Anyone that has ever had a truly lucid dream would seriously question this reality. I've had lucid dreams that are as vivid as this waking life

By day I am a realist painter capable of achieving close to photoreal levels of fidelity to nature through careful study and observation of nature from life. Many of the principles that hold the visual experience together to a high degree must be well understood to do this. Not that most of the realism isn't gained by roundabout methods but knowing how the visual experience works has been incredibly useful in cobbling together my illusions.

For instance, specular reflectivity results in the glossy reflections we see on the surface of mirror like surfaces and they are the byproduct of light rays reflecting from the environment at the angle of incidence with the rays evenually entering the eye and falling on the retina. This principle, "the angle of incidence equal the angle of reflection", is similar to how a pool ball banks off the wall of a pool table. These reflections change shape on the shiny surfaces with the slightest movement of the eye.

That being said, in my most lucid dreams, I have been able to observe these reflections change shape in photorealistic manner in my dreams with such predictability that I have been able to measure them. Yes measure them.

How do I measure them you might ask, with a knitting needle of course. In my painting process, a knitting needle is used to measure graduations on the picture plane (visual image received by the retina) to a very fine degree. It is a common aid to all good draftsmen, a centuries old practice. Anyone who has ever studied the reflections on water would know that the reflection seen on the water of an object in the distance, lets say a mountain in the distance, is visually SHORTER in appearance on the picture plane that the actual object, and as one approaches the mirror-like water surface, this reflection grows in relation to eventually equal the height of the mountain seen on the picture plane. This ratio changes with the viewers' proximity to the water.

In my lucid dreams I have walked closer to and further away from puddles and ponds measuring the size of the reflections in relation to the reflected object and have found that this relationship holds up strikingly well.

In computer graphics or in perspective drawing, finding this ratio is an operation of geometrical projections through a series of points in space through a receiving surface, yet in my dreams my mind is able to replicate this relationship without having to carry out any of that work... the mind just creates it on the fly without running any geometrical operations or casting any rays.

It is my opinion that if this is really a simulation, our brains operate as "nodes" connected to some sort of server. After all, they say we only use a small portion of our brains, so maybe the processing power to create this reality for us all in a highly individualized manner is more than ample and for some of us lucky enough to awaken within our dreams, we get to see another highly convincing reality created without any physically external stimuli.

I have also concided the whole "if a tree falls in the forest" concept and how it applies to the simulation theory and anyone who has worked on games or simulations would know that there are very simple methods for processing only what falls within the camera's view/frustrum to reserve processing power and I thought that it was applicable.

Anyways, just some food for thought. I won't be defending any of this against the flaming that is inherently coming based on the level of contention in the other thread that is pinned but I figured I would put it out there for anyone who is looking for another perspective.

Peace everyone, make the simulation great again.