Many scientists have speculated that our universe is a simulation. Without a major interruption in technological progress, within the next 100 years (a very short time in comparison to the span of human existence) we will have developed computers capable of generating an entire universe down to every atom.
Depending on the computational capacity required, this could be done millions of times at the behest of humans or AI. Following this logic, it is therefore more probable that we are living in a simulation than the 'original' universe.
My initial problem with this theory was basic. Why? Why would a human or an AI devote tremendous computational resources to generating these massive simulations? Our best virtual reality efforts today are generated for the entertainment of organic (we think) humans. It seems unlikely that VR's this intense would be generated for the entertainment of a human because they would necessarily have to be run at super fast speeds to produce anything usable. Imagining a benefit for an AI was even harder for me to conceive.
The answer came to me in the course of developing software for my small business. For the purposes of business valuation, we needed to develop business models from past data that could accurately predict future results, and the probabilities of various outcomes. Modeling was the answer.
An AI or a human scientist could use sophisticated models of the universe to unlock many of the universe's secrets. Gravitational behavior, the characteristics of light, the Big Bang, quantum physics - all could be rigorously tested with super sophisticated modeling. Each model of the universe would start with a small difference. As the time clock ran (at super fast speed) the model's outcomes would be compared to actual data. This process would continue until perfect models of the universe where created.
If our universe is a simulation, then apparently this model is using the same block of code for the generation of every electron. Perhaps randomizing the characteristics of electrons was an unnecessary use of computational capacity (understandable considering there are possibly 10 to the 80th power electrons in the universe). Perhaps the model only works if all electrons are the same.
In any case, the perfect similarity of every electron in the universe could be evidence that the universe is, in fact, a simulation.
