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15 Irrefutable Reasons Why We Might Be Living in a Simulation
- Thread starter araomd
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Please reboot!
Below is a link to a demo video generated in real time using a single, high-end PC and video card and a graphics engine used in tons of games.
The video is literally indistinguishable (visually) from reality... including the physics of how things move and react. And while Moore's Law seems to be slowing a bit (CPU/RAM/disk speed and/or size isn't quite doubling every 18 months like it was) it won't take too many years before we can simulate fairly complicated environments ourselves.
The only problem with the idea that our reality is a simulation is that it would take more than all the matter and energy in the known universe to simulate a smaller amount of that same universe. To simulate a universe of N atoms, it will always take N+X atoms to do it using standard computing.
That all changes when you start talking about quantum computing though.
You could say that because everything in the universe we can interact with operates by quantum rules, the universe itself is a large quantum 'computer' and we (along with stars and trees and x-rays and beer and all the rest of the universe) are the program.
If we can get quantum computing to the point where we are today with regular digital computers, we could use that to create simulations that require far fewer 'real' bits to simulate a large environment with 100% fidelity. From 'inside' the simulation you simply couldn't tell that the world around you wasn't real. The only give away would be how closely we could couple your senses to the simulated world.
I recently read an article that estimated a black hole the size of Earth would be able to simulate all the atoms in our known universe if was operating as a quantum computer. That's a huge amount of mass (about 15 Sun's worth I think they said), but certainly not all the atoms in the Universe, like a regular computer would need. If we become advanced enough in quantum computing, say in 400-500 years or so, this kind of scale might seem perfectly manageable.
The real question is whether it's possible to simulate intelligent beings (I use that term loosely on this forum) at all. If it is, then the odds are almost incredibly small that we AREN'T simulated. If it's possible to simulate 'us', then we are far more likely to be the simulation than the simulators or some 'real' species in the 'natural' universe.
In fact it would be perfectly possible (even likely) that people in a simulated reality would learn to simulate other realities themselves, creating an endless series of simulations, which in the end far outnumber the few (or possibly one) natural universe(s). That's why if simulation is possible, it will have been done so many times that the odds of our universe being an 'original' are slim to none.
At the end of the day it really doesn't matter though. If we are being simulated by some advanced society (or are their equivalent of The Sims) we'd have no way of knowing. Our 'reality' would be just as real, and just as unknowable to us as a 'natural' universe that didn't allow simulation at all.
We'd have no way to influence the simulation any differently than we influence 'reality' already. Our thoughts, deeds, and actions would still count for as much or as little either way it comes out, since we are only capable of living in one universe at a time, whether it's simulated or not.
The video is literally indistinguishable (visually) from reality... including the physics of how things move and react. And while Moore's Law seems to be slowing a bit (CPU/RAM/disk speed and/or size isn't quite doubling every 18 months like it was) it won't take too many years before we can simulate fairly complicated environments ourselves.
The only problem with the idea that our reality is a simulation is that it would take more than all the matter and energy in the known universe to simulate a smaller amount of that same universe. To simulate a universe of N atoms, it will always take N+X atoms to do it using standard computing.
That all changes when you start talking about quantum computing though.
You could say that because everything in the universe we can interact with operates by quantum rules, the universe itself is a large quantum 'computer' and we (along with stars and trees and x-rays and beer and all the rest of the universe) are the program.
If we can get quantum computing to the point where we are today with regular digital computers, we could use that to create simulations that require far fewer 'real' bits to simulate a large environment with 100% fidelity. From 'inside' the simulation you simply couldn't tell that the world around you wasn't real. The only give away would be how closely we could couple your senses to the simulated world.
I recently read an article that estimated a black hole the size of Earth would be able to simulate all the atoms in our known universe if was operating as a quantum computer. That's a huge amount of mass (about 15 Sun's worth I think they said), but certainly not all the atoms in the Universe, like a regular computer would need. If we become advanced enough in quantum computing, say in 400-500 years or so, this kind of scale might seem perfectly manageable.
The real question is whether it's possible to simulate intelligent beings (I use that term loosely on this forum) at all. If it is, then the odds are almost incredibly small that we AREN'T simulated. If it's possible to simulate 'us', then we are far more likely to be the simulation than the simulators or some 'real' species in the 'natural' universe.
In fact it would be perfectly possible (even likely) that people in a simulated reality would learn to simulate other realities themselves, creating an endless series of simulations, which in the end far outnumber the few (or possibly one) natural universe(s). That's why if simulation is possible, it will have been done so many times that the odds of our universe being an 'original' are slim to none.
At the end of the day it really doesn't matter though. If we are being simulated by some advanced society (or are their equivalent of The Sims) we'd have no way of knowing. Our 'reality' would be just as real, and just as unknowable to us as a 'natural' universe that didn't allow simulation at all.
We'd have no way to influence the simulation any differently than we influence 'reality' already. Our thoughts, deeds, and actions would still count for as much or as little either way it comes out, since we are only capable of living in one universe at a time, whether it's simulated or not.
Bonus points to the author for using the words "Irrefutable" and "Might" in the same title phrase.
#MindBlown
That sounds neat reading it.
When Ken Wheeler is as household name instead of that other guy, then we will be getting some where.
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