Our universe is most likely a computer simulation [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 02:00 AM - Edit history (3)

(In light of many smart objections and questions I edited the description of the issue for precision.)

The core question is this: Is it possible, in any time or place in any universe, for beings to develop the computing power to simulate a universe that contains entities that believe themselves to be conscious and real? (like we do.)

If it is possible for beings somewhere (presumably in a different universe) to simulate such universes then the odds are that we, you and I, are in a simulated universe.

Why?

Because the simulated universes would probably vastly outnumber the "real" universes.

(The universes where somebody was running such simulations would have life, and we know our own universe has life, real or simulated, so we can leave the possible gazillion lifeless universes out of it. We know that we are not in one of those, and are not a computer simulation in one of those.)

I am taking it as a given (correctly or incorrectly) that if one species in another universe somewhere or some-when could run such simulations that other species could and eventually would, and that technology is seldom used once. It would be like using the large hadron supercollider for only one particle collision.

That's the logic and odds part. The philosophical part is that it really doesn't matter whether our universe is "real." The meta-beings who simulated us would be asking this very same question about the reality of their own universe.

And we have gotten along so far with most people believing our universe was created by some entity "larger" than the universe. The only difference would be whether the garden of Eden was "just" a bunch of 0s and 1s in a program.

But our reality really is, in a meaningful sense, just a bunch of 0s and 1s in a program. The universe is digital, not analog.

Whether digits or quarks, it's all ultimately just information.

And why would anyone advanced enough to so perfectly simulate a universe bother to simulate universes?

This is the sweet part. What we learned, once we discovered quantum uncertainty, is that our universe is the shortest possible program for determining what happens next in our universe.

As Steven Wright said, "I have a map of the world. The scale is one foot equals one foot."