"It's the idea that these things exist, but it's not quite what we think it is," Mahdavi said. "These images are manipulated with code, and the idea that you can change your surroundings with code is really interesting to me. I'm creating my own existence and view of the world."

Mahdavi says he eventually settled on displaying the photos in an Urban Outfitters because his small town doesn't have much of an art scene, and he thought it was a bit subversive to display them on the walls there without much fanfare. Mahdavi says he's glad to see Bistro's simulation hypothesis get more attention from mainstream figures like Musk and DeGrasse Tyson rather than the typical philosophical and theoretical physics circles it's normally discussed in. He says he thinks artists need to spend more effort trying to spread tough scientific and philosophical ideas.