GTA 6 Is Almost Real. So Are We in a Game?
GTA 6 comes out November 19 and lets millions of people drive around a Florida that isn't real. I live in the real Florida, and it got me wondering: what if the real one is a game too?
We go from one white dot (Pong, 1972) to a whole state in 54 years, learn the secret every game uses, look at Nick Bostrom's famous 2003 idea, check three clues (clues, not proof), see how scientists actually tried to test it, and then find the world builder that's much closer than any computer: your own brain. Try the blind spot test at 7:16!
Our animation is our own art. No game footage or game art is used.
Chapters
- 0:00 Florida at 7 p.m. (opens in a new tab)
- 0:48 From Pong to GTA 6 (opens in a new tab)
- 1:54 Every game is a flipbook (opens in a new tab)
- 2:26 Games in 1,000 years (opens in a new tab)
- 3:05 Bostrom's big idea (opens in a new tab)
- 4:06 Three clues (opens in a new tab)
- 5:46 Can we test it? (opens in a new tab)
- 7:07 The twist: your brain (opens in a new tab)
- 8:23 So, are we in a game? (opens in a new tab)
Sources
- Nick Bostrom, "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?" (2003): https://simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf (opens in a new tab)
- Beane, Davoudi & Savage, "Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation" (2012): https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.1847 (opens in a new tab)
- GTA 6 trailer record (Guinness World Records, Dec 2023), GTA 6 release Nov 19, 2026 (Rockstar Games)
- Music: YouTube Audio Library (After Sunset, Horizons, Majestic-12 by Alex Jones / Xander Jones; Cued For Liftoff, Pong the Atmosphere, Lark in the Dark by Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, Tone Seeker)
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