adsii1970

Banned because you need to be banned.

Mine would not count; it exploded because it did the flippy thing and splatted on Kerbin. All ten Kermen died, but that happened in 0.90

Sorta. A severe migraine has me half-here, half-dead. What about @Angelo Kerman?

Pointing out @Scarecrow71 simply cheated? You cheated, @Venusian Explorer!

Does this count? And sadly, it's real... https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-woman-mcdonalds-911-twerk

No, you cannot request other forum members be renamed to something else. Besides, @Snark is @Snark and shall always be @Snark, and we like it that way.

"Not even God himself could sink this ship." April 10th, 1912 Captain Edward John Smith Captain, RMS Titanic

Hmmm. It's more strange forum behavior, but at least the tags are working on the thread itself. Lately, we have observed a lot of peculiar forum behavior.

As I said, it was a tough one this month. We’ve never had so many cinematic posts nominated at one time! It’s a shame we couldn’t have a three-way-tie!

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the Threads of the Month February 2024 Edition February is here! And that means it's time for the thread of the month. This month, we have a lot of great threads to highlight for you. So, without my usual blathering, let's get to it! Instructions on using the TOTM images: If your thread has been selected as a TOTM, you can copy the image's link above, go to the area of the forum where you want to place it, and then paste the link. Press the <CONTROL> button when the image appears and right-click on your mouse. A menu will drop down and allow you to edit the picture. You can resize it - the first number can be changed as large or small as you want. Eventually, I will add these images to the thread I've created as a repository. For those out there who like the nerdy parts of the TOTM: To continue what I started in May 2021, I have kept some forum statistics to respond to those claiming the forum was dying or interest in the Kerbal Space Program was declining. 279 new forum accounts were created in January (a decrease of 241, or down 46.34% from December). Out of the new forum members who joined last month, there were 34 who transitioned from new accounts to being active and participating in the forum. This conversion means 12.18% of the new users who registered their accounts last month are now contributing members of our community! (This is an increase from December; 5.00% of the new members became active and contributing members). If you're interested in seeing the new members of our forum, click here! Now, without further delay, I present to you the threads of the month for January: Cinematic-based Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a video or other form of cinematic of a Kerbal mission report using in-game video recorded gameplay. Note: This has changed. Instead of awarding this to a thread, this is a *post of the month* since most new cinematic works are posted in a single thread. We have a lot of great content creators, but because they've been posting their mission reports as videos in a single thread, most of their work goes unnoticed by the general forum audience. Hopefully, this change in the category to a Post of the Month (POTM) will highlight the great work done by these deserving content creators. Other threads containing cinematic posts will also be featured in this category. Many great content creators deserve this recognition since we were aware of the thread by @Halban: Post Your Cinematics Here! (Cinematic Enthusiasts) that serves as a repository for cinematic threads. The thread has received the TOTM previously, but it was felt that it wasn't enough for those who have shared your fabulous creations featuring our favorite Kerbalnauts. Instead of being a TOTM, I've changed it into a CPOTM - a Cinematic Post of the Month. This month, we had a lot of great nominees for this category - in fact, more than we have ever had since we began this category. Unfortunately, there can only be one CPOTM. The rest become honorable mentions and are carried over for consideration for next month's CPOTM. But for this month, there was a nomination that had the most nominations and received the most notice from the forum community - it was "Sending Steamboat Willie to Space" by @minerbat! You can find the cinematic here: Sometimes, the forum software will get glitchy, and an exact post may be a little hard to find, especially when it is buried in a long thread. In case this happens, here's @minerbat's cinematic presentation: If you encounter other cinematics you feel are worthy of being recognized as this category's post of the month, please nominate them! You can use the exact instructions to nominate a post containing a video as you would use to nominate a thread. Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a thread (or threads) that, while not directly Kerbal Space Program related, may be creative, fan-fiction, or other presentation related to the game. Each month, I share how I love the mission reports section of the forum. I enjoy reading the various fan fiction stories because it gives me insight into how many of you play the game. The stories and mission reports range from the whimsical to the more serious alternate history and include historical recreation. In this alternate timeline of the post-Apollo and Space Shuttle (STS) era, @Toaster355reimagines the progress of NASA. Here's where you'll find this thread: So, if you're interested in seeing some great screenshots of what KSP1 looks like, a "what if" construction of vehicles inspired by a "what if" reimagined post-STS American space program, this thread is a good example of what KSP can do! Forum Member Created Challenges and Missions: This category contains missions and challenges created by you, the members of our gaming community. Many excellent missions and challenges threads are created that expand our fun with the game and press our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck beyond what we get accustomed to. Let's face it: we all have our go-to design basics and our go-to vehicles we like to use. Sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals. There was no submission for this category this month. Game Support/Game Mod of the Month: This category features either help with the game (stock or modded) or mods that add quality-of-life gameplay improvements to the Kerbal Space Program. Sometimes, some mods are nominated, and my gut reaction is, "Yeah, we've needed this for quite a while!" This is one of those mods, and so far, this mod from @CashnipLeaf is showing a lot of promise! Since the early days of KSP1, most of us have wanted four things - more planets, clouds, weather, and hoses! Well, this mod strives to give us a part of weather - WIND EFFECTS! As noted in the OP: So, if you want to add another layer of infuriation challenge and realism to your game, here's a mod you need to check out: As always, we want to thank our family of mod contributors who continue to develop new and exciting mods that support our KSP1 community! General community threads of the month: This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories. Sometimes, we get nominations that do not neatly fit into any of the categories we already have. This nomination is one of these. It's not a mission report but offers a downloadable craft file for Kerbal Space Program 2! The thread's OP, @Mister Spock, sought help from the forum community for an issue with something that, for many of us - docking - became pretty simple in KSP. But, as we all know, there's a bit of a learning curve in KSP2. And our forum community, known for its genuine helpfulness, did not fail to disappoint. The TOTM award is not just for the OP but for everyone who offered advice. So, a big thank you to the community for reaching out! Thank you, @Bej Kerman, @The Aziz, @Dakitess, @gluckez, @Kerbart, @steveman0, @Meecrob, @Scarecrow71, @HebaruSan, @boolybooly, @Bingmao, and @jmbailey2000 (the only ones at the time of the TOTM was posted) for lending a hand). This thread is a great reminder of the vision of what our forum was always meant to be! The moderation team desires to thank everyone who extended their knowledge and assistance in the thread to help a fellow Keralnaut! General space flight and space science threads of the month: There was no submission for this category this month. Honorable Mentions: Sometimes, choosing which threads will be selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories is challenging. We get many good nominations each month but limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. The honorable mentions for this month are: 10 Kerbals Eve Mission by @ww1612 Happy New Year SSTO by @Madishmike How Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier - The Complete Mission - KSP RSS/RO by @kurgut Minecraft space program by @minerbat Under Pressure KSP2 Mission, Land 10 Kerbals on Eve and back by @astrobond The honorable mention for this month may not have made the Thread of The Month, but if you think it might be worth another opportunity, please renominate it! Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month! We want to thank our forum members @Mikki, @Poppa Wheelie, @Royalswissarmyknife, the moderation team members, and the staff who nominated this month's contenders. Thank you so much for helping us identify noteworthy threads and bringing their awareness to our forum community. We'd appreciate your continued help in the future. Odds and ends: TO NOMINATE A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered for next month's thread of the month, use the "Report a comment" feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the thread. Please put in the text field of the port post "Nomination for the thread of the month," and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GOES INTO THE DECISION WHEN CONSIDERING THE TOTM: Wonder no more! This helpful guide is to help you understand what we use to help determine what makes a thread a really good thread and one that becomes a thread of the month/cinematic post of the month. It's everything you did or didn't want to know and includes helpful tips. And the last word for this month's post: I'd like to thank a few people who trust me enough to continue supporting and allowing me to contribute to the forum. I want to thank the Lead Moderator, @Vanamonde, for bringing me on as a moderator, a decision I'm sure he has had moments where he often wonders why he did it. I'd also like to thank @PD_Dakota, our community manager, and @Nerdy_Mike, the KSP Franchise Community Lead, for tolerating me and allowing me to continue to serve our Kerbal Space Program forum community through the monthly Threads of the Month post. In case you missed last month's threads of the month, you can click here.

