Mystery Is the Universe a simulation?

[Yellow Feathers]

They say that by 2050 years we will have the technology to be able to create simulations (like that of earth, in which characters would be able to grow mentally, physically, and live their own life, making their own choices)

So we're not too far away

There's a philosophical idea that goes: because we will eventually have the technology to create a simulation, there is a higher chance that it has already been invented- and that we are already living in one. It's actually less likely that we're the first to create it. Hmm...

 

[grizzlym]

The Matrix.

Enough said lol

Or the infinitely crappier the Thirteenth Floor. But a fascinating idea never-the-less.

 

[Heardy_101]

The ending of Men in Black 2 where they open a door and it turns out they're stuck in a locker.... Or the ending of MIB #1 and our Galaxy is a marble being used by aliens.

Not simulations as such but still equally interesting

 

[The Sultan]

is there a cheat code for said simulation

tried up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right A B and nothing happened.

 

[Moonwatcher]

You have to enter it at the start screen. Too late for you, unfortunately.

 

[CountryRace]

There's a philosophical idea that goes: because we will eventually have the technology to create a simulation, there is a higher chance that it has already been invented- and that we are already living in one. It's actually less likely that we're the first to create it. Hmm...

Indeed

 

[Reppie]

Well worth a watch.

 

[Bucksboys]

"Perhaps there is no greater illustration of Nature’s subtlety than what we call the holographic principle. This principle says that, in a sense, all the information that is stored in this room, or any room, is really encoded entirely and with perfect accuracy on the boundary of the room, on its walls, ceiling and floor. Things just don’t seem that way, and if we underestimate the subtlety of Nature we’ll conclude that it can’t possibly be true. But unless our current ideas about the quantum theory of gravity are on the wrong track, it really is true. It’s just that the holographic encoding of information on the boundary of the room is extremely complex and we don’t really understand in detail how to decode it. At least not yet"... Prof John Preskill

That sounds disturbingly like a simulation, or at least how you might set one up to run.. The creator of the Sims is absolutely convinced of it and cites two key characteristics of reality that are very simlike.. Firstly Quantum Mechanics wave particle duality.. He argues he uses the identical method of rendering only the small part of the game that the player is actually observing while the rest of the city only exists as potential in the way that matter only exists as waves of probability until observed and the wave function collapses into particles (physical matter).. And secondly he asks how do you know when you are in a simulation? and the answer is you keep zooming in to see if the picture becomes pixelated ie: tiny points of energy and light just as we find when we zoom into the subatomic realm.. The latter is a little naïve but some physicists wonder if Quantum fuzziness exists because our perception of a three-dimensional universe is just an illusion because we actually live on a 2D plane as a holographic projection.. The Holometer Experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will try to answer that question soon.. if they drill down to the planck scale (10 trillion trillion times smaller than an atom) and find jitter/noise (pixelization) then we are all 2D programming projected into an illusory 3D space

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2014/2-D-Hologram-20140826.html

 

[CD Xbow]

This universe 'as illusion' is a really old idea that crops up in the past in religion, think of some stands of Buddhist thought, gnostic Christianity, Sufism in Islam etc. However if we are agents in a simulation I don't think it would be possible for us to prove one way or another we were simulated. Then there becomes the problem for the simulators, are they in fact simulated themselves? Stephen Hawking quotes this story:

"A well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

So perhaps it's 'simulations all the way down'. Practically it doesn't really matter if we are in a simulated universe or not as there is nought we can do about it.

 

[Bucksboys]

So perhaps it's 'simulations all the way down'. Practically it doesn't really matter if we are in a simulated universe or not as there is nought we can do about it.

The real reason it doesn't matter is because consciousness is king

All esoteric religions and disciplines say the basis of reality is pure mind

Scientists admit observation defines reality by collapsing the wave function

So the vehicle be it natural or simulated doesn't matter one whit

All that matters is it provides the framework for consciousness to arise from the universal mind

This consciousness expresses itself individually in us and when we die it returns to the vast pool of consciousness that we all call reality/existence/heaven/god

 

[CD Xbow]

The real reason it doesn't matter is because consciousness is king

All esoteric religions and disciplines say the basis of reality is pure mind

Scientists admit observation defines reality by collapsing the wave function

So the vehicle be it natural or simulated doesn't matter one whit

All that matters is it provides the framework for consciousness to arise from the universal mind

This consciousness expresses itself individually in us and when we die it returns to the vast pool of consciousness that we all call reality/existence/heaven/god

I suspect you are right that consciousness is king, but at this point in time I'm not sure we can say much more. Perhaps later this century we will start to understand more how consciousness arises out of our wetware, and we may see it arise from our silicon friends when they reach a certain level of complexity. As for universal mind, I think I'll have to wait until I shuffle off to find out, but I'm in no rush.

 

[Bucksboys]

I suspect you are right that consciousness is king, but at this point in time I'm not sure we can say much more. Perhaps later this century we will start to understand more how consciousness arises out of our wetware, and we may see it arise from our silicon friends when they reach a certain level of complexity. As for universal mind, I think I'll have to wait until I shuffle off to find out, but I'm in no rush.

Exciting times ahead no matter which way it falls

 

[theyellowsash]

To be honest I never see the point in coming up with these theories of existence that are so next level that it's not even possible to disproove them. That time and money could have gone to something a but more useful.

 

[kfc1]

O.P. May enjoy this movie, even if it gets a bit cheesy towards the end. Relevant premise

 

[PAFCsince1870]

So to the layman what is the actual theory here?

That in reality it is actually some time in the future (say the year 2300 for example) and our "ancestors" are running a simulation (or a number of simulations) of the past?

If so what would the benefit of doing this be? I can completely understand the theory I just don't see what the point is.

 

[ioppolo]

Imagine if this theory were proven undeniably true. Oh boy.

 

[Yellow Feathers]

Computer power will be trillions of times what it is currently. Anything is possible.

 

[Catfish Alley]

Imagine if this theory were proven undeniably true. Oh boy.

What do you imagine the outcome would be? You couldn't do much about it. Just shrug and keep 'living'.

 

[ioppolo]

A lot of looting i don't doubt. People won't know what to do with themselves cause none of it is real.

 

[Lebbo73]

A lot of looting i don't doubt. People won't know what to do with themselves cause none of it is real.

Suicide rates would go off the charts!

 

[ioppolo]

Would be pointless cause it's real to us, like Catfish said, just shrug and live on.

 

[TheKanga]

So to the layman what is the actual theory here?

That in reality it is actually some time in the future (say the year 2300 for example) and our "ancestors" are running a simulation (or a number of simulations) of the past?

If so what would the benefit of doing this be? I can completely understand the theory I just don't see what the point is.

Because they can and so they can learn about the past.

 

[PAFCsince1870]

Because they can and so they can learn about the past.

Given the resources and development needed to create a flawless simulation of the entire universe it would need more reasoning than "because they can".

It's not impossible to believe we are nothing but an experiment but I don't think life as we know it, now or in the future, would have anything to do with it.

 

[Yellow Feathers]

I'm currently reading "The singularity is near" by Ray Kurzweil.

Absolutely mind-blowing. Anything is possible.

 

[WCErevival]

To make a simulation as big as the universe with the detail it has would require some serious technology. Or maybe the technology would seem great to us because we are primitive in comparison to whoever made it.