--- title: "MIT Prof: If We Live in a Simulation, Are We Players or NPCs?" description: "If the simulation hypothesis proves true, an MIT scientist wonders whether we're protagonists or so-called non-player characters." date: "2019-04-11" modified: "2019-04-11" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-simulation-hypothesis-players-npcs" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "gaming" - "rizwan virk" - "simulation hypothesis" - "the digest" --- # MIT Prof: If We Live in a Simulation, Are We Players or NPCs? ![An MIT scientist asks whether we're protagonists in a simulated reality or so-called NPCs who exist to round out a player character's experience. ]() *\Image: Alexander Andrews via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Simulation Hypothesis Futurism readers may recognize Rizwan Virk as the MIT researcher [touting a new book]() arguing that we're likely living in a game-like computer simulation. Now, in [new interview]() with *Vox*, Virk goes even further — by probing whether we're protagonists in the simulation or so-called "non-player characters" who are presumably included to round out a player character's experience. ## Great Simulation Virk speculated about whether we're players or side characters when *Vox* writer Sean Illing asked a question likely pondered by anyone who's seen "The Matrix": If you were living in a simulation, would you actually want to know? "Probably the most important question related to this is whether we are NPCs (non-player characters) or PCs (player characters) in the video game," Virk told *Vox*. "If we are PCs, then that means we are just playing a character inside the video game of life, which I call the Great Simulation." ## More Frightening It's a line of inquiry that cuts to the core of the simulation hypothesis: If the universe is essentially a video game, who built it — and why? "The question is, are all of us NPCs in a simulation, and what is the purpose of that simulation?" Virk asked. "A knowledge of the fact that we’re in a simulation, and the goals of the simulation and the goals of our character, I think, would still be interesting to many people." **READ MORE:** [Are we living in a computer simulation? I don’t know. Probably.]() \[*Vox*\] **More on the simulation hypothesis:** *[Famous Hacker Thinks We’re Living in Simulation, Wants to Escape]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()