Whether any documentable path has led to the current state of the world around us and ourselves, the result of which we refer to as the present, where some form of matter and energy in a certain arrangement is found everywhere, which we are at least partly able to perceive with our senses or measure with instruments that report to us about the state of things, can anyone really say whether we are in reality or if everything is just virtual? There are theories suggesting that we might just be a simulation, possibly even in several of its iterations, since eventually every civilization reaches a point of extinction, but if it is technically advanced enough to ensure at least its virtual continuation, something remains after it...
Yes, the current level of computer simulations of "virtual" environments is still limited, and we are quite capable of distinguishing when we are looking at hypothetical worlds through a screen or virtual glasses, and when we are walking on the "real" planet Earth. However, if one day we manage to simulate virtual worlds with a level of detail at the subatomic particles and within the model fully respect all the physical laws that describe our world, suddenly the simulation will be practically indistinguishable from reality. We can, of course, logically argue that it is hardly possible on any technology we ever create, to simulate the universe in its entire known size in real-time... but if we set our goals in a "reasonable way", slightly limit the size of the simulated universe, but at the same time keep it large enough so that it seems essentially infinite to the characters in our simulation, or slightly modify physics to create infinity using finite system resources, and if we slow down the flow of time to a level manageable by the system running the simulation, then this simulation will be a very faithful, though spatially limited and temporally slowed environment for experiments and games, but for the characters inside the simulated world, everything will be completely real and time will flow at a standard pace from their perspective.
If we look at the theories of world simulation in the way described above, it will of course still be possible for a civilization existing within a simulation to create, at some point in its space, another level of simulation that will work with an even smaller universe and where time will flow even more slowly. If the first level of simulation operates with a universe sufficiently large (limited by the system resources of the basic computing system), then it will be possible to create at least several iterations of simulation within a simulation, before reaching such a limitation of the size of the simulated environment and such a slowing down of the passage of time in it, that it becomes merely an "aquarium" for the amusement of characters of a higher level of simulation, because at the level of this "aquarium," there will no longer be resources to launch another nested level of simulation.
But let's go back to one of those higher levels... I think ours might not yet be the last, and therefore, it is quite possible that one day we will manage to simulate, with complete fidelity and down to the last detail, at least that aquarium :-) However, what is essential is the perspective on the perception of individual building blocks of our world. Over the years, our scientists have reached the level of those already mentioned subatomic particles, which today we consider as the fundamental building blocks... but aren't they actually just basic units of information? Aren't our elementary particles just memory cells or rather, their content, a vector? If we view elementary particles as carriers of information, what then is the difference between reality and simulation?
Other controversial ideas might include the following:
Do I alone exist, and is the entire world merely a theatre for my amusement playing out in the simulation environment of my mind?
Am I the only entity of this kind, or does every being dwell in its bubble, experiencing its version of reality, and with its "death," the run of this particular "movie" ends? Once this film concludes, does another "movie" begin to play in the mind of this being?
Is the core of our existence firmly linked to the body, whether it is truly physical or simulated, or is our soul an endless energy moving through space and time, occasionally connecting with some form of physical or simulated existence?
The beauty of these questions is that currently, probably everyone can answer in a way that best fits their perception of the world :-) So, enjoy your current movie, your theatre, be kind and gentle to other characters, because in reality, you do not know if they are just virtual actors, and do not preemptively count on another act following the current one…, but when that end comes, there's no need to panic, because it's not at all ruled out that another, perhaps even more beautiful show is already being prepared for you :-)
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