Are we Living in a Simulation?

 I stumbled across a conspiracy theory that went, amongst other directions, to this:

We're living in a simulation, and in 2012, it crashed, and we got moved to another instance. And that's why everything has been worse.

Another variant has that the universe was destroyed in 2012 and we were rescued...to live in a simulation. (I'm reminded of a book I read in which a simulated universe was crashing and because of legal rules the only way to get all the users out and into the real world was to kill everyone...)

The idea that the universe is a computer simulation circulates every so often. But do we? How would we know?

And would it make any difference?

Scientists now say the odds are even. There is literally a 50/50 chance we're living in a simulation. One argument is that if it's possible to simulate the universe, it's more likely we're in the simulation, not the original.

And one way we might know is that if we ever create our own simulated universe with conscious beings inside, we're probably the original.

I'd argue it doesn't make much difference. Well, except it might be an argument in favor of polytheism. Of a sort.

Maybe 2020 is the year the professor took a sabbatical and left their research assistants in charge...