SciFi movies released in 1999…pick your favorite.

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@roberre @csgordon @go_shrumm @fzzlkfly @philosophy

Well, a properly designed simulation would presumably take measures to toy with our perceptions, so I would not look to perception as the way to judge this.

There are some good Star Trek episodes that explore and exploit this concept of perceiving simulation. Ship in a Bottle, for example, but there are several more.

You'd want to do some investigative work to find things other than mere perception to judge whether you were inside a simulation. Determining if there were boundaries or limits of granularity. In one Star Trek episode, the computer starts to slow down when asked unexpected questions that cause it to have to conjure simulation faster than it can keep up with.

Studies of the quantum realm or distant astrophysics can provide worthy avenues of study. Trying to figure out whether quantum randomness is truly random or not (I think it's believed to be).

The strongest evidence against "free will" that appeals to me is that there is no known situation in which free will has ever been documented to violate what physics would have done absent free will. That a willful universe would stay consistent with an unwillful one is very odd, and it's easier for me just to accept the lack of will, that we are reactive and rationalizing, not pro-active and rational.

Greg Bear, in his excellent novel Moving Mars, offers a model where (if memory serves, it's been a while) quantum randomness serves as a distributed bank, kind of like the "give a penny, take a penny" things near cash registers, so if you have to violate physics you can repair the bookkeeping locally by fudging the randomness. It's a clever concept for a book. Whether it would work in "reality" (and I use the term with some amusement), is hard to say.

Also, in the same year as The Matrix there was another film that was much more elegant and thoughtful on similar topics but got less press: The Thirteenth Floor. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/)
With excellent performances by Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent D'onofrio, I might add. If you have not seen that movie, I highly recommend it. By contrast, I found it hard to take The Matrix seriously. YMMV.

Back to perception, then there's always John Carpenter's 1974 cult-classic Dark Star. :) The phenomenology scene with the (smart) bomb is a classic. Relevant excerpts here (13:17) on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/86186993. Though if you're in more of a hurry you might prefer here (4:25) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73PsFKtIck. The shorter one captures the critical scene but without useful context.

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