If you believe 'The Matrix' franchise, what we think is our everyday life is in fact a simulation generated by an all-powerful computer.
However this idea may not simply be science fiction — "cosmic rays" could reveal that we are indeed living in a simulated universe.
According to Discover magazine, physicists can offer us the ability to test whether we live in our own virtual Matrix by studying radiation from space.
Cosmic rays are the fastest particles that exist and originate in far-flung galaxies. They always arrive at Earth with a specific maximum energy of 10 electron volts.
If there is a specific maximum energy for particles then this gives rise to the idea that energy levels are defined, specific, and constrained by an outside force.
Thus, according to the research, if the energy levels of particles could be simulated, so too could the rest of the universe.
The "cosmic ray test" was developed by Silas Beane, a nuclear physicist at the University of Washington, and involves scientists building up a simulation of space using a lattice or grid.
They calculated that the energy of particles within the simulation is related to the distance between the points of the lattice and that the smaller the lattice size, the greater the energy that the particles can have.
There have been many efforts to discover the truth about the universe and simulated reality.
In 2003 philosopher Nick Bostrom put forward the idea that we may live in a computer simulation run by our descendants. It was Beane and his colleagues who suggested that a more concrete test of the simulation hypothesis should be carried out.
Last year Beane told of his plans to recreate a simulated reality using mathematical models known as the lattice QCD approach.
If we do indeed live in a simulated universe akin to 'The Matrix,' Beane has a warning.
He told the magazine that the "simulators" who control our universe may well be simulations themselves; a "dream within a dream" type effect that could render the entire scientific study meaningless:
If we're indeed a simulation, then that would be a logical possibility, that what we're measuring aren't really the laws of nature, they're some sort of attempt at some sort of artificial law that the simulators have come up with.
Some academics are skeptically of the "Matrix theory." Professor Peter Millican, who teaches a philosophy and computer science degree at Oxford University, believes it could be ultimately flawed.
The theory seems to be based on the assumption that "superminds" would do things in much the same way as we would do them. If they think this world is a simulation, then why do they think the superminds — who are outside the simulation — would be constrained by the same sorts of thoughts and methods that we are?
They assume that the ultimate structure of a real world can't be grid like, and also that the superminds would have to implement a virtual world using grids. We can't conclude that a grid structure is evidence of a pretend reality just because our ways of implementing a pretend reality involve a grid.
Professor Millican did, however, add that he believed it was beneficial to conduct research into such theories.
It is an interesting idea, and it's healthy to have some crazy ideas. You don't want to censor ideas according to whether they seem sensible or not because sometimes important new advances will seem crazy to start with.
You never know when good ideas may come from thinking outside the box. This matrix thought-experiment is actually a bit like some ideas of Descartes and Berkeley, hundreds of years ago. Even if there turns out to be nothing in it, the fact that you have got into the habit of thinking crazy things could mean that at some point you are going to think of something that initially may seem rather way out, but turns out not to be crazy at all.
