Is the observable universe a computer simulation?

[Oddball305]

I keep coming across scientists and intellectuals who are entertaining this idea, that the world around us is some type of Matrix. Could it be that we are trapped in someone else's video game? Testing this hypothesis would be very difficult with today's technology, but some scientists think it's possible.

[Delta1212]

Could be. It's not a new idea. It predates even computers by quite a lot. That's just the latest variant.

 

See Descartes' Demon or Plato's Allegory of the Cave (although the latter was making a subtley different point, the underlying idea is present).

[Sensei]

I keep coming across scientists and intellectuals who are entertaining this idea, that the world around us is some type of Matrix. Could it be that we are trapped in someone else's video game? Testing this hypothesis would be very difficult with today's technology, but some scientists think it's possible.

Visible Universe has mass ~ 10^53 kg ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Mass_of_ordinary_matter ),

proton has mass 1.67*10^-27 kg ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton ),

Divide one by another, gives 6*10^79 protons in the Universe.

 

Protons fusing to Helium and then further reduce amount of calculations needed to process particle.

Also mass sucked by black hole reduce amount of calculations needed.

 

If everything is included in simulation, there is no way to learn whether it's simulation or not.

Also you don't have any reference object to compare what you found on the Earth or in cosmos.

Physical laws of simulated Universe, could be different than higher level, not simulated.

 

You're probably thinking about simulating just Earth, or just Solar System.. ?

Edited October 19, 2016 by Sensei

[Oddball305]

You're probably thinking about simulating just Earth, or just Solar System.. ?

 

Seems strange to me that only part of the universe would be simulated, such as one planet or solar system. If the objects are made out of the same particles, I assume their nature and origin are the same. I'm thinking that the fundamental particles of the universe (quarks, electrons, photons, etc.) are the pixels, so to speak, of the video game/computer simulation.

[Sensei]

Seems strange to me that only part of the universe would be simulated, such as one planet or solar system.

Earth has mass ~ 5.97*10^24 kg (calculate as above number of protons/neutrons and electrons it's made of),

in comparison to entire Universe, it's very little number of particles to simulate.

 

The less particles to bother in simulation, the easier it's to make.

 

I'm thinking that the fundamental particles of the universe (quarks, electrons, photons, etc.) are the pixels, so to speak, of the video game/computer simulation.

I don't think so your comparison it to game is appropriate. Games are entertaining players, while the most of people on the Earth, are suffering.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Sensei

[Oddball305]

I don't think so your comparison it to game is appropriate. Games are entertaining players, while the most of people on the Earth, are suffering.

 

In some of the video games I've played, characters are shot and killed, run over by speeding cars, stabbed to death, etc.

[Daecon]

If the Universe was a simulation, would that make the speed of light a rendering issue?

 

If you could go faster-than-light then you might encounter a loading screen.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Daecon