Released almost exactly 20 years ago, The Matrix has gone on to become a cultural phenomenon well beyond the science fiction genre. While it was generally considered science fiction at the time, it ...

When Morpheus told us our reality was fake, it sounded far-fetched. Since then, though, the idea has picked up steam. In 2001, two years after The Matrix hit theaters, Oxford University philosopher ...

Building his latest documentary around impossibly big questions, a cheeky ‘90s cyber aesthetic and the words of visionary author Philip K. Dick, director Rodney Ascher explores the labyrinthine ...

Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? A growing number of scientists are suggesting that the idea that we are all living in a simulation may not be completely far-fetched. Simulation theory is the ...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts How do we know we’re not ...

The concept of “simulation theory” is not new. It’s been around since René Descartes proposed a version of it in a philosophical argument, and possibly even before then. It holds that everything ...