Is the Universe itself a computer program?

Originally posted by GeniusSage

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
God created everything, not just Heaven. Get the facts straight.

How is that a fact? Or are you just simply talking about the way the story go's in the Bible? (As opposed to God ACTUALLY existing and having creating everything.)

I don't want to begin a religion versus athiesm argument! I was just confused by that comment.

[edit on 20-11-2005 by GeniusSage]

I don't want to get bogged down in that, either, you said He only created Heaven. That is incorrect; as He is recorded as creating everything.

You're confused, and I am disconcerted. The thoughts of a computer programmer being in control of destiny is very scary. I'm waiting for the universal crash!

If it is a computer program, then its an open ended one, with a self-evolving set of parameters and goals. Lots of Random Number Generators running around. Lots of little Algorithms working at cross purposes.

If you believe that the physical reality is not all that there is, then whatever else there is, be it spirit realm, astral plane, disincarnate diminsion, heaven, valhalla, or virgin-filled garden, has to be the actual reality which is the true basis of existance. Therefore, simulation or not, our physical reality isn't the primary one. It could work very much like a computer simulation. I suppose that would mean all of our physical bodies are really just avatars.

Although the Universe does seem to be like a computer, the analogy does work but isn't necessarily true.

Personally, I'm not decided whether the Univere is a computer or not, but I'm saying I know all the mysteries of the Universe. Also, people say that Artificial Intelligence is when a computer is able to learn, and not just following a load of codes and programs. Perhaps you can argue that we never learn, but only realise or un-cover something. Maybe someone has left a load of things for us to find, and is seeing how we develop? Like splitting the atom, we found and researched, developed everthing that leads up to it which happened over hundreds of years. We've gone from the bronze age to the nuclear age, but mankind hasn't really made anything, but just put the pieces together....

I believe that our souls go to this place when we die. The real world. The soul is what controls us, without it we wouldn't have a personality or... I can't explain it. Its like if you and your mom "switched bodies" It would actually be your souls switching, see what I mean.

How this ties in as a computer program I don't know, but I am not a computer geek really. Like I am good at using a computer but I don't know the parts.

Anyway I hope you guys had a good thanksgiving!

Although the Universe does seem to be like a computer, the analogy does work but isn't necessarily true.

Computer program not computer, the universe is analigious to a huge piece of software not hardware. I wouldnt like to start guessing at what sort of hardware a universe sized programe would run on, but if this were a computer programe we would never get a chance to see the hardware.

Theres computer game in development now called spore, I'm sure at least some of you have heard of it, if not follow the link

news.bbc.co.uk...

The creator of the hugely popular Sims game is working on an ambitious title in which you can truly be God.Called Spore, the game allows players to determine the evolution of a species, from an amoeba to an inter-stellar race.

Sims creator Will Wright offered an insight into the game at last week's E3 expo in Los Angeles.

If you have any interest in this topic its worth your while doing a bit of research on this game, and remember this is only stratching the surface of what we can do with computers in the near future.This game is just an example of a simulated galaxy with 1000's of different planets all with there own species that evolve on there own terms not the computer programers
done through procuderal generation.

Procedural generation is a software concept refering to creating content on the fly, as opposed to creating it before the software is distributed he earliest computer games were severely limited by memory constraints, forcing things like levels to be generated algorithmically, procedurally, on the fly: there simply wasn't enough space to store premade levels and artwork. Today, most games include (measuring by memory space) thousands of times as much data as algorithmic mechanics. For example, all of the buildings in the large gameworld of Grand Theft Auto were individually designed and placed by artists.

en.wikipedia.org...

If it is a computer program, then its an open ended one, with a self-evolving set of parameters and goals. Lots of Random Number Generators running around. Lots of little Algorithms working at cross purposes.

My thoughs exactly Ambient, we see hints at this in self-organising natural systems.

Edit - Spelling

[edit on 27-11-2005 by Merkeva]

Let me ask you this Conspiracy Theorist 06
Is it not much more likely that you think the universe is a computer program because:
You are familiar with computers
You have seen sci-fi movies about the subject
You don't know what the Universe is (nor does anybody else)
and
You wish to explain the Universe?
Everyday, people think up ways to explain what or why the universe is, that is most likley where religion came from. Why is your theory different than all of the others like it? Your computer theory is just a modern twist on what people have been trying to do forever. You just come up with an explanation and say," Yeah, I think thats right... Yes, I've solved it. No more worries about why I am here and the like."

Either
You are right _ or _ You are just like everyone else (including me) and you wish you knew something great but in reality you don't.
Like, have you ever heard of Ockham's Razor and crud?

Existence always seemed more like a dream then a computer program to me. One giant dream and God being the dreamer that sustains it, and just like in our human dreams, all the characters and objects within the dream are actually the dreamer.

[edit on 033131p://11u16 by Lucid Lunacy]

Originally posted by Invenion
Like, have you ever heard of Ockham's Razor and crud?

Okay Invenion according to Ockham's Razor what is the universe?

Originally posted by jupiter869
I dont know about a program but did you ever consider this:

Our WHOLE universe is a science student's experiment and our entire universe is actually in a giant beaker. And the student, who's experiment we all belong to, is only getting a "C".

was this grade on a curve????i would say d .. d- at best.....does anyone remember the south park episode with the see monkeys when they build a society and whorship tweak and cartmen......then they get nuclear bombs and blow each other up.......yea it was funny but alittle to close to home.....

