Are we living in a computer-driven simulation? For some machine to be able to conjure up our whole reality, it needs to be amazingly powerful, able to keep track of an incalculable number of variables. Consider the course of just one human lifetime, with all of the events it entails, all the materials, ideas and people that one interacts with throughout an average lifespan. Then multiply that by about a hundred billion souls that have graced this planet with their presence so far. The interactions between all these people, as well as the interactions between all the animals, plants, bacterium, planetary bodies, really all the elements we know and don't know to be a part of this world, is what constitutes the reality you encounter today. Simulated reality is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated, for example by quantum computer simulation to a degree indistinguishable from 'true' reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation.