By Neil Eldred
Last summer, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk created a stir when he shared his belief that the odds are high that we are living in a 
computer simulation.
The simulation argument has its supporters and detractors. What separates these two camps is any observable evidence that we are living in a simulation, or not.
Absent evidence, debating the simulation hypothesis is a futile exercise in mental masturbation.
But how do you prove that what we think of as reality is false? It’s not like we can look behind yonder hill and see the computer hardware running our real-time matrix.
Hiccups in Reality
We have to look for more direct evidence. The evidence for a simulation is likely held in natural, common phenomenon that we overlook. Indeed, we take them for granted.
I call these hiccups in reality.
Hiccups are flaws in the simulation. You can think of them as places where the code is corrupt. However, unlike flaws in our computers’ codes, hiccups do not cause major disruptions. The creators of the simulation’s code are too clever for that…if they and the code exist.
Hiccups become hard to overlook once you identify them. But the problem is taking apart your everyday experiences—methodically—and studying them like a twelve year old boy finding a Babe Ruth rookie card at a garage sale trying to discern if it’s real.
Learning to do that is the first step.
Then, if you’re fortunate, you may find a hiccup.
And I would like to propose a candidate.
A Possible Hiccup in the Computer Simulation
My candidate for a hiccup is controversial. Like living in a simulation, this hiccup has its detractors that scoff at its existence.
But I think whether or not you agree in the reality of this phenomena, the exercise of examining it has value. At the least, turning the question over provides incite that may inform the analysis of other hiccups.
The candidate is the Déjà vu.
Wikipedia defines a Déjà vu as “the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or an experience currently being experienced has already been experienced in the past.”
With Déjà vu, the seemingly original experience of the present is familiar. We feel, quite convincingly, that we have already lived it once, and are doing so again.
A Hiccup in reality.
Why Déjà vu should be Considered a Sign of Living in a Simulation
Déjà vu is often explained by science as memory based phenomenon rather than the popular notion of precognitive experience. Or, in other words, you are remembering a similar event; you are not having a vision of the future.
And that is fine. The explanation of Déjà vu as a memory is what gives it hiccup status. Just not in the way our current understanding of science intended.
I propose that rather than an experiencer of Déjà vu accessing a chronologically previous memory, another occurrence is taking place.
We are all familiar with having to reboot our computers and phones (at least Windows users are). Hardware malfunctions require that we power down our device so that it can correct the issue. Restarting a computer or phone fixes many issues.
Once a system has been rebooted, it stands ready to resume normal operations.
I propose that a Déjà vu is a simulated being undergoing a reboot. Once the reboot is complete, the being stands ready to pursue normal operations.
How Déjà vu Self-corrects the Simulation We are Living In
Whatever advanced beings or artificial intelligence (AI) launched the simulation of our universe—if we do live in a simulation—they probably don’t have the will or resources to monitor it continuously.
They would set certain malfunctions to self-correct.
Beings that become corrupted, or fail, would logically be programmed to repair themselves. Otherwise, beings would be freezing in place, or vanishing. These are problems that would not keep the true state of the simulated state of our universe from us.
So corrupted beings reboot.
As part of the reboot, a being would once again have to reach a state of readiness to act. This readiness would include becoming conscious.
(Because we cannot, yet, create conscious computer hardware or software does not predispose some future race, species, or AI from being able to do so.)
We would become conscious of our surroundings, again.
To avoid a break with the simulated reality, rebooting beings would become conscious of surroundings, events, actions that they were aware of before the reboot. They then become aware of the surroundings, events, actions a second time.
The rebooted being has the sensation of familiarity, of going through this a second time.
In short, she experiences a Déjà vu.
Or a hiccup in reality.
Experimenting with Rebooting the Simulation
Unfortunately, Déjà vu is an unpredictable phenomenon. This makes it an elusive incident for study.
I have had several occurrences of Déjà vu in my life, but none in the last decade. So waiting around for a Déjà vu event in the hopes of studying it seems futile.
Our hopes of pursuing this wonder, and seeing if it can inform whether we live in a simulation, may best in discovering what causes us to reboot.
Why do we malfunction?
If it is possible to learn this, we can reboot at will.
We can have multiple beings reboot and compare their Déjà vu.
We can measure the energy around a rebooting being. It may also be possible to detect signals received during a Déjà vu from the simulations hardware.
Déjà vu may represent our best method of detecting a simulated universe. Very few empirical resources have been directed against this phenomenon.
Who knows what we will learn?
Do you think we are living in a simulation? Tell us what you think below.