In La Simulation, an investigative book published this April 16, Loïc Hecht dives into the heart of a theory that has fascinated the world of tech for years: what if we lived in a computer simulation?
The JDN. What gave you the idea to investigate simulation theory with your book Simulation?
Loïc Hecht. It all started about ten years ago: I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, driven by the feeling that everything that was invented there would sooner or later end up sweeping into our lives. And I came across an article in the New Yorker dedicated to Sam Altman, who was still unknown outside the circle of new technology enthusiasts, and he had just created OpenAI. The portrait explained that Musk and Altman were absolutely terrified that humanity could one day be enslaved by artificial intelligence and decided to create OpenAI to thwart this possibility.
It also discussed a related topic that regularly comes up in Silicon Valley discussions, namely the possibility that we are living in a simulation. The journalist specified that two billionaires would have even secretly hired a team of scientists to find a flaw in reality in order to validate this hypothesis and potentially free us from the matrix. This is where this investigation started.
What are the arguments put forward by those who think they live in a simulation?
First, it must be clarified that these people I met are not at all conspiracy theorists who think the earth is flat and have no solid scientific knowledge. We’re talking about individuals who are astrophysicists at NASA, artificial intelligence researchers at Berkeley, mathematicians at Caltech, philosophers of mind… In short, people who have an impressive pedigree and diplomas. Throughout the discussions, I realized that if they can allow themselves to put forward this hypothesis, it is because there are indeed a certain number of elements in what we understand about the functioning of reality which can go in this direction.
Thus, quantum physics teaches us that material reality, which seems extremely tangible and real to us, is ultimately nothing more than an empty field with atoms, particles which rotate very quickly. Our feeling of materiality is therefore, somewhere, illusory.
Furthermore, quantum physics has discovered that until it is measured, reality exists only as a set of probabilities. Reality is not defined, not materialized until we decide to access it. To put it somewhat schematically, reality at the quantum level functions as a sort of cloud of probabilities which, when observed, condenses into a single drop.
How is this element advanced in favor of simulation theory?
The way we do simulations ourselves is quite similar. For example, when you play a video game like GTA, the game does not render the map at all points, at all times, otherwise the console would not have enough computing power and the game would crash. The player therefore simply sees what he needs to see, when he needs it. Extrapolated to the real world, this could imply that if, for example, there is no one looking at the Moon, the Moon does not exist, because the universe does not need to render it.
We could also mention the fact that the more we understand how reality works, the more we are able to summarize it in a fairly simple way, in mathematical equations which are always shorter. Or the fact that ultimately, there is a degree of granularity of reality below which we cannot go, the Planck constant. If we continue our analogy, we can wonder if this constant is not the equivalent of the pixel in our reality.
How do proponents of simulation theory seek to prove its validity?
To prove that we are indeed living in a simulation, we must find the famous anomaly: the glitch! These people I talk to in the book have all sorts of suggestions for how to do this. Some look into the diffuse background of the cosmos to see if there are any oddities in the way light travels, a bit like going to the end of the map in a video game, and trying to find the place where the seam cracks, where the player’s arm passes through, because you are at the place where the game is reaching its limit. However, we are not technologically capable of doing this.
I also met a researcher, Tom Campbell, who imagined a quantum physics experiment derived from Young slits. This is one of the epics of the book, the details of which I will not reveal so as not to spoil the suspense, but I enjoyed spending time with this researcher who strives to find a way to demonstrate his theory.
You also spoke with scientists from NASA, who are obviously very interested in the idea of simulation…
Indeed, one of the important characters in the book is called Richard Terrile, he is a NASA astrophysicist, and one of the directors of the Jet Propulsion Lab program, which is one of the most prestigious departments of the house. He was the first to explain to me the analogy with GTA, the fact that discoveries in physics mean that it is not completely crazy to imagine that we could live in a simulation. Given the scale of progression of video games, he believes that it is not absurd to think that in ten years, we will be able to produce simulations absolutely indistinguishable from reality.
But what is particularly interesting about him is that he sees in simulation theory a way of rethinking what we believe to be reality. According to him, we cannot rule out the idea that our reality functions in a resolutely computational manner, with information as the matrix of reality, more than matter.
Your investigation also takes on a resolutely metaphysical aspect by focusing on the roots of consciousness, a quest that takes you to India to interact with Hindu sages and the spiritual assistant of the Dalai Lama. How do we move from simulation theory to the exploration of oriental wisdom?
In a completely natural way: I realized quite quickly that the real subject of my investigation was, beyond simulation, to understand what reality is, and the way in which consciousness interacts with it, a question which runs through the history of philosophy and spiritual traditions. Buddhism has, for example, held for more than 2,500 years that there are two levels of reality, the conventional reality, in which we evolve, which is perceived by our senses, and another higher level of reality, which we fail to perceive, precisely because we are too attached to this conventional reality. We also find this idea in Hinduism, which postulates that reality is an illusion created by a veil called the veil of Maya. “An extremely tenacious illusion”, to use a famous phrase from Einstein. Here again, there is an analogy to be made with the discoveries of quantum physics, which shows us that reality is not as solid as we believe.
This exploration of oriental spiritualities led me to another stage of my investigation, which consists of exploring the hypotheses of consciousness. The dominant hypothesis, which is that of neuroscience, is that consciousness is the product of the brain. But there is another hypothesis, on which many scientists are working, which I will let you discover in the book.
Loïc Hecht, La Simulation: investigation into the theory that fascinates Silicon Valley (what if our world did not exist?). Paris, Les Arènes, April 16, 2026.