The time bug. Start the game. Play for a while, look at the clock and realize you’ve been in front of your PC for the last seven hours with very few breaks. and nothing else got done that day…

@Artinnio, Please visit this website and fill out the information. From what we've been told, it takes about four days (average) for it to be processed. https://privacyportal-cdn.onetrust.com/dsarwebform/3efb95b4-aed7-4aa8-85d8-488eb074fa8c/696c1409-ef27-4bca-b988-79b966eaeee0.html

I am trying to stay motivated to teach this term's college courses and moderate the forum. I really do not have time or energy for much else these days. My teenage daughter is playing Subnautica and Roblox and my cat is playing the game of dig through the clean laundry and bring my human all the socks I can find.

This is wheen I do most of my unhealthy binge eating. I am right there with you. Meh, I will still write '23 for the next week. The credit union, HR, and the Registrar's Office will love me until the second week of February.

It's that time when many of us engage in the annual tradition of making New Year's resolutions. I've noticed with mine that I often start making them with the best intentions and later abandon them. Last year, I had a lot of good intentions, but by April, many of them were no longer a part of the plan. As I started thinking about it, the one thing that makes the difference between the resolutions we keep and those we don't is accountability - who holds us accountable for what we do? This year, I wanted to try something different with my resolutions and share them with the forum family. I also invite you to do the same. Sure, there is some anonymity here, as most of us do not know each other in real life. However, there can still be a level of accountability and encouragement among forum community friends. If you want to participate in this great forum experiment, great! All I ask is you share your resolutions you are willing to share, encourage one another periodically, and share your progress as the year goes on. This way, we can encourage one another to keep our resolutions and these life-changing goals. I'll share the top four resolutions I've made for this year. I have others and may share them over the year (there are three more). So, with that in mind, here are the resolutions for 2024 that I will share: I want to be more careful about what I eat. I need to lose more weight. I've noticed the more weight I lose, the better I feel mentally and physically. I want to be more physically active this year. I want more time in my schedule for "me" activities. I want to spend less time worrying about work while I am at home.

