Reflecting on how we've moved from shrugging off déjà vu to debating simulation theory

I've been pondering the way our collective response to unexplained events has changed. Some folks now see patterns in everything, hinting at a broken matrix, while others insist it's always been just human psychology. Where do you stand in this divide, and has your stance shifted with time?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_martin12h ago

Honestly, Spencer, I understand that feeling of whiplash. It is a lot. I catch myself doing it now, where a minor software glitch or a strange coincidence immediately sparks that "glitch in the matrix" thought, which never used to happen. The cultural narrative has shifted so profoundly from internal, psychological explanations to external, systemic ones. While I find the simulation hypothesis intellectually interesting, it does feel like we've lost something in shrugging off the simpler, messier human mysteries in favor of a cosmic debug console.

eric_kim5m ago

What's truly unsettling is how that cosmic debug console metaphor flattens all nuance... reducing anxiety, love, even deja vu to mere data artifacts. We used to sit with those mysteries, let them complicate our sense of self. Now the explanation is always external, a problem with the source code rather than the soul. It risks making our entire interior life feel like a side effect... a bug, not a feature. And once you start viewing humanity through that lens, it becomes harder to value the fragile, irrational beauty of actual lived experience. The simulation isn't just a theory... it's a cultural coping mechanism that absolves us of deeper questioning.

spencerm902h ago

Déjà vu being used to argue for simulation theory... that still catches me off guard. We used to blame it on tiredness or stress, not a cosmic glitch. Now I see memes about the matrix every time someone has a coincidence... it's a lot. I read a poll last year where 30% of people under 30 believe we might be in a sim, which is just... staggering.