Thomas Bowman
First Post
Except, of course, you can't. In The Matrix, the trick is managed by way of having the people have existence *outside* the simulation, and so in part not subject to the simulation's rules. If, however, you are a fully simulated being yourself, you are 100% beholden to the rules of the simulation. How could you then generate an event that isn't part of the simulation, to show that something else exists?
The Simulation Hypothesis is what we call "non-falsifiable". There is no experiment that, even in theory, could possibly refute the statement, "The universe is a simulation." For any evidence you have that we are not in an simulation, there is the answer, "But that evidence is itself simulated."
Non-falsifiable statements are outside the realm of science.
You can't falsify it, but it remains a possibility that you can't disprove either. So if a planet appears in the Solar System and it is populated by humans among other races, I would think the explanation of "we're living in a simulation," would be the most likely explanation, a lesser likely explanation would be Ancient Astronauts etc. but with simulations you can do anything. I would say in real life, we can not prove we are living in a simulation, unless something happens that can't be explained any other way. I would say humans evolving somewhere else in the Universe would be extremely unlikely for instance. If the Universe was made to resemble the natural universe, but it was a made thing, we can not rule out the possibility that humans might live elsewhere in it, that it would be an artificial universe that was made with a specific purpose in mind.