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the Threads of the Month January 2024 Edition With the new year and month upon us, it is time for a new Threads of the Month! With the various themes we now have for the forum, the moderation team decided to try something different with the TOTM and CPOTM images - they are full color and now have backgrounds! We want to thank the art department of @Intercept Games and our community manager, @Dakota, for supplying us with Kerbals used for these images. Now that the old year is out and the new year is in, I like to start each year thinking of the new possibilities the new year brings with it. There are several things I am hoping to do this year; some involve the forum community, computer gaming, and other personal goals. I am sure you have some of those, too. I am also looking forward to seeing what we do within the community. Instructions on using the TOTM images: If your thread has been selected as a TOTM, you can copy the image's link above, go to the area of the forum where you want to place it, and then paste the link. Press the <CONTROL> button when the image appears and right-click on your mouse. A menu will drop down and allow you to edit the picture. You can resize it - the first number can be changed as large or small as you want. Eventually, I will add these images to the thread I've created as a repository. For those out there who like the nerdy parts of the TOTM: To continue what I started in May 2021, I have kept some forum statistics to respond to those claiming the forum was dying, or interest in the Kerbal Space Program was declining. There were 520 new forum accounts created in December (an increase of 262, or up 101.55% from November). Out of the new forum members who joined last month, there were 26 who transitioned from new accounts to being active and participating in the forum. This conversion means 5.00% of the new users who registered their accounts last month are now contributing members of our community! (This is a decrease from November; 5.81% of the new members became active and contributing members). If you're interested in seeing the new members of our forum, click here! Now, without further delay, I present to you the threads of the month for January: Cinematic-based Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a video or other form of cinematic of a Kerbal mission report using in-game video recorded gameplay. Note: This has changed. Instead of awarding this to a thread, this is a *post of the month* since most new cinematic works are posted in a single thread. We have a lot of great content creators, but because they've been posting their mission reports as videos in a single thread, most of their work goes unnoticed by the general forum audience. Hopefully, this change in the category to a Post of the Month (POTM) will highlight the great work done by these deserving content creators. Other threads containing cinematic posts will also be featured in this category. Yes, folks, that's right. An overhauled image just for the cinematic posts! Many great content creators deserve this recognition since we were aware of the thread by @Halban: Post Your Cinematics Here! (Cinematic Enthusiasts) that serves as a repository for cinematic threads. The thread has received the TOTM previously, but it was felt that it wasn't enough for those who have shared your fabulous creations featuring our favorite Kerbalnauts. Instead of being a TOTM, I've changed it into a CPOTM - a Cinematic Post of the Month. This month's nominee is not posted in the cenematics thread but as a stand-alone thread. For this month's CPOTM, we'd like to recognize the work of @Robossbomb in in the thread "SU-27 build Timelapse and cinematic," found here: Sometimes, the forum software will get glitchy, and an exact post may be a little hard to find, especially when it is buried in a long thread. In case this happens, here's @Robossbomb's cinematic presentation: What is neat about this video is it begins with the construction process of the aircraft, test flights, and the obvious - tweaks that always happen when building any craft. The finished craft is stunning in appearance and performance. The cinematic is made using KSP2. If you encounter other cinematics you feel are worthy of being recognized as this category's post of the month; please nominate them! You can use the exact instructions to nominate a post containing a video as you would use to nominate a thread. Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a thread (or threads) that, while not directly Kerbal Space Program related, may be creative, fan-fiction, or other presentation related to the game. Each month, I share how I love the mission reports section of the forum. I enjoy reading the various fan fiction stories because it gives me insight into how many of you play the game. The stories and mission reports range from the whimsical to the more serious alternate history and include historical recreation. In this alternate history-but-in-the-Kerbol-system, @Kimera Industries recreates the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Here's where you'll find this thread: So, if you're interested in seeing some great screenshots of what KSP1 looks like, a "what if" construction of vehicles inspired by Soviet design, some good storytelling, or how someone else imagines their Kerbiverse, why not try this mission report? Forum Member Created Challenges and Missions: This category contains missions and challenges created by you, the members of our gaming community. Many excellent missions and challenges threads are created that expand our fun with the game and press our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck beyond what we get accustomed to. Let's face it: we all have our go-to design basics and our go-to vehicles we like to use. Sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals. Challenges are always fun. Any game has three types of challenges- official, personal, and community challenges! This month, we have a forum member-created challenge that's fun, frustrating, and rewarding at the same time. This challenge, created by @Donmy Kerman, seems straightforward enough from the title - "minimalist planes." When you read the description of the challenge, it, too, seems simple: "Make a plane with as few parts as possible." Seems simple enough, right? Oh, how wrong you are! @Donmy Kerman adds even more levels of fun and frustration in the op: Ahah! So, now that you see the rules, it has you