“Yesterday was quite unusual. It started just like every Monday: I woke up and got ready for work. However, it took me fifteen minutes to find my watch, which wasn’t where I thought it was. I thought that it was on the kitchen counter when it was in my bedroom! Without much thought, I wore it, and as I walked into the kitchen to get my stuff, I saw a watch on the kitchen counter. I was stunned. I didn’t know I had two identical watches. I couldn’t recall buying two, but I headed to work anyway. I entered the office, only to see my co-worker John with the creepiest smile. He continuously waved his hand but didn’t say a word. At first, I waved back, but as I noticed he didn’t stop waving, I looked behind to see if he was waving to someone else, but no one was there. Confused, I asked him who he was waving to, but he didn’t even care to respond. Finally, I shook him up, and suddenly, as if he just came back to reality, he told me that he just got lost in the blue for a second. Well, as far as I know, when you zone out, you don’t wave to people. Then I thought to myself that the game I played the day before had characters just like him called NPC’s. I didn’t think much of it and decided to go to my desk instead. I was surprised to be welcomed by an old friend of mine. I told him we should go for a coffee to catch up. He agreed, and we went to a café nearby. We chatted for a while, and he told me that he read something in the newspaper about us living in a simulation. I was surprised that he would be interested in a conspiracy theory like this because he is a physicist! He laughed and told me about a chit-chat they had with one of his peers:
‘A week ago, or so, we were at lunch with my friend Laura, who also works at the physics department at our university, and she told me that we could have been in a simulation and never noticed till now. I asked her to explain why she thought this was possible, and she told me about the double-slit experiment. The double-slit experiment is a famous study done by Thomas Young which suggests that when electrons are fired into two silts, it makes an interference pattern that is usually made by waves. But if you observe the experiment while it is being held, the electrons behave like particles, not like waves like they used to. She told me that what if this was proof that when we don’t look at things, they may not behave like we see they do, or maybe this may be a glitch in the system? At first, I thought it was so stupid, but the more I thought about it, the more it became sensible.’
At that moment, I thought about what I had gone through that day. I mean, why did I have two identical watches? I never bought them, nor did they come as a gift. Then, John, I swear, he behaved just like those NPC’s; something must have happened to him. I can’t even recall a moment where we had a decent chat with him. Maybe he isn’t real. And now my scientist friend thinks that this simulation theory is sensible. He is a damn physicist! I think I’m going insane, or we live in a simulation.”
Well, that is an average delusional guy’s day. I remember back in 2016 when we had that dress where everyone argued whether a dress was blue-black or gold-white. Some people said that it was a glitch in the simulation and that it was a system error in our program. When I first heard about this simulation theory, I thought it was so stupid and that whoever made it should see a psychologist. But you know what? As I was searching for proof that we live in a simulation, I suddenly started to question myself. It surely was weird, but I felt that someone was playing with my thoughts. I want us to think for a moment and hear out the defenders of this theory. They say that we are in such a perfect spot in the universe and on the perfect planet that whoever created this simulation placed us and programmed all of us here so that we could succeed; that if we can make simulations on our computer, why wouldn’t we already be simulated in the first place? Well, those are great arguments, but as you think deeper, they may flop. Well, we are on a perfect planet for living creatures; yes, that’s true, but why would we be placed here? What I mean is that the order of events is wrong here. A couple of years ago, scientists found water on Mars, which kind of means that there could have been an attempt at life on other planets, but given that the conditions on Mars are not very suitable for life, it didn’t succeed as far as we know. But conditions on earth are perfect for life, so this attempt succeeded. This, at least, is the scientific explanation. Of course, depending on what we believe, our understanding of the universe differs, but with the scientific information we have, this is the result. There are some questions that yet haven’t been answered by proponents of simulation theory. The same goes for science, which is caused by limited opportunities for scientific tools. However, defenders of this theory approach these unanswered questions in a different way. They say that it may be impossible to prove that we live in a simulation, as the information we have may be simulated.
Although some of the ideas inside the theory contradict each other: if our information can be simulated, why wouldn’t the information we have that leads us to think we live in a simulation be simulated too? And there are also unanswered questions: for instance, why, if there is one, is this simulation created, who is it run by, why are we even allowed to uncover, if we are doing so, the truth, if it is, and so on. However, I must admit that when you start to look into this simulation theory, you slowly start to relate your experiences to it, which makes it even more sensible. If we were living in a simulation, it would be kind of cool, like the Matrix, but I guess we will never know. There is yet to be found and much to believe, but the truth is something we must achieve.
