4 Simulation Stories That Will Make You Question Reality | Unveiled

Simulation Stories That Will Make You Question Reality

In 1989, “SimCity” was released. The first of its kind, it had players build homes, construct infrastructure, collect taxes, and more. Its success kickstarted a new genre of video game, urban simulation… which led to the ultra-successful “Sims” franchise. Players apparently enjoy the omnipotent feeling; running (and perhaps ruining) the lives of their characters on screen. But, sometimes, the real world can feel a little like life imitating art… and some have reported experiences that made them feel as though they were a Sim in someone else’s game.

This is Unveiled and today we’re taking a closer look at the most bizarre simulation stories out there that’ll make you question reality.

Broadly, simulation theory is the idea that our entire world - everything we know, have known, and will ever know - is merely a simulation being run on a highly advanced supercomputer, on another, higher plane somewhere. It’s a somewhat divisive concept. Well-known scientists such as Neil Degrasse Tyson and Nick Bostrom have argued in favor of the theory before, particularly Bostrom… although others remain skeptical. One of the problems with simulation theory is the same as that which dogs many a theoretical suggestion; it’s extremely hard to either prove or disprove. It’s not something that anyone can easily find evidence for or against. But nevertheless, with the rise of technology in recent decades, sim theory is becoming more and more popular in the modern world.

With video games and CGI technology growing more lifelike by the year, it’s no longer hard to imagine a future when even the simulations that we build will be almost indistinguishable from real life. With breakthroughs in quantum computing seemingly just around the corner, too, we’ll soon have more data than ever at our fingertips… enabling, among other things, ever more detailed artificial environments. Indeed, it seems the only thing standing between us and creating a truly lifelike simulation for ourselves… is our current level of advancement right now. But, according to various models, if there is other, alien life out there, then the chances are that at least some of it is already more advanced than we are.

So, what if there were (or are) aliens who already have the required technology? It would mean that there’s a chance - perhaps a strong chance - that they’d have by now built the kind of simulation we’re imagining. A super sim; and then that we could be a part of that. And, although evidence is hard to find, there are still plenty of stories that seem to suggest our reality isn’t quite what we think.

One of the most intriguing examples actually comes from a master storyteller himself, Philip K. Dick. The famous science fiction author achieved widespread success, with the likes of “Minority Report”, “Blade Runner” and “The Man in the High Castle” all based off of his work. What might surprise fans, however, is that he also underwent a series of intense religious or spiritual experiences in real life, and these ultimately influenced a lot of his later writings. In 1974, Philip K. Dick underwent dental surgery, and it was reportedly shortly afterwards that his reality began to crumble.

According to his own accounts, he first saw a pink light that revealed universal truths to him. From that light, he apparently gained a much deeper understanding of philosophy and of the wider world. Next, and again shortly after the surgery, he started to see visions, hallucinations, or what some might call “glitches in the matrix”. The past began to seep into the writer’s present, so much so that he allegedly witnessed the modern world merge with Ancient Rome. Ordinary citizens around him morphed into Roman guards, and Philip K. Dick himself began to live a second life as a Christian of the time, named Thomas. Later referring to that first “pink light”, he further described it as experiencing an “invasion of [the] mind by a transcendentally rational mind”. Perhaps the most rational explanation is that what he experienced was some kind of psychotic break. But, there are some alternate theories. For one, could that “rational mind” he spoke of have been a link to a higher power? A power like the creator of our simulation, perhaps, granting one of our most creative thinkers a peek behind the curtain?

Next, we encounter another aspect of life (in general) that some argue may point to it all being a made-up sim; luck. Luck is a strange concept overall. Difficult to explain, and certainly difficult to master. Some of us are luckier than others, of course, but one man’s luck played out to such extremes that his story has become linked with possible proof of some other, higher force. Frano Selak is known both as the luckiest and unluckiest man in history, depending on how you look at it. He was a music teacher leading an ordinary life until a train crash in 1962 that almost resulted in his death… but he was pulled to safety while others died. Then, a year later, a plane he was in began to plummet to the ground as an emergency door burst open. Selak was actually dragged out of the plane during the fall. The eventual crash killed 19 people, but Selak survived as a result of falling through the open door, and apparently landing in a nearby haystack.

So that’s two near-fatal disasters in just a few months, but Selak’s bizarre luck and life story wasn’t done there. He went on to defy death a number of other times. He escaped a sinking bus; was hit by another bus; his car exploded while he was driving it; and he was flung out of another car when it crashed into a ravine, leaving Selak to beat the odds once again by clinging onto a tree for dear life. Having come through all of that, however, Selak went on to win the equivalent of more than one million dollars on the lottery. Death couldn’t beat him, and fortune eventually fell into his lap. For some, his story is akin to that of a video game character. So unlikely that surely it can’t have been pure chance? Surely there has to have been someone pulling the strings for Selak, somewhere? What do you think?

Maybe we need more than just individual case studies to truly question reality, though? And actually there are examples of shared experiences (involving large numbers of people) that seemingly defy explanation. First, throughout history, multiple sailors (and pirates) have written accounts of seeing mystical structures in the sky (like castles) while they’ve been out at sea. This may well be alternatively explained as ocean mirages appearing before tired crews - a phenomenon sometimes called a Fata Morgana. But these apparent visions are also said to have led people to their deaths before. Sailors have followed what they’ve seen because it just doesn’t make sense to them, and ultimately they’ve paid a heavy price. Indeed, such sightings are likely the inspiration behind the story of the legendary “ghost ship”, the Flying Dutchman.

But, it’s not as though “bizarre things in the sky” are only seen over the sea. Similar seeming impossibilities have appeared over land, too, and even over densely populated cities. In 2015, citizens in China looked up to see what appeared to be an entire cityscape present itself amongst the clouds; each dark shadow doubling as a detailed outline of a different tower or building. Again, such was the strangeness of the sight that it caused many to think that this was a glitch in reality - or in the simulation - just as when something in a video game loads in the wrong spot or clips through part of the environment. Various more scientific explanations have been put forward for the sky city in China and the phantom palaces witnessed by seafarers… but not everyone is satisfied. Some claim that in attempting to explain them away we’re actually refusing to see what’s really there - an apparently open window into the background mechanics of the sim that we’re all stuck in.

But, again, what’s your verdict? Perhaps you’ve also had a feeling before that something just isn’t quite right? If you’d like to, then let us know about it in the comments! From Philip K. Dick’s possible bridge to the “other side”, to Frano Selak’s hugely improbable run of luck, to the incredible mass sightings of apparently floating worlds… do we already have all the evidence we need that our world isn’t what we think it is?

The suggestion that all of our experiences are actually being programmed by some sort of supercomputer in the sky… is still a reasonably new one. The true nature of reality has long been a philosophical talking point, but perhaps now it’s time for science to take a more practical approach? Already, some claim the odds of us really living in a sim are as high as fifty percent. But, on whichever side of the debate you fall, those are the most bizarre simulation stories to make you question reality.