Rizwan Virk (known as Riz) is a successful entrepreneur, video game pioneer, venture capitalist, and founder of the start-up accelerator Play Labs @ MIT. His interest and expertise ranges from video games, the metaverse, simulation theory, meditation, consciousness, and the intersection of science, science fiction, religion, and philosophy. He’s a graduate of MIT and Stanford and is currently a faculty associate at Arizona State University. He is the author of Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior (BayView Labs 2013), Startup Myths and Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School (Columbia Business School Publishing 2020), Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success (Watkins Publishing 2017), The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics Agree We Are in a Video Game. (Bayview books 2019), Wisdom of a Yogi: Lessons for Modern Seekers from Autobiography of a Yogi (Bayview Books 2023), The Zen Entrepreneur & the Dream: An MIT Grad’s Quest for Success & Enlightenment in Silicon Valley (2023)

Interview Date: 7/14/2023.  Tags: Rizwan Virk, video games, virtual reality ping pong, Nick Brostrom, virtual simulations, Second Life computer platform, quantum physics, The Matrix movie, AI Technology, ChatGPt, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, hard problem of consciousness, brain-computer interface, stroke victims, Elon Musk, Neuralink, simulation point, supercomputing, mysticism, Sanskrit Maya, Science, Philosophy, Technology, spirituality