(Photo: Dan-Dare.org)

Possibly stoned NASA scientists have already conjectured that we may live inside a computer, much to the delight of Matrix fans. Now, researchers at the University of Washington--a state which just legalized recreational marijuana!--are planning the first-ever test to determine whether or not our world really is a super sophisticated computer simulation. Duuuuude.

The truth is we're still many years away from possessing the supercomputing power to simulate even a significant fraction of the universe. But fear not! Some physicists believe that by searching for patterns within the working model of the universe that we do have, we may be able to "detect 'signatures' of constraints on physical processes." The test will help determine whether or not our entire lives have been one big joke devised by a technologically advanced future species that invented this whole "Snapchat trend" just to see our boobs, which they probably made out of space material.

The test will take many years to accurately complete. For now, allow your mind to be blown by the notion that we could all just be avatars on a future child's starter computer.

(Photo: The Film League)

A NASA scientist would like to legitimize that highdea you had one time in college: What if we all live inside a computer, man? How fucking trippy would that be?

Vice found the one NASA scientist who isn't afraid to sound like a stoned kook, and we kind of want to be his best friend. Rich Terrile, director at the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, argues that there's a distinct possibility that our world could actually be a computer game generated by a programmer from the future, Matrix-style.

Writes Vice:

The essence of Rich’s theory is that a “programmer” from the future designed our reality to simulate the course of what the programmer considers to be ancient history—for whatever reason, maybe because he’s bored.

According to Moore’s Law, which states that computing power doubles roughly every two years, all of this will be theoretically possible in the future. Sooner or later, we’ll get to a place where simulating a few billion people—and making them believe they are sentient beings with the ability to control their own destinies—will be as easy as sending a stranger a picture of your genitals on your phone.

What if we're all pawns in a game being played by a bored Mountain Dew-chugging neckbeard? Mind. Blown.

(Photo: Imgur)