YouTube is a great source of Japanese-language content for those studying the language, however with billions of videos, even with a good search mechanism it can be hard to find videos appropriate for language learners.
Recently I was searching around on YouTube using some science terms in Japanese (like 分子) and came across a great video which you can see embedded below. It’s titled 「この世界が仮想現実であることを示す証明式」which roughly means “An equation that proves our world is a virtual reality.”
While the frame shown below is a little racy, it doesn’t reflect the content of this video too well. Rather than see robot women running around, you are presented with an explanation of some important scientific results and how those may indicate we live in a virtual reality. While there are a few technical terms (like 量子 [ryoushi], a term for ‘quantum’ which you are unlikely to use in daily life), overall it is explained in layman’s terms and high quality visuals (taken from movies and other places) used to help explain and add atmosphere.
Having said that, even though the video uses ‘layman’s terms’ it still targets (educated) adults, so I recommend it mostly for advanced Japanese learners. But even if you understand very little Japanese, the visuals are so good I still think it’s worth watching (it’s only ~12 minutes).
While you can generally turn on automatically generated subtitles on Japanese YouTube videos, the quality is not that great on many videos (I’d say 60-80% accurate). Fortunately, this video has manually inputted subtitles which will really help you understand better if your reading abilities exceed your listening skills. The narrator also speaks pretty clearly, which can help you pick up words (yes, it’s a younger woman).
One of my favorite parts was the explanation of the famous Dual-Split Experiment which is important to the field of Quantum Physics. I had studied this quite some time ago, but I’ve never seen an explanation that was this visual and easy to understand.
As to whether the video “proves” we live in a virtual reality, I think clearly that is still open to debate. But it’s a good way to get exposure to science and Japanese, with a good dose of entertainment thrown in.