Don't think it really matters what we live in! If your happy and it feel real to you then that's all that matters.

I don't know much about that. But there is a tv program "Through the Worm Hole" hosted by Morgan Freeman, in some episode they explained how some computer specialists think that actual reality that we see may be a Simulation of some higher dimensional beings or human more advanced than we are right now.

They point out that every known matter is made up of atoms, which group up to molecules and etc etc and constitute everything we visualise.

They point out an analogy that in a computer screen elementary pixels are there. And arrays of pixels constitute the high definition pictures we see.

And they believe human and other lives can be coded just as in a software simulation..

It's a theory best described in a movie "The Matrix". Musk Elon must be over thinking and if however he's right then so be it.

I have only today joined this forum and it is very interesting.

Reading comments on this topic I was drawn to the one quoting Descartes' "I think therefore I am" as a proof that I exist.

But when I joined I had to tick a box to say that I was not a robot. I thought that, if I were a robot, I would know it. But then it occurred to me that, if I were a robot, I would have been programmed not to.

The holograph/simulation idea is best disposed of by the judicious use of Occam's razor.

Just ask them to show a proof. I can tell you that giants are living inside the planet Venus. And you cannot disprove the because we do not know it. If we are unaware of something doesn't give the authority to make up stories.

I have yet to see any evidence to support such a universe. But with the unmeasurable vastness of the universe, an our intentionally limited perception, we may not be able to ever completely grasp such a concept.

You know that computers can run simulations, right. For instance, astronomers can plot the speed, and trajectory of a distant comet, in order to create a simulation, that can be used to calculate it's future flight path. The accuracy, and complexity of any simulation is dependent on the computer's processing power, as well as, factoring in all of possible variables that will affect the thing that is being simulated. The more variables that the computer can process, the more sophisticated that the simulation can be. With that in mind, many people believe that the reality that we know - the Universe, the Earth, everyone, and everything - is the result of an mind-boggingly complex simulation, that is being processed by an other-worldly super computer, built and programmed by a technologically-advanced intelligence, existing outside of our reality. Seems crazy, right? Don't be too sure. Elon Musk believes it. So, too, do many members of the scientific intelligentsia. If we can simulate the flight path of a comet, then perhaps, our entire existence is, in actuality, a simulation, too.

Have you ever watched Red Dwarf ?

So, just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Just the other day, it was reported that it was proven that certain observed quantum effects could not be simulated, not even in principle, and so it is now unlikely that we are in a simulation. I thought to myself that result just means that we can't simulate a universe but perhaps the folks in the next level up can.

May I suggest the following book then:

The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot
[amazon.com]

It is one of the most enlightening books I've read that have helped shape my understanding of reality.

University of London physicist David Bohm and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram proposed the idea that the universe itself may be a giant hologram created by the human mind. Michael Talbot's book describes some central concepts and reviews extensively the work of many psychologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, and neurobiologists who have expressed strong support for Bohm-Pribram holographic concept. I hope the book can be helpful.

Think of the movie The Matrix. Pretty much that.

Watch The Matrix movies and you will understand

everybody is right and wrong. it's all an opinion. it's like we all walk around like zombies in somebody's reality. like were programmed and are not free to think for ourselves. like fight club said everything's a copy of a copy. we're not in control of our own life whether it be god, fate, or what society says we have to be. we're born to live a certain way. just my opinion though.

It is sort of easy to understand if you can get to the point where 'life is meaningless'. For most people that is very hard to do, but if you internalize that and then go to a quiet spot in the mountains or at the beach, you can be quiet and realize that you not participating in the world is making no difference to all of the people out there rushing around trying to make a living, looking after their families, etc. It could almost be like a game of 'SIMS' where someone is adding events into the world that we have to react to. In the quiet times they are off focusing somewhere else in the 'game'. I don't think it is too hard to believe we are living in a Matrix type fantasy or a SIM game. I don't believe that we are, but it not hard to theorize about it.

Basically, they're saying what you see isn't what it seems and we may just be someone's science experiment.

This is along the lines of the Hindu beliefs that we (and our reality) are all just part of a dream by a god.

A Chinese philosopher once said he dreamed he was a butterfly, and now he is unsure of whether he is a man who had a dream about beign a butterfly or is a butterfly dreaming he is a man.

The "Matrix" movies are yet another example of this kind of thinking, but probbly the most direct example of what you are asking about. Luckily you only have to watch the first movie to get the idea. The second and third are not as good and don't really introduce any new concepts. So, watch the movie "The Matrix". It is easier to watch the movie than to try to explain it, although those first two examples may help you to start thi8nking along a path to help you understand the lien of thinking.

Some people have to watch the movie more than once to get the concept. This has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather just how many ideas you have been exposed to in your life and if this is totally new, it may take some effort to comprehend it.

The line of thought, to me, is interesting and imaginative, yet pointless, as whether or not it were true, it makes do difference in how people live their lives from day to day. Well, other than demonstrating how the imagination can conceive of stories, religions and myths, which actually have little practical application to our day to day lives. So, like astrology it is useful for entertainment purposes only.

I believe it's a direct comparison to the movie, the Matrix.