Scientists have long debated whether or not our universe is real or is just a simulation that's being projected to us by some species of superior intellect. Most scientists, of course, go with the former; the universe is real and we're just an ant in the ever-growing and virtually infinite cosmos.
But, the 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate at the American Museum of Natural History saw Neil deGrasse Tyson posing a curious side of the debate: What if we are just a simulation that's being run in the classroom of some alien species?
Tyson, the host for this year's debate, said that the odds "may be very high" that we're actually in some sort of alien simulation.
Say what?
Long a subject of debate in physics is whether or not we are real or simulated, the universe included. And the fact that it's pretty hard to prove one way or another for sure.
But Tyson infers that he'd wouldn't be all that shocked if we were to find out that we were, in fact, a simulation.
But most physicists and philosophers agree that it's impossible to prove definitively that we don't live in a simulation and that the universe is real.
As Tyson says, human beings have always claimed to the be superior race. While that's true here on earth, what if there was a more intelligent species that viewed us as the Neanderthals?
"What would we look like to them? We would be drooling, blithering idiots in their presence," Tyson asks. "And if that's the case, it is easy for me to imagine that everything in our lives is just the creation of some other entity for their entertainment. I'm saying, the day we learn that it is true, I will be the only one in the room saying, I'm not surprised."
Well we may never know for sure, unless the "human simulation" is turned off, it's still an innate possibility one way or the other.
What do you think? Are humans and the universe just a simulation or are we actually real and here?
Let us know in your comments.