Paranoia

Is the universe as we experience it just a huge Matrix-like simulation, and if so, how could we ever know? The question was put to physicist Silas Beane.

There is a famous argument that we probably do live in a simulation. The idea is that in the future, humans will be able to simulate entire universes quite easily. And given the vastness of time ahead, the number of these simulations is likely to be huge. So if you ask the question: "do we live in the one true reality or in one of the many simulations?," the answer, statistically speaking, is that we're more likely to be living in a simulation.

Every simulation is likely to have little glitches, seams in the fabric of the simulation.  Some call them paradoxes, some call them explainable phenomena.  We have to be vigilant in watching for these design flaws, and if the combination of Beane's probability (Pb) and the number of observed glitches (Go) is greater than a threshold value, we'll call it the X factor, we're in the Matrix, my friend.

If Pb + Go > X, then Matrix