If we were living inside a screen, would we know it?

Originally posted by nusnus
This idea has popped up in my head a couple of years ago, and it seems like there are other people who pose the same question as well.

If we were nothing but a bunch of 'characters' in a computer game of sorts, would we know it? The obvious answer seems to be a 'no', however, during some of my meditations, I've felt what seemed like a reality that was created completely as an illusion. This world we live in and see and experience as a reality is actually an illusion. It was a strange feeling, one I wasn't too keen on contemplating on for too long since the very idea of it broke down my sense of reality, and made me feel vulnerable.

What do you think?

Welcome to the matrix everything you know and love is false. This is an artificial reality computer program take the red pill or the blue pill. WAKE UP NEO

Absolutely, the universe could be part of some kind of computer simulation. One line of reasoning goes like this: If you can simulate a universe using a computer, then the majority of universes are simulations, because for every simulated universe, further simulated universes may be created within them.

If this universe is part of a computer simulation, that computer must exist within a universe of its own. There's no telling what properties that universe might have.

I don't think being part of a computer simulation would change anything though. Even if my body and mind are really ultimately a lot of 1's and 0's zooming around in a computer in some other universe, in this universe it is still about the laws of physics as we know them.