---
title: "Simulation hypothesis · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/simulation-hypothesis
description: "The simulation hypothesis is the idea that our reality is a computer simulation run by some other reality."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Simulation hypothesis

# Simulation hypothesis

Definition

The simulation hypothesis is the idea that our reality is a computer simulation run by some other reality. The people in it, and what they experience, would be made of computation.

On this site

This is the premise of the site. We don’t claim it’s true. The sandbox shows what it would take.

Role in the model

Every other page on the site comes out of this idea. The site doesn’t ask whether the hypothesis is true. It asks what it would take to run one. You can argue about a number. You can’t really argue about a belief.

Related

[Base reality](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/base-reality)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/bostrom-trilemma)[Ancestor simulation](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/ancestor-simulation)

In the trees

[Ancestor simulation · Simulations](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/simulations?n=f-ancestor)

## 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)