simulation hypothesis
E708977
The simulation hypothesis is the philosophical and scientific idea that our reality might be an artificial simulation, such as a computer-generated virtual world created by an advanced civilization.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| simulation hypothesis canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8072479 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: simulation hypothesis Context triple: [Niklas Boström, knownFor, simulation hypothesis]
-
A.
Virtuality
"Virtuality" is a 2009 science fiction television pilot directed by Peter Berg about a spaceship crew testing a virtual reality system during a deep-space mission.
-
B.
Berserker hypothesis
The Berserker hypothesis is a proposed solution to the Fermi paradox suggesting that self-replicating killer probes or hostile civilizations systematically destroy emerging intelligent life in the galaxy, explaining our apparent cosmic silence.
-
C.
Proof of an External World
Proof of an External World is a famous 1939 philosophical paper by G. E. Moore in which he defends common-sense realism by offering a straightforward argument for the existence of the external world.
-
D.
von Neumann probe
A von Neumann probe is a hypothetical self-replicating spacecraft designed to explore and potentially colonize the galaxy by using local materials to create copies of itself.
-
E.
Metaverse
The Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space—popularized by Neal Stephenson’s novel "Snow Crash"—envisioned as an immersive, persistent digital world where users interact through avatars for work, play, and socialization.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: simulation hypothesis Target entity description: The simulation hypothesis is the philosophical and scientific idea that our reality might be an artificial simulation, such as a computer-generated virtual world created by an advanced civilization.
-
A.
Virtuality
"Virtuality" is a 2009 science fiction television pilot directed by Peter Berg about a spaceship crew testing a virtual reality system during a deep-space mission.
-
B.
Berserker hypothesis
The Berserker hypothesis is a proposed solution to the Fermi paradox suggesting that self-replicating killer probes or hostile civilizations systematically destroy emerging intelligent life in the galaxy, explaining our apparent cosmic silence.
-
C.
Proof of an External World
Proof of an External World is a famous 1939 philosophical paper by G. E. Moore in which he defends common-sense realism by offering a straightforward argument for the existence of the external world.
-
D.
von Neumann probe
A von Neumann probe is a hypothetical self-replicating spacecraft designed to explore and potentially colonize the galaxy by using local materials to create copies of itself.
-
E.
Metaverse
The Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space—popularized by Neal Stephenson’s novel "Snow Crash"—envisioned as an immersive, persistent digital world where users interact through avatars for work, play, and socialization.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (62)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
metaphysical hypothesis
ⓘ
philosophical hypothesis ⓘ scientific speculation ⓘ thought experiment ⓘ |
| BostromTrilemmaPremise |
almost all civilizations at our level of development go extinct before becoming posthuman
ⓘ
almost no posthuman civilizations run significant numbers of ancestor simulations ⓘ we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation ⓘ |
| BostromTrilemmaType | trilemma ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
an advanced civilization might be running the simulation
ⓘ
our universe could be a computer-generated virtual world ⓘ reality might be an artificial simulation ⓘ |
| debateTopic |
detectability of simulation glitches or constraints
ⓘ
ethical status of simulated beings ⓘ implications for free will ⓘ implications for theism and creation ⓘ probability that we live in a simulation ⓘ |
| epistemicImplication |
challenges assumptions about empirical evidence
ⓘ
questions possibility of knowing whether reality is base or simulated ⓘ |
| field |
computer science
ⓘ
cosmology ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ simulation theory ⓘ theoretical physics ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
cosmological simulation hypothesis
ⓘ
local simulation hypothesis ⓘ nested simulations hypothesis ⓘ partial simulation hypothesis ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Descartes evil demon hypothesis
ⓘ
advances in computer simulation technology ⓘ brain in a vat thought experiment ⓘ video game realism ⓘ |
| methodologicalStatus |
difficult to test experimentally
ⓘ
not empirically confirmed ⓘ |
| notableCritic |
David Deutsch
ⓘ
Max Tegmark ⓘ Sean Carroll ⓘ |
| notableProponent |
David Chalmers
ⓘ
Elon Musk ⓘ Nick Bostrom ⓘ Rizwan Virk ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?
ⓘ
linked to:
simulation argument
|
| notableWorkAuthor | Nick Bostrom ⓘ |
| notableWorkYear | 2003 ⓘ |
| ontologicalImplication | suggests physical reality may be informational or computational at base ⓘ |
| popularizedBy |
The Matrix
ⓘ
science fiction literature ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Boltzmann brain
ⓘ
Matrix hypothesis ⓘ anthropic principle ⓘ artificial general intelligence ⓘ brain in a vat ⓘ computationalism ⓘ digital physics ⓘ multiverse ⓘ posthuman civilization ⓘ virtual reality ⓘ |
| statusInPhilosophy | widely discussed but controversial ⓘ |
| statusInScience | speculative and not part of standard models in physics ⓘ |
| testabilityProposal | look for lattice-like structure in spacetime at high energies ⓘ |
| testabilityProposal | search for computational limits in physical constants ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: simulation hypothesis Description of subject: The simulation hypothesis is the philosophical and scientific idea that our reality might be an artificial simulation, such as a computer-generated virtual world created by an advanced civilization.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.