2017 was an odd year. We had the first solar eclipse visible across the U.S in nearly 100 years, the flat earth movement is gaining steam, and “alternative facts” became a real thing. Perhaps, all of this can be explained by the theory we are living in a simulated reality.

In 2003 Oxford Philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper entitled, “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” The theory posited that one of three possibilities for the future must be true. The first two lay out the very plausible paths to the idea that we do not, in fact, live in a simulation. The third, as Bostrom explained to Vice News, it that “it's literally the hypothesis that we and everything around us that we see exists because it is implemented on some computer built by some advanced civilization.”

The theory has ardent supporters in Silicon Valley, including Elon Musk. But others are not so sure. Lisa Randall, Professor of Science at Harvard University told us, “It's just not much of a theory, it's just an idea. I don't really understand why so many people are thinking about it right now either. there's a lot of hubris in thinking that this is what's happening.”

VICE News spoke to Bostrom, Randall and Columbia Professor Brian Greene about this theory.