Twenty years later,
the Matrix is once again
asking us to make an ultimate choice.
Would you rather live comfortably
in the Matrix?
Or wake up in a new terrifying reality?
"No."
Well, brace yourself.
This computer now controls your life
down to the last detail.
What if your world was a simulation?
"How do we know what is real?"
In this world, Neo isn't here to save you.
And no one's offering you a pill to wake up.
But the architects who built this world
might have left some clues
to help you solve this mystery.
You may not be the chosen one,
but if you rely on your wits and your instinct,
you might outsmart
this all-knowing supercomputer.
But if everyone you know is made of pixels,
does that mean you might be a character in someone else's simulation?
In this classic film series,
the Machines control every aspect of human lives
in the digital world where they’re trapped.
Imagine being stuck in a video game.
And you're not even a player.
That, my friends, is simulation theory.
Simulation theory states that all we ever have
and will ever experience,
are the results of a highly advanced computer program.
And all your senses and perceptions
are nothing more than digital experiences
made to simulate real life.
It's even more terrifying that some scientists have suggested
there's a 50% chance we're living in a simulation right now.
But how big a supercomputer would it take to run this artificial universe?
Well, we'll come back to that.
Right now, you need to find out if this world is real or not.
OK, this digital world wouldn't be perfect.
It would require updates from time to time.
During those moments,
you might be able to see changes in the natural world that wouldn't make sense.
Maybe you could test the speed of light.
How would you do that?
Well, you would need to create
another simulation within this one.
How many layers does this world have?
If you observed how light particles move through your computerized world,
you could compare those speeds to real life.
Well, the "real life" you know.
That may sound extreme,
but this information could reveal a frightening truth.
And if this world might be fake,
what about the people around you?
In the original Matrix trilogy,
a small band of humans left the simulation
and led a rebellion against their robotic masters.
But the humans inside your simulation
may not be real at all.
So if you want to get out of this place,
you'll need to become friends with the AI that lives here.
Starting deep conversations about the nature of reality
with these simulated beings
might get them to consider their own consciousness
and what it means to be real.
Yeah, making a virtual friend
could be your best shot at escaping.
In this franchise,
human bodies are kept alive in goo-filled vats with tubes running down their throats,
all to power the Matrix.
If you were in a simulation,
your body in the real world could be locked up as well.
But if your new AI friends
find a way to transfer your consciousness into a machine,
you could start a new life as a robot.
And now, maybe, you could see who's behind the curtain.
Some theories suggest that
the simulation's creators punish those trapped within,
making criminals live their virtual lives in fear and pain.
Other theorists wonder if the simulation is a game
for a teenage alien who's just killing time
playing the program that runs our lives.
If that turns out to be true,
it could mean you're not even a real person,
just a figment of someone else's imagination.
"I think it's going really well."
Try playing the Sims again now.
But how could any of this be possible?
An Oxford philosopher suggested that
to run a massive simulated universe,
you would need a supercomputer the size of a planet.
Every emotion, memory and landscape
would just be another piece of data
running inside this world within a world.
And while Neo and his friends made it out of that simulation,
there's always a chance you could wake up
inside another simulation that's within this one
and go further down the rabbit hole.
But what if, instead of this fake world,
we made an artificial being beyond our control?
What if we created a superintelligence?
We didn't learn anything, did we?
Well, I guess that's a story
for another WHAT IF.