The simulation hypothesis—the idea that our universe might be an artificial construct running on some advanced alien computer ...

Physicists have spent decades arguing over whether our universe is a fundamental reality or a kind of cosmic software, and ...

Monisha Ravisetti was a science writer at CNET. She covered climate change, space rockets, mathematical puzzles, dinosaur bones, black holes, supernovas, and sometimes, the drama of philosophical ...

What if the classic late 90s sci-fi flick The Matrix actually had it right? What if we're all just living inside of a computer simulation? That's the idea behind a 2003 paper by Nick Bostrom, a ...

Some people fear we humans are nothing more than pickled brains floating in a glass bowl as we're fed a false version of reality through a bundle of wires. Now a team of scientists at Oxford ...

Let's say we build some ridiculous planet-sized computer — one so powerful it could simulate our entire universe. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

The notion that we live as characters in someone else’s video game is irresistible to many, even outside of science fiction bookshelves. Googling the term “simulation hypothesis” returns numerous ...

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,” said Carl Sagan, “you must first invent the universe.” A new simulation of the evolution of the universe, called the Illustris Project, is a start. Led ...

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow ...

In 1952, at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, theoretical physicists Enrico Fermi, John Pasta and Stanislaw Ulam brainstormed ways to use the MANIAC, one of the world’s first supercomputers, to solve ...