Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

Originally posted by CaptainBeno

I'd be okay with that job.

You and me both buddy.........let's do it!

I'll pay you my farmed feathercoins if you prove it's a simulation

Oo

Let me ask...

If we're existing in a simulation and thus we're "fake" and purposeless, how is this any different than if we exist in a random real universe that's indefinitely on the backside of a black hole? In both cases we're essentially powerless to change the circumstances and our purpose is muted.

Either we're at the direction of a higher power or we're a random blotch on a black hole. Whether it's the dictate of a higher power, such as god, or the whims of a simulation creator, who cares. Both represent a higher power ruling over us and our fates with more or less in our favor. And the black hole? Well, who will ever care? Just another blotch amongst other blotches. No divine guidance. No divine purpose.. Just a random ride through life who knows where for a random length of time.

Take your pick. Choose whichever makes you feel better. Do you want to be guided by a higher power? Or do you instead like to think that the sky is the limit? Have fun.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
Let me ask...

If we're existing in a simulation and thus we're "fake" and purposeless, how is this any different than if we exist in a random real universe that's indefinitely on the backside of a black hole? In both cases we're essentially powerless to change the circumstances and our purpose is muted.

Either we're at the direction of a higher power or we're a random blotch on a black hole. Whether it's the dictate of a higher power, such as god, or the whims of a simulation creator, who cares.

Take your pick. Choose whichever makes you feel better.

edit on 18-4-2013 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)

Good question. You're correct in your thinking too I would say and many others would agree. Wether we are in a simulation or the true reality makes absolutely no difference to us, atleast in a practical sense, if we cannot effect the simulation paramaters or rules that control it. This has been brought up many times as well. Really the only difference would be one of philisophical or theological significance which would depend on the individual.

This question also has deeper questions which come as a result too. Like whether or not you think there is more or less of a chance of being able to "Hack Reality" if it's a simulation or not a simulation.

My Edit: Even if we are "simulated" and depending on what exactly "simulated" means doesn't mean we would be without purpose. Also, simulated reality doesn't have to also include us as being simulated too. We could be simulated entities like NPC's in game terms. But we could also be simply within the simulation and experiencing a simulation while not actually being wholly created by it. For example, everyone in the movie Matrix who isn't awake and never knows they are not really living in the matrix. Or perhaps a Brain in a Jar which has it's consciousness injected into a computer simulation.

reply to post by mOjOm

I guess it matters whether or not something created the universe and thus, in doing so, removed purpose from our lives and somehow dictated that we should value it less.

It seems to me that if you feel purpose then there's purpose. Don't overthink it. On the other hand, if you don't feel there's purpose, maybe you're right, who knows? But give it a chance.

I think this just all stems from us pondering the origins of this universe. Its origins and our existence in it has some bearing on whether or not we're in control of our present circumstances.

Originally posted by Cuervo
reply to post by OGOldGreg

 

I gotta say the draw distance is pretty sweet and the 3D is impeccable.

and it looks like the real thing.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I personally think purpose matters. Although, "Purpose" in all it's conceptual meanings is probably beyond the scope of this thread. But in the general sense of the word and it's meaning I would say purpose should be important to some degree to everyone who's alive. If someone could actually claim "No Purpose" whatsoever I would almost have a hard time understanding how or why they'd even be alive to make such a claim. The real question then is not "If" we have a purpose but "what" that purpose is and how meaningful it is or perhaps how it will ultimately effect us and our Reality.

BTW, be sure to read "My Edit" in the previous post if you haven't already. It also includes more about this which I wanted to add but forgot to mention.

The only way I can explain it is...

We live in a physical universe, on a physical planet, in a physical body, and we think with a physical mind. We're prisoners of the physical and with physical thoughts we cannot comprehend anything that is above the physical plane. That is the laws of physics and it will always end with a loop or a mirror of yourself staring back at you. The only way to break this is to shatter the mirror and in turn shattering the body. Death is just a illusion of a physical mind.

We already know the answer.

Particles are Voxels: Voxels reveal God's Creation

Originally posted by OGOldGreg
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk...

Title pretty much speaks for itself. These kinds of things kind of make my head hurt to be perfectly honest. I find it hard to believe we could actually live in 'The Matrix'. And I almost find it harder to believe that people get paid(and probably paid well) to research such things. I'd be okay with that job.

edit on 18-4-2013 by OGOldGreg because: (no reason given)

Originally posted by jonnywhite

Either we're at the direction of a higher power or we're a random blotch on a black hole.

Suppose a higher power used a black hole to create a simulation and then entered it. Suppose that in entering it fragmented and became all life... sort of like how light fragments and becomes the rainbow spectrum when it enters a prism.