I've always liked this idea.

The hardware is matter, the software is consciousness.

I think quantum physics, from what little I know, explains it well with the Holographic Universe theory.

I find it fascinating that quantum physics can marry science and spirituality in a way as to make them compliment, as one would expect with natural law and the Universe, rather than compete.

It does beg the question, that if the Universe is like a computer program, then who is the programmer?

Is God, a geek?

(In reply to Lucid Lunacy's question)
According to my interpretation of Ockham's Razor, it is more likely that the universe is not a computer program and that this theory was derived from a desire to understand the universe (mixed with things the person had regularly observed, like computers and movies). Please read my post again, keeping in mind that the simplest explanation between 2 competing theories is more likely. It is my opinion that it is more likely this theory is science fiction because the alternative explanation is simpler.
I realize that I got a bit to angry with that last sentence, and it was wrong to make fun of the way Conspiracy Theorist 06 made his point (refering to the first post)
I apologize.
I dont think Ockhams Razor could explain what the universe is. I'm saying that in some cases it can help you decide if a theory is unlikely.

(Added Later) In the middle there I meant to say: Everyday, people come up with explanations of the universe that are baseless. Why is this one different? Please excuse my lack of lucidity.

Please ask detailed questions if you still dont understand what I'm saying.
Much respect

[edit on 12-12-2005 by Invenion]

[edit on 12-12-2005 by Invenion]

So your saying not everything can be explained,
well around 1000 years ago you couldnt have explained how something like a steam engine worked,
but now we have nuclear fission, bit by bit we're understanding the universe better just becasue somethings dont make sense now doesnt mean they wont make sense in say 100 years


p.s. I have thought about this iea a few times but it just doesnt seem right, im going more towards im living in a reality tv program and everyone else is just an actor and everything revolves around me.

Shenroon- a steam engine is man made though. I think he was talking about natural things. Although they wouldn't have understood DNA hundreds of years, I suppose they wouldn't even have known about it (obviously). But as technology progresses, we understand more, but again there is more which requires understanding.

I hope that's clea to everyone.

(Pay no attention to this post if you are not Shenroon)
Shenroon,
I dont know who you were addressing, but it seems it may have been me. If not, I'd like to know who.
Your comment was very confusing, and I hope it doesn't ruin this discussion.
If you were talking to me, how did you come up with "So your saying not everything can be explained"? This comment didn't seem to be addressed to anyone else so I assume it was me (because you posted it after me).

You talkin to me? Nobody else around so you must be talking to me (or if you're Skizophrenic that would also explain it)
Much apologies if it was not to me.

Invenion and everyone else the point i was trying to make is that we know more than those 10,100 and 1000 years before us.
Just becasue there is something we dont understand something now doesnt mean we wont be able to explain it in 10,100 or 1000 years time.

P.S. The steam engine thing was a bit confusin but ive never been good with metaphors.

What if the univers is not a program... but a giant quantic processor? Think about it: it elaborates itself continuously... this is a fact.
Maybe the problem is that you think it to a macro level: there is no program deciding what Mr X got to do, but a "Matrix" that continuously elaborate itself...
The spacetime contains the information that is elaborated by the atomes (transistor?)
Then it's all connected: we exist because the information exist and we elaborate that information because we are
There is no starting point... or is there?

i think the idea that the universe we percieve could be a computer programme is entirely plausable, in fact it's entirly logical given human nature.

super computers are used to predict the outcome of highly complex systems such as weather and climate change at the moment, the need or want to predict such things makes the computers ever more powerful and the need inherent in the human being will eventually drive them to attempt to use computers to predict or understand the universe, this it seems to me is entirly plausable, if a little way off yet, and if we were to do that, naturally we would programme everything to the same perameters as are in our own universe.
therfore it would need to include beings like ourselves that had the inteligence to come up with the idea of using computers to predict and understand the universe which would contain within its programme beings that had the inteligence to come up with the idea of using computers to predict and understand the universe...etc.,etc.

its unlikely that we would be the first in the chain, 1 to infinity, and so we probably are a computer programme, which is pretty cool i think.

i agree with you conspircy ther...u do sound like the matrix

An evidence that the universe is a computer...

I have opened another thread with the subject "Why does the light have a speed?"(www.abovetopsecret.com...). The answer was found and the response comes from the Maxwell equations(hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...). In paticular one that says that the speed of light is equal to 1/(ε0.μ0)^1/2.
What does it mean? That the speed of light is conversely proportional to the permitivity and to the permeability of the medium. So the vacuum has very small value for this parameters but they are not null...
But why does the "absence of thing", the vacuum needs to have value there? Because a logical system (a computer), cannot divide by zero!!
With modern complex languages, if you try to divide by zero with a computer, you get an exception. With simplier systems... it hangs.
So the creation of a stable univers needed to set values even for the empty part it, because the univers is computed without "try...catch" control!

[edit on 30/12/2005 by Lillo]

If we are in a computer, the computer sets its own boundries.

So if the universe= computer than that would mean that the universe can divide zero because it made itself. See what I mean. Basically if the universe is computer it can do anything because it is not a common computer. Definetely not windows xp or Mac OSX whatever. Probably like windows 1000000000 or something. Though no one controls the computer that is our universe. It is left alone like a server.