What is reality and how do we know we are actually living in it, especially when life gets so weird sometimes? Currently, people are talking about glitches in the matrix on TikTok – videos on the topic have racked up over 1.7 billion views. Essentially, a glitch in the matrix is shorthand for when something in our day-to-day life happens that cannot be explained logically. For example: in one video, a TikToker explains looking for her glasses, finding them in her car and then the next day finding a second pair in the exact same spot. She only owns one pair, so where did the second come from? These videos are pretty jarring, appearing to call reality into question.

We’re talking simulation theory: the concept where some people believe we are living in a complex, video game-esque world like The Sims. They believe the world as we understand it might not be real. The theory is nothing new: science fiction author Philip K Dick tried to convince his fans the theory was true in the 1970s. It gained traction again in 2003, after Swedish philosopher and Oxford professor Nick Bostrom published a seminal paper titled ‘Are we living in a computer simulation?’. Fast forward to today and in the age of AI, mass surveillance, and the internet, the idea has gone mainstream: even Elon Musk has got on board with it, explaining he believes the odds of us living in the physical universe, or as he put it ‘base reality’, are billions to one. 

“One of the reasons the theory became so popular was because we couldn’t prove that we weren’t in a simulation,” explains Ashley Christine, who is a STEM communicator, who helps people understand more about science, technology, and mathematics. “In the STEM world, not being able to prove something can be as controversial as proving it. What started as a challenge in philosophical thinking – ‘what is reality, what is consciousness?’ – has now become kind of a collective existential crisis, especially with the advancements in VR, which wasn’t even much of an element in the early 2000s,” she explains.

Jessica, based in Long Island, New York, has been receiving 50 to 100 emails per week of people sharing their ‘glitch in the matrix’ stories. Videos posted to her TikTok @tessicavision have acquired 13.2 million likes, as she shares people’s encounters or theories behind our reality. “At the present moment, I have 5,842 unread emails in my inbox,” she tells Dazed. “We have built a beautiful, accepting community where our motto is ‘we believe you’.” She doesn’t necessarily believe we are living in a computer simulation, but rather that “we are all fragments of the universe... I believe that most glitches in the matrix can be explained by the fact that we are living in a multiverse, with many different universes and timelines and energetic layers and frequencies.” She believes that most people write their experiences off due to fear of ridicule, but TikTok helps unite people with like-minded others.

What kind of glitches feature in these videos? They oscillate between the silly and the genuinely unsettling. For example, one person tries to prove we’re glitching because there was an extra case in her box of Ferrero Roche (spooky). Some seem edited, or are just optical illusions – like a moving plane in the air which appears to be standing still. But some are tricky to debunk: like this video where a woman appears to totally disappear behind Scarlett Johanson’s back. In March 2023, @jasangxl’s shared her eerie ‘glitch in the matrix’ story on TikTok. After having her lighter break on a night out, she returned home only for her girlfriend to find the exact same lighter, but now in her pocket and working. They had two red lighters, the broken one and one they knew was at home which was still there. But now they had three red lighters, one broken, one from home – and one which appeared to have materialised out of thin air.

How do we account for stories like these? “I think that, whether we are in a simulation or not, the most likely explanation for reports like this are combinations of psychological and sociological factors – hallucinations, misperceptions…and perhaps in some cases, lies,”  says Bostrom. Still, while Bostrom says he is “reticent” to quantify his degree of belief in the simulation hypothesis, he does say that he believes “the simulation argument is sound and we should take it seriously”.

“Although the concept and idea of living in a simulation sounds just about as insane as believing the earth is flat, there are several reasons why I believe in the idea of simulation,” adds Peter*, a physics student who wishes to remain anonymous. He believes we are ‘Sims’-like characters in a world where AI’s capabilities are rapidly advancing. “We were placed in a simulation of earth, with no trace back to our creators. We don’t know their purpose or who our creators are because we didn’t have the capacity to learn at the time,” he says.

“I believe our creators are ridiculously advanced beyond our comprehension, like a God, in a way. Our creators and their universe are far more complex than us,” Peter continues. Bostrom spoke of our “creators” too, referring to a theory that they are “posthuman”. Posthumans, in simple terms, are futuristic super humans whose skills and intellect far surpasses our own. “If we are in a simulation, the simulators would be extremely technologically advanced and would presumably be some type of superintelligent posthumans or AI,” Bostrom explains. 

Will we ever know for sure if we are in a simulation? According to Bostrom, “in some simulations, the simulators might reveal to the simulated observers that they are simulated, either while the simulation is still ongoing or afterwards if those minds are lifted out of the simulation”.  Christine adds that she thinks the odds are 50/50, but adds that “whenever you see those kinds of odds, it means people have no idea.”

“Trying to prove an entity exists when it can outsmart you, seems like a fruitless endeavour,” she surmises. “It’s not arguable, and it’s not falsifiable. The general consensus is: if you can’t prove or disprove something, is it even science?”