In The Merge, the Danish photographers collective Sara Galbiati (1981), Peter Helles Eriksen (1984) and Tobias Selnaes Markussen (1982) explores developments in artificial intelligence and robotics, and visually interprets the possibility that we are already living inside a computer simulation. 

Could it be that our world is just a construction of a manufactured illusion? A few years ago, this existential discussion was limited to the academic world and science fiction. But things are changing. Bank of America recently issued a report to all of their customers in which they stated that the probability that we live in an “artificial reality” is between 20% and 50%. Tesla and its founder, Elon Musk, believes that the chance that we do not live in a computer simulation is one in a billion. The Merge visually explores the question: Is it possible that our physical reality does not exist as we believe it to, but instead life is a computer simulation?

They made the chapter “Scenes from a Simulated Reality” exclusively for Forhanna Foundation, which supports researching photographic storytelling. This is an impressive futuristic worst-case-scenario that challenges the viewer to look into a future where man and machine merge. The project was on display at the photography Biennale BredaPhoto, which was held 2018 in Breda, The Netherlands.