The core premise has similarities with the idea that we all live inside a simulated universe. It has been pointed out—for example, by the philosopher Nick Bostrom—that if just a few extremely advanced technological species run simulations of their ancestors, the potentially enormous number of such simulations would make it more likely for us to be in one of those simulations rather than the real universe. But there might be tests that would reveal that our reality is simulated. For example, we might find that our reality is discretized. Or we might be able to crash the system by conducting our own simulations of virtual realities, causing the equivalent of a stack overflow; too many nested simulations would overload the host computer. If the system has safeguards to prevent this, we might encounter them as we attempt to perform nested computations and find ourselves inexplicably unable to do so.
Perhaps life embedded in what we call physics would have similar revealing traits. Dysfunctions, mistakes, mutations, or other inconsistencies could conceivably show themselves. Variations in the fundamental constants or scaling of physical laws at different locations in time or space might be a signature.
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