thinking - the island, runway? That's where the real fun begins! Anyone can build one that can zip around the KSC, but to fly way out there? Do you have what it takes? If you need a great way to spend a few hours of design, incredible feats of engineering, and a few laughs, this challenge is for you! Game Support/Game Mod of the Month: This category features either help with the game (stock or modded) or mods that add quality-of-life gameplay improvements to the Kerbal Space Program. Sometimes, a mod is nominated, and as I prepare the TOTM, I have to shake my head and laugh. This nomination is one of those. Many of you who have been forum members for a while may have remembered when the greatest KSP April Fool's joke since "Orange Jool" was pulled off by @Dakota, our community manager, and the staff at Intercept Games. Yes, in case you're wondering, the mod featured in the thread of the month for January is none other than this mod: Just when we thought that the last Kerbal Space Program 2 update for the year was the best present ever, this mod by @Abelinoss, @cheese3660, Kapybara, and @Dakota for all the efforts put into making this a reality for those of us blown away by the concept of the Kapybara Space Program 2! In the introduction to the mod, @Abelinoss states: For the mod developers, if there is anyone I did not acknowledge, please let me know so I can correct it. - adsii1970 General community threads of the month: This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories. Sometimes, we get nominations that do not neatly fit into any of the categories we already have. This nomination is one of these. It's not a mission report but offers a downloadable craft file for Kerbal Space Program 2! The thread's OP, @Heretic391, tested his computer's hardware and created a ship capable of carrying 1,000 or more brave-ish Kerbals to some far-off-world destination. The vessel is described as: The OP of the thread contains various images of the craft orbiting most of the planets of the Kerbol stock system in KSP2, as well as the ship's specifications. As you can tell by the forum community members' responses in the thread, this has awed many about the potential of what Kerbal Space Program 2 can do. There's a bonus, too - @Heretic391 included a download link for the craft file! If you come across a craft file in our forum you believe should be featured in a thread of the month, please nominate it. Follow the instructions listed below on how to nominate a thread. Include why you think the craft should be considered for the thread of the month with your nomination. It doesn't matter if you nominate a KSP1 or KSP2 craft file, as we do not prioritize either game over the other. We take all nominations. When needed, we will award two TOTMs for a category when it is clear that the top two contenders equally represent both games. We intend to continue to foster the unity of the KSP community. General space flight and space science threads of the month: This category features a thread that adds to our forum community's STEM knowledge (science, space flight, and related fields) and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories. This thread, started by @tater, began as a thread to track Chinese commercial launches beginning in October 2017. The thread intends to highlight the development of the Chinese aerospace industry and the strides made in its efforts at space exploration. Threads like this help ensure that the achievements of nations newer to spaceflight do not get lost among the legacy nations, such as the United States and Russia (the former Soviet Union), and legacy multi-national agencies, such as the European Space Agency. The OP of the thread states: You can visit this thread to learn about recent commercial Chinese space industry developments, recent Chinese launches, or planned events. Too funny not to share: I do not intend to keep this as a long-term thread of the month category, but some threads get submitted that sometimes cause me to laugh. The bug-hunting team for KSP2 found this submitted bug report by @The Space Peacock, which is worth sharing with the forum community. I'm not going to spoil the fun, so click the link. Be sure to read the exchange between the bug hunters, the KSP2 staff, and other forum members exchanging their feedback. Honorable Mentions: All the submitted nominations were used for this month. Sometimes, choosing which threads will be selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories is challenging. We get many good nominations each month but limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. The honorable mention for this month is: The honorable mention for this month may not have made the Thread of The Month, but if you think it might be worth another opportunity, please renominate it! Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month! We want to thank our forum members @Kerbalsaurus, @Socraticat, @TwoCalories, the moderation team members, and the staff who nominated this month's contenders. Thank you so much for helping us identify noteworthy threads and bringing their awareness to our forum community. We'd appreciate your continued help in the future. Odds and ends: TO NOMINATE A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered for next month's thread of the month, use the "Report a comment" feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the thread. Please put in the text field of the port post "Nomination for the thread of the month," and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GOES INTO THE DECISION WHEN CONSIDERING THE TOTM: Wonder no more! This helpful guide is to help you understand what we use to help determine what makes a thread a really good thread and one that becomes a thread of the month/cinematic post of the month. It's everything you did or didn't want to know and includes helpful tips. And the last word for this month's post: I'd like to thank a few people who trust me enough to continue supporting and allowing me to contribute to the forum. I want to thank the Lead Moderator, @Vanamonde, for bringing me on as a moderator, a decision I'm sure he has had moments where he often wonders why he did it. I'd also like to thank @PD_Dakota, our community manager, and @Nerdy_Mike, the KSP Franchise Community Lead, for tolerating me and allowing me to continue to serve our Kerbal Space Program forum community through the monthly Threads of the Month post. In case you missed last month's threads of the month, you can click here.

