---
title: "Base reality · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/base-reality
description: "Base reality is the supposed non-simulated reality that runs simulations, if the simulation hypothesis is true."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Simulation hypothesis

# Base reality

Definition

Base reality is the supposed non-simulated reality that runs simulations, if the simulation hypothesis is true. We assume it exists but can’t show it does, and the chain of simulations might never end.

On this site

The Infinite Regress window counts how many nested layers a given amount of computing can hold before the innermost is no bigger than a laptop.

Role in the model

Every world in the sandbox is run by a world one level up. If that world is simulated too, it has less computing power than the world above it. The Infinite Regress window turns this into a depth: how many nested worlds a given build can run before the innermost one is no bigger than a laptop.

Related

[Simulation hypothesis](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/simulation-hypothesis)[Infinite regress](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/infinite-regress)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)