ABSTRACT
In 2002, in the US state of Ohio, Tonda Lynn Ansley was tried for the murder of her landlord. Ansley defended herself by saying that she believed she was living in the Matrix, in reference to the film trilogy of the same name. In this series of Hollywood movies, the Matrix is a computer simulation in which the overwhelming majority of humans live. Yet, famous scientists like Stephen Hawking do not hesitate to seriously consider the Matrix hypothesis. Nick Bostrom even offers a very convincing argument in favor of this hypothesis: if technology allows it, it’s reasonable to think that humans would prefer to ski down virtual ski slopes where the cold is not freezing and where avalanches will not endanger their physical integrity. It’s even possible to go further into obscure metaphysical theories. An extreme theory is Last-Thursdayism. According to this theory, the whole universe was created last Thursday.
