Are We Already Living in a Simulation?
Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you were there?
Most of us shrug it off as a lapse in concentration. But what if it was something more? What if that glitch, along with déjà vu, sudden flashes of insight, or the eerie feeling you’re being watched, wasn’t your mind playing tricks, but the code cracking at the edges?
That’s the unsettling question behind the Simulation Hypothesis, a theory that has migrated from fringe philosophy into the heart of science, technology, and fiction.
Oxford professor Nick Bostrom took it seriously. Elon Musk says it's "almost certain." And iconic sci-fi tales like The Matrix, Dark City, and Westworld all suggest the same possibility:
If a civilization can create perfect simulations, how do we know we’re not in one?
The Limits of the Real
If our universe is a simulation, it might have telltale signs. Quantum randomness may be the system reacting only when observed. The speed of light could be a cosmic rendering limit. Gravity might be a shortcut to compress reality across dimensions. Even memory gaps or time slippages might reflect resets or loopbacks.
And if none of this is real, what happens when a character becomes aware? What does a simulated mind do with real emotions, real pain, real hope?
These questions echo through science, religion, and fiction alike.
They also echo through Return to the Galaxy.
The Hidden Layer Beneath the Stars
I won’t say that the characters in Return to the Galaxy are living in a simulation.
But beneath the surface, there are cracks.
Old myths hint at designers. Galactic maps reveal regions that should not exist. Other regions that are strangely empty of all life. Some beings speak of entire galactic regions and hundreds of civilisations that have simply been… deleted. Jera, an AI, begins to suspect that even his creators did not fully understand the lattice of forces beneath reality.
What You Helped Build
Return to the Galaxy recently climbed to #7,025 on Amazon.com, placing it in the top 0.1% of all books on the entire platform.Not only in science fiction, but in any genre. That means, out of the millions of titles on Amazon, fewer than one in 1,000 are ranked higher.
It also now has well over 120 Amazon reviews and a 4.5-star rating. That kind of momentum for a debut novel is extremely rare, and it's all thanks to you, those who bought, read, reviewed, and told others and especially to those of you who pulled it back from its near disastrous launch.
So, if you're reading this, you're not just part of the story. You're part of the success.
Reach for the Galaxy Launches July 29
Hundreds of readers have already pre-ordered Book 2, Reach for the Galaxy, which launches in four days’ time. If you’re one of them, thank you.
If not, now is your moment.
Reach for the Galaxy continues the saga with more betrayals, more revelations, and a deeper descent into the mystery hinted at in Book 1. If RTTG was the spark, this is the firestorm.
To celebrate:
If you pre-order Book 2 by midnight Monday, July 28, and email me the receipt, you’ll be entered into a draw to have a character named after you in Book 4.
One male name. One female name.
You’ve read the books. Now you could be in them.
Only three days left to enter:
Final Thought
There’s a theory that says the universe began with a Big Bang. Another that says it began seventeen minutes ago, with all your memories preloaded.
Maybe neither is true.
Maybe reality is what we choose to believe in. Or maybe we’re just flickers of data in someone else’s dream.
Whatever the truth is, I’m grateful you’re here, choosing to spend time in mine.