Analysts at Merrill Lynch Bank of America, in a recent report, have suggested that there is a 20-50% chance that our world is a Matrix-like virtual reality, created by a mysterious civilization from the future. This means that the world we experience as “real” is actually just a simulation!
The report, which was distributed to clients, also suggests that even if our world were an illusion, we would never know it. The researchers back up their claims by citing comments from leading philosophers, scientists and other thinkers. The Bank of America report, which explored the implications of virtual reality, describes: “Many scientists, philosophers and business believe there is a 20-50% chance that people are already living in a virtual world,” it wrote last week, according to Business Insider. “In April 2016, researchers gathered at the American Museum of Natural History to discuss this idea. The argument is that we are already approaching photorealistic 3D simulations, where millions of people could simultaneously participate in them. “It is conceivable that with advances in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and computing power, members of future civilizations could have decided to create a simulation of their ancestors. “Unless we are already living in a simulation, our descendants will almost certainly never create a simulation of their ancestors,” the report states.
Analysts have been inspired by SpaceX inventor and founder Elon Musk, who is among those who are certain that our world is being run by artificial intelligence developed by a future civilization. Philosophers dating back to the 16th century, most notably René Descartes, introduced us to this kind of thinking in the 16th century when he declared, “I think therefore I am” and suggested we cannot depend on our sensory experience to understand the world. Back in the 21st century, in April, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson suggested that there is a “high probability” that the universe as we know it is just a simulation. Echoing Tyson’s views, Professor Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford made a very strong argument in his paper “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?”
In the film "The Matrix," released in 1999, people live in a simulation of reality created by machines to control the human population.
