According to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, the chances are pretty good that we're currently existing not in the "real world," but instead are a vast computer simulation created by a future, further advanced version of ourselves. Basically, Bostrom argues that because computing power will advance to the point where a system could be built that could simulate every brain on earth, future "posthumans" could set up an "ancestor simulator" that would be indistinguishable from real life for the inhabitants.
While Bostrom thinks there's a 20% chance of our entire world being a computer simulation, John Tierney of the New York Times thinks the odds are closer to even.
Cheer up though, even if it's true and this is really all happening in the PC of some future Bill Gates, it's not so bad, as long as the computer isn't running Windows. That Blue Screen of Death would be a really lame way to go.
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