According to Hoffman's theory, what lies 'outside the headset' of our perception is not physical. Instead, the fundamental layer of reality consists of a network of interacting observers or 'conscious agents.' These can be described mathematically (as Markov chains), and our perceived physical world, including spacetime, is a projection generated by their interactions.
Extending the simulation theory, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argues that your physical components, like neurons, do not exist persistently. They are rendered into existence only in the moment of perception by an observer. If a neuroscientist observes your brain, the neurons exist in their perception, but they were never 'your' neurons in an objective, independent sense.
Our identities, passions, and achievements are temporary roles we play within the 'game' of life. Meditation and self-reflection reveal that our true self is not these roles but the silent consciousness that can step back and observe them without identification. This 'player' transcends the 'avatar,' just as a gamer is separate from their in-game character.
A potential model for reality is that a single, fundamental consciousness is the only thing that exists. Individual lives, like those of Tom Bilyeu and Donald Hoffman, are merely different avatars or perspectives that this one consciousness adopts to explore and understand itself. Dying is akin to taking off the avatar's headset and returning to this unified whole.
If spacetime is a simulated 'headset,' then understanding the underlying 'code' would allow for its direct manipulation. This would unlock technologies that make current feats, like nuclear bombs, seem like 'firecrackers.' Such a breakthrough would mean transcending the established rules of physics, such as the speed of light, by operating outside the simulation.
Leading theoretical physicists, like Nima Arkani-Hamed, now posit that spacetime is not the base layer of reality. It's an emergent construct, similar to a VR headset's interface, projected from a deeper, non-physical framework. This is a consensus among many high-energy physicists exploring what lies beyond quantum field theory and gravity.
The Nobel Prize-winning discovery that the universe is not locally real suggests it operates like a video game engine, rendering reality only when an interaction or measurement occurs. This principle of computational efficiency, along with the universe having a minimum pixel size (Planck scale) and tick speed, strongly supports the simulation metaphor for reality.
Unlike Newtonian physics which ignores the observer, quantum mechanics has two different rule sets: one for when a system is unobserved (unitary evolution) and one for when it is (collapse of the wave function). This centrality of the observer, despite having no accepted scientific model, suggests that observation itself is a fundamental aspect of how reality is constructed.
No scientific theory is absolute truth; each is a model based on assumptions it cannot prove. A truly great theory, like Einstein's, not only explains phenomena but also provides the tools to discover its own limitations. For general relativity and quantum mechanics, this limit is the Planck scale, where the concept of spacetime becomes meaningless, proving its own incompleteness.
Physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed discovered that brutally complex calculations for particle collisions, which took entire careers to solve, can be simplified by finding their equivalent geometric shapes (positive geometries) outside of spacetime. Calculating the volume of these shapes gives the same answer, suggesting reality's underlying structure is geometric and exists beyond our perceived dimensions.