A former NASA scientist has taken it upon himself to definitively prove whether life is a simulation.
The notion has served as the basis for a few sci-fi films over the years, but what if all of the performers, producers, and writers in those films were also trapped in a simulation, unaware of it?
Could near-death experiences, apparent ‘glitches’, and strange coincidences all be explained by something beyond our awareness that controls all we do?
Thomas Campbell, a former NASA and Department of Defense physicist, believes it is very possible.
In 2017, he published a paper outlining a series of studies meant to determine whether something is rendering our reality in the same way that video games are made.
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Campbell has established a non-profit organization called the Center for the Unification of Science and Consciousness (CUSAC) to continue his search for the truth, and scientists at California State Polytechnic University (CalPoly) are currently testing his tests.
The organization’s website states that one of its objectives is: “To develop fundamental knowledge and understanding, of both the self and the evolving information system that appears to be the source of all reality, through rigorous scientific investigation of both physical reality and consciousness.”
CUSAC stated in a news release that Campbell’s studies are ‘anticipated to reveal compelling scientific evidence that we live in a computer-simulated virtual environment’.
They are founded on the premise that human ‘consciousness is not a result of the simulation – it is intrinsic to reality’, with Campbell hypothesizing that the cosmos does not exist without a player – namely, us – at its heart.
It’s an intriguing notion, but it’ll only get more interesting if Campbell can discover evidence to back it up.
He stated that his five tests will ‘challenge the current understanding of reality and find significant linkages between consciousness and the cosmos’.
The news of Campbell’s studies has elicited conflicting reactions from those who believe he may be onto something and those who are skeptical of the idea that the world we live in is a simulation.
In a Reddit thread about the hypothesis, one user asked: “If we were in a simulation, wouldn’t any tests to prove it turn out negative because the simulation would be programmed to falsify the results?”
A different person laughed: “I wouldn’t even film myself sleeping to prove if I am haunted and you want me to find out if I live in a simulation?”
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if Campbell’s experiments uncover a terrible truth…
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