> This reminds me of when you first watch the Matrix. If you're young, you spend a while thinking "But it could all just be a simulation!" Until you finally realize that yes, it could all just be a simulation, but it doesn't matter. You grasp the really cool part of the concept -- we all live on computers -- and forget that details and practical implications -- simulated people living in a simulation and real people living in reality aren't really different. So it doesn't matter.

That's the basic premise of what I think is a pretty cool philosophical paper: The Matrix as Metaphysics by David Chalmers. http://consc.net/papers/matrix.html