Suppose it is you and me and everyone else, and suppose that someday when the simulation has run its course we will become that higher power again.

Lila (Sanskrit: लीला, IAST līlā), or Leela is a concept within Hinduism literally meaning "pastime", "sport" or "play". It is common to both non-dualistic and dualistic philosophical schools, but has a markedly different significance in each. Within non-dualism, Lila is a way of describing all reality, including the cosmos, as the outcome of creative play by the divine absolute (Brahman).

People seem to want to figure that outside the simulation is some separate being hunched over a computer. Not me.

I think the theory is that the Universe resembles a computer simulation, not that it is one. The difference is incalculable. With scientific theories changing all the time don't be surprised when this one changes, i wont.

Originally posted by 1Providence1
reply to post by OGOldGreg

 

The Universe can be likened to a computer simulation in many ways, after all, we are a derivative of the Universe, computers are a derivative of our innovation, thereby computers are a derivative of the Universe.

Simple!

Except I sense in this current paradigm, machine sponsored or not, there is an agenda afoot to make the machine the original creator, which would reverse just about everything you just said. "The Sound of Silence," for example, and the lyric stating: "....and the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made....."

So if your playing a MMORPG, your playing a person in a computer, in a computer?

reply to post by tetra50


Had a think about your post. Thank you. Something clicked for me, and you are closer than you think.

Just how much computing power would it take to 'run' the earth, let alone the rest of the universe, every blade of grass, every fish, bird, animal, insect, tree, cloud, lightning strike, flower, brick, pebble, grain of sand, molecule of water, seaweed, coral, nah, just cannot be done.

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
reply to post by OGOldGreg

 

And if such signatures do appear in both? Boot up, baby. We're inside a computer. (Maybe).

A quote from the OP linked article. All i can say is please dont run our simulation using Microsoft Windows, we will be condemining the new creation to more bugs than they can shake a quantum calculator at.

But let's hope it doesn't run on a Mac; Apple will make us pay for it...

reply to post by pikestaff


Not too difficult if the programmer is immortal and the universe is 14 billion years old.

We don't understand what drives reality. Is a programmer so unbelievable?

"Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Originally posted by charles1952
I really hate that all of these questions will be answered after I'm dead. From the University of Washington report that the source referenced:

Eventually, more powerful simulations will be able to model on the scale of a molecule, then a cell and even a human being. But it will take many generations of growth in computing power to be able to simulate a large enough chunk of the universe to understand the constraints on physical processes that would indicate we are living in a computer model. (Emphasis added)

"Many generations of growth in computing power" does not equal many generations of human life. Computing power is growing exponentially, and this may come sooner than you and I may think (I hope so!)

Originally posted by Char-Lee
reply to post by OGOldGreg

 

The better question to me,would be can we manipulate the simulation and make our circumstance better. Is anyone keeping track of it and would they let us interfer, change the program.

Actually, you can do this and you DO do this all the time.

Please consider reading a book by Tom Campbell called "My Big TOE". It is a detailed, well-presented explanation of this very concept.

Fact is - yes, we are living in a computed reality. The thing is - it is an evolved simulation and it contains a free-will switch, so there is a lot of randomness in it. It is non-deterministic, in other words, because of the free will aspect.

Please - seriously consider reading Tom's book.

Also, Aldous Huxley's "Perennial Philosphy" is illuminating in this regard.

It is a complex notion, and not amenable to being illustrated in a forum posting. If you want to understand it, you MUST do some in-depth reading and thinking.

What is gonna happen though, is that your Sunday School education is going to fly right the hell out the window, and you are going to find yourself rejecting out of hand much of the new understanding because it conflicts with your comfortable church/state upbringing.

This is fine. It is part of your evolution. You will get over it, no problemo.

BTW - the "simulated reality" idea is O.L.D. It can be found in Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu writing as well.

Several saints have written about the world (universes) in this way.

Originally posted by charles1952
I really hate that all of these questions will be answered after I'm dead. From the University of Washington report that the source referenced:

Currently, supercomputers using a technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics and starting from the fundamental physical laws that govern the universe can simulate only a very small portion of the universe, on the scale of one 100-trillionth of a meter, a little larger than the nucleus of an atom, said Martin Savage, a UW physics professor.

Eventually, more powerful simulations will be able to model on the scale of a molecule, then a cell and even a human being. But it will take many generations of growth in computing power to be able to simulate a large enough chunk of the universe to understand the constraints on physical processes that would indicate we are living in a computer model. (Emphasis added)

www.washington.edu...

edit on 18-4-2013 by charles1952 because: Parenthetical material

A generation of growth in computing power is 3 years, I hope you're okay.

reply to post by mOjOm

Wow.where is the computer?