A simulated tour at Metaverse Fashion Week in March 2022 hosted by Decentraland, a 3D virtual world platform. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images) There’s a new creation story going around. In the ...

For years, the idea that reality might be a sophisticated computer program has drifted from late-night dorm debates into mainstream culture and serious philosophy. Now a new wave of theoretical work ...

Gravity is usually presented as the most familiar of nature’s forces, the quiet background pull that keeps feet on sidewalks ...

Just Elon Musk's name is enough to evoke an emotional response in many people, ranging from hope and glee in some to anger and disgust in others. But how about existential dread? It's true that one of ...

Ever since Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed his simulation argument in 2001, the nerdiverse has attempted to assess the possibility that reality is not really real, that what we experience as ...

This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world. For this series' final entry, we're ...

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, ...

The release of Apple’s Vision Pro marks a interesting step forward in the technology of simulated reality. Leveraging advanced AR and VR capabilities, this headset strives to create a seamless blend ...

Ever since the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in the Philosophical Quarterly that the universe and everything in it might be a simulation, there has been intense public speculation and debate about ...