Docking underwater is challenging - I've been attempting it for a year now! That is an accomplishment in itself! I hope you don't mind, but I added the CPOTY to your post for you.

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the 2023 Thread of the Year It's the last day of December 2023, and making such a hard decision with so many good candidates has been challenging. But in the end, there could only be one thread of the year. The choice came down to one thread - and I think you'll find that in this one started by @Entropian in January (2023), this thread impacted many of us within the KSP community. The thread, "I started playing KSP in 2012. Now, I'm going to go to college for physics and engineering. Here's how KSP has changed the course of my life." may not have generated a lot of comments or followers. Still, it generated a lot of conversation on Discord and other social media platforms where the link was shared. Many of you even sent me Discord DMs and PMs through the forum recommending this for TOTY. We have all been impacted by Kerbal Space Program in some way. But for @Entropian, KSP changed their future. Within the post, there's a profound statement that has meant a lot to everyone who has read the OP: Here's the thread's post if you've never visited it: And here's the TOTM where it was initially featured: Thanks for writing such a tremendous and heartfelt post, @Entropian, and saying what so many of us have come to love the most about this game.

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the 2023 Cinematic Post of the Year It was a difficult decision as we had many good candidates for this first-ever honor. But as it came down to it, so much about this cinematic by @kurgut made it stand out above the rest. In the cinematic "Kerbal Subnautic Program," there's quite an impressive list of mods used to bring a new dimension to Kerbal Space Program that many of us have thought about but never tried. The cinematic is introduced as: The YouTube link for the cinematic is here: To see the TOTM where this cinematic was originally featured, here's the link: The original post can be found here: Congratulations, @kurgut, for an outstanding and inspirational cinematic!

But a physicist says we can: https://www.businessinsider.com/physicist-experiment-could-test-universe-computer-simulation-crowdfunding-2023-12

Making spirits bright

These are some of the best decals on the market. Their glues and paints are a lot better than what Testors Masters are now. Testors were once the standard in the late 80s and 90s, but now they suck. If you're doing a military model, get a can of Tamiya dull coat, too. This is in a spray can. This will protect the decals from your efforts to keep dust off the models, even if you put them in a case. Dull coat before you glue on the canopies.

He seems to like the limelight and has made many bat-crazy statements in the past few years. I'd love to see a debate between him and people who are not afraid to stand upon actual science rather than dive into social media and "what ifs" for their gratification. My youngest daughter loves science but is instantly turned off when he comes on any show - much of it is his attitude. At times, he is funny and thought-provoking. But there are others where he is condescending and insulting. Ha, yeah, I was going to get to him. Since you brought up Bill Nye, the wanna-be science guy, I won't waste my breath. It also has all the earmarks of a religion, too. Many academic sociologists have treated atheism since the mid-1990s as a form of religion. It has its orthodoxy, core principles, and a distinctive philosophy, as do most mainstream (and minor) religions. Extreme atheism can be just as dangerous as any extremely held view of any particular form of religion and just as destructive socially (and violently, too). In my preparation for my modern world civ course, I usually spend two lectures discussing the impact of religion on cultures since 1500. I include atheism as a part of that lecture series. I think the idea came about because we run so many computer simulations in various elements of industry and science. And we even have them in forms of entertainment. Sure, we've mentioned movies and gaming. But we also see simulations in medical and flight training, engineering, city design, and other applications. But to think that life as we know it is an advanced simulation - Nah. Humankind does not have the technology to make it possible, so we'd have to be a simulation for some more intelligent species. Then we join the realms of Giorgio...

Yes, philosophical concepts they are. As such, they should not be treated as if they are sciences and featured on websites such as Space.com or other science-related publications since they are not grounded in science.

I think this -- but in a different manner of thought. Yeah, just as is the parallel universe theory. The concept there are multiverses out there where the "other you-se" or is it the "other you∞" may not have screwed up "your life" as severely as you did brings some comfort to the tortured soul. Or more. It all depends on how far they want to entertain these ideas. It is even more dangerous and irresponsible when these ideas become discussed as a form of "proper" scientific theory, knowing there is no proper way to test whether the theory is valid or invalid. A theory needs to be able to have an observation, then a hypothesis that's testable or measurable, and then the ability to make a prediction based on the results of testing the theory (for the sake of argument, I am not even discussing the actual testing or the use of the results). Neither "we live in a simulation" nor "we live in a multiverse of parallel universes" arguments are testable, and there's no way even to generate a hypothesis to test. At best, as a collective of human civilization, we are still at the "observation" stage of these ideas; however, I do believe they get traction because, as already pointed out, these alternate theories of existence give people who hold them some options for viewing their existence. They are dissatisfied with their current life and want to believe that the things that could be in their control are not. This reminds me of the ancient and classical Greek belief that life is determined by fate and that the will of the gods and goddesses determines the lives of men and women. It gives them a sense of false hope that, somehow, life is better anywhere but here. This can cause even more mental health issues or problems coping with problems they'll encounter in the future. I once had a student who believed their "double" in the parallel universe was born to wealthy parents. She also thought her double had an ideal boyfriend and a life of complete pleasure. And because of that, she received all the bad things life could throw at her. Anyway, I would write more, but I am grading final exams.