothing.
The simulation hypothesis is unfalsifiable so far, which is why philosophers argue it and physicists mostly shrug.
Origin
The modern formulation comes from philosopher Nick Bostrom's 2003 paper “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” The underlying doubt is far older: Descartes' evil demon, Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, and Plato's cave all ask whether appearances are reality.
How it connects
The modern name for the oldest doubt: that what you take for reality is a convincing production.
This word appeared in Is this base reality?, the Involves connection for August 29, 2026, which asked: How could you tell whether the world around you is real?
Check yourself
What does the simulation hypothesis propose?
That what we experience as reality might be a computer simulation.. Right. The hypothesis is that our reality could be an artificial computation rather than base physical reality.
What the sources establish
Bostrom's 2003 paper formulated the simulation argument in probabilistic terms.
Sources
Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? (Nick Bostrom, 2003), Pages 243–255; the tripartite simulation argument