Are we living in a simulation?

Don your black leather and a pair of shades, it’s time to take a trip into the Matrix

- STEPHEN KELLY

It has been 22 years since The Matrix popularised the idea that reality is an illusion and that we are all actually lying in pods of fluid, serving as nutrients for machines. It sounds fantastical to most people – typical science fiction – but there are certain scientists and philosophers who believe that The Matrix, along with the long-awaited sequel The Matrix Resurrections, raises some serious questions of whether we really are living in a computer simulation. So, are we? You take the blue pill and the article ends. You close the magazine and go back to descaling the kettle. You take the red pill and you keep on reading and Rizwan Virk, computer scientist and author of The Simulation Hypothesis, will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.