01: Are We Living in a Simulation?

Did you know some physicists believe reality is code, and we’re the conscious players inside it? Quantum theory, probability glitches, and ancient creation myths all hint that reality might be a projection of consciousness. What does that mean for free will and destiny? 
 

What is Did You Know?

Welcome to the captivating world of Did You Know? - hosted by Jody Colvard. This podcast invites you on an enlightening journey of discovery, exploring the fascinating facts, hidden wonders, and unseen connections that shape our everyday world.

Jody: 00:04

Welcome to did you know? Where mystery meets meaning. I'm your host, Jodi Colvard, inviting you to explore the unseen layers of our world. From ancient wisdom to modern science, from pyramids to parallel universes, we'll uncover the truths that shape reality and maybe change the way you see the world.

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Today, we're stepping into one of the most mind bending questions of our time. Are we living in a simulation? It's an idea that sounds like science fiction, but it's also one that some of the world's top scientists, philosophers, and technologists actually take seriously. So let's go down the rabbit hole. Picture this.

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You're standing in the kitchen, drinking your morning coffee. You feel the warmth of the cup in your hands. You smell the roasted beans. You can taste the familiar flavor. Everything seems solid, real, and physical.

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But what if it isn't? What if everything around you, from the chair you're sitting on to the stars above you, is part of an incredibly advanced digital simulation? Not a video game, but a conscious experience rendered so perfectly that you can't tell it apart from reality. This idea isn't new. Philosophers have wrestled with it for centuries.

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Plato spoke of humans living in a cave, mistaking shadows for the truth. And in the seventeenth century, Rene Descartes famously asked, how can we know that everything we experienced isn't an illusion, a dream? Fast forward to today, and that question has gone high-tech. Instead of a dream, we now ask, what if reality is a code? In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom from Oxford University proposed something radical, a mathematical argument that future civilizations might create ancestor simulations.

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In other words, if technology keeps advancing, humans might one day have the computing power to recreate entire worlds complete with conscious beings inside them. His conclusion? If that's even possible, then statistically, we're probably already living inside of one. Think about it. If billions of simulated worlds could exist for every real one, what are the odds that you are in the original reality instead of one of the simulations?

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That's the uncomfortable question. The math suggests it's not in our favor. Now here's where it gets even more interesting. Physicists have noticed strange digital patterns in the fabric of the universe. For instance, the way energy behaves at the smallest scales.

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Reality seems to come in tiny, discrete units just like digital data. Some scientists say this could simply be how nature works. Others whisper that it might be evidence of a programmed system. In fact, theoretical physicist James Gates discovered what looks like error correcting code embedded in supersymmetry equations, the same kind of code used in computer processors. When he shared his findings, he said, I was shocked to discover something that looked like computer code buried in the equations of the universe itself.

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So are we discovering physics or debugging reality? Even then, there are the glitches, moments when reality flickers. You know them. Deja vu, repeating numbers, the Mandela effect, where entire groups of people remember events that never happened. Most of these can be explained by psychology, but still, they feel different, don't they?

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Like the world hiccups. Even small phenomena like random coincidences that feel too perfect can make us question, is someone editing the code? These experiences don't prove anything, but they remind us of one important truth. Our perception of reality is filtered through consciousness, and that consciousness might be the interface between us and whatever system we're inside. Now here's where science meets spirituality.

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If we are in a simulation, then who or what is the programmer? Some say advanced AI from the future. Others say extraterrestrial intelligence, and some believe it's consciousness itself, the universe observing itself through infinite points of awareness. Eastern philosophies have said this all along. The Vedas, the Tao, and Hermetic teachings describe reality as Maya, illusion, and consciousness as the ultimate reality beneath it.

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So maybe it's not that we're trapped in a simulation. Maybe we're dreaming it together. Each thought, emotion, and choice you make adds to the shared field of experience, like input to a cosmic system that's learning about itself through you. If that's true, then we're not prisoners of the simulation. We're its cocreators.

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Now you might ask, what difference does it make? If everything is a simulation, shouldn't that make life feel meaningless? Actually, it might do the opposite. If this is all a grand design, even a digital one, then every pixel of it is intentional. Every experience is data and the evolution of something greater.

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That sunrise you saw this morning, that feeling of love, that heartbreak, that miracle, maybe they're all feedback loops in a living conscious universe. When you realize that, you stop feeling like a passive player in someone else's game and start realizing you have agency, that your awareness changes the code. Quantum physics shows this clearly. Observation affects outcome. Your consciousness literally shapes reality.

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So perhaps the true lesson isn't whether we're living in a simulation, but how awake we are inside of it. Maybe we're not meant to find the edges of the simulation. Maybe the point is to explore it, to expand it with every thought, every dream, every act of creation. Whether this is the real world or not, it's your world right now, and that makes it sacred. So next time you feel that strange flicker of deja vu or sense that life has somehow scripted, maybe smile and whisper to yourself, I see the code.

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Because maybe, just maybe, that moment of awareness is the universe realizing it's awake.

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Thank you for tuning in to did you know? I've been your host, Jodi Colvard. Remember, curiosity isn't just about finding answers. It's about expanding your awareness. If you enjoyed today's journey, follow the show and explore more mysteries at didyouknow.show.

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Until next time, stay curious.