Isn't this all just René Descartes's Demon, the 'Deus Deceptor' that he proposed in his 'Meditations on First Philosophy' in 1641.

Are we doing anything more than updating his question to our latest technology?

Is there a fundamental difference between this and, say, 'The Truman Show'? Other than a more sophisticated layer of MacGuffin.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations_on_First_Philosoph...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show