A Glitch in the Matrix is available now on the web.
A Glitch in the Matrix is available now on the web.
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Rodney Ascher: Why A Glitch in the Matrix feels so real

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 12 min

A Glitch in the Matrix is a new film by Rodney Ascher about simulation theory, which is a fascinating confluence of science fiction and fact. It’s about people who believe that we are living in a computer simulation, and that nothing about reality is real.

The idea was first posed in a 1977 speech by science-fiction author Philip K. Dick (the mind behind Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle), who said that we only notice the unreality when a glitch occurs. The film delves into people who have gone down this rabbit hole and believe that it’s true.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.