I always thought it was one of those great questions; You've got
   the matrix route, the "brain in a vat" idea which was first in
   sci-fi since the 30s, then in Buddhism for couple of thousand
   years, you've got the idea of the Eternal Now - past and present
   is an illusion. Memories and future dreams are phantasms.
   Perhaps real is real and fake is fake -- but that's so ordinary
   :) "