Are We in a Computer Simulation?

The Simulation Argument What if this is a simulation? Not metaphorically. Not philosophically. Actually, literally, a computer program running on someone else's hardware. It sounds like science fiction, but the argument is mathematically sound. The simulation hypothesis works like this: Either civilizations never reach the ability to run realistic simulations of their ancestors, or they do and run many such simulations. If the second is true, then there are far more beings in simulations than in base reality. If we're a random conscious being, statistically we're probably in a simulation. The argument doesn't prove we're in a simulation. It shows that if superintelligent civilizations exist and they want to run ancestor simulations, we're probably inside one. Can You Actually Simulate a Universe? Can you even simulate a universe? A simulation would need to model atoms, particles, forces, quantum mechanics. The computational cost would be astronomical. You'd need more computing power th