In the episode.. I mentioned a detail I encountered in my research that stuck with me. I think it may be the earliest reference to the “simulation hypothesis”: the idea that the observable universe could be a computer simulation. Wikipedia will tell you that this theory dates to 2003.
Greg Bear in the 1987 novel “Eon” describes a virtual “afterlife“ where both the world and the people in it are simulated.
He also describes a theory where you could design a system in such a way that the simulated people wouldn’t be able to tell the true state of the world.
And (spoiler alert) he also introduces an Alien race that has discovered algorithms that let them subvert the simulation.
Indeed, the demon of Descartes predates the Brain in Vat hypothesis put forward in modern terms, using a computer, by Hilary Putnam around 1968 (same year?! idk..)
