Is it real? Physicists propose method to determine if universe is a simulation

[dancupid]

The argument is so strong that there's hardly a way around it actually.

I would have much difficulty to explain why, but I have a strong belief that the kind of simulation he's talking about can not run faster than reality.  Therefore, It is not possible for evolved conscious beings to simulate their evolutionary history up to their current level of consciousness, as it would take way too much time.  So they would not do that, either because it would be pointless (who wants to wait a billion years for the result of a computation?), or because they would just have no time to do it in the universe they live in (considering their universe might have a finite lifespan for cosmological reasons).

So I think amongst his three hypothesis, it's the second which is true:

« any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); »

It doesn't mean they can not gather enough computing power.  It just means that having an infinite computing power does not mean you can simulate anything as fast as you want.

It's a very interesting paper though.  Thanks.  I'll read it more thoroughly some day.

With Moore's law nothing takes a billion years.
A billion years of computing today is 1 million in 10 years time, 1000 in 20 years, 1 year in 30 years, 6 hours in 40 years, 22 seconds in 50 years, 0.022 in 60 years.
ie in 60 years we should be able to do a billion years worth of today's computing in substantially less than 1 second.

(I'm using Kurzweil's price performance model of doubling every year- perhaps this is somewhat optimistic)

[grondilu]

With Moore's law nothing takes a billion years.

Not even a subatomic-scaled simulation of a billion years of evolution for a whole universe?  I doubt so.

I believe reality goes "as fast as possible".  If you could go faster, it seems to me that it kind of would mess up with the very definition of time.   But I confess I'd have difficulties to rigorously explain why.  It's an intuition I got.

[istar]

Is a simulation not real? It has to be simulated in some kind of reality?

If you pinch yourself, does it feel lika a simulation?

[mem]

I think our universes designers are smarter than this, why not use SVG instead of a flat image format.
No matter how far we zoom in, it will still render smoothly

[Vod]

Imagine if the programmer of this simulation worked a 6 day work week, and got the last day off...   

[dancupid]

With Moore's law nothing takes a billion years.

Not even a subatomic-scaled simulation of a billion years of evolution for a whole universe?  I doubt so.

I believe reality goes "as fast as possible".  If you could go faster, it seems to me that it kind of would mess up with the very definition of time.   But I confess I'd have difficulties to rigorously explain why.  It's an intuition I got.

There's no need to simulate the entire universe, just the bit being observed. You buy a microscope in the simulated world and the simulation just calculates the part you are looking at. It just needs to be consistent at all scales of observation.

[herzmeister]

I think our universes designers are smarter than this, why not use SVG instead of a flat image format.
No matter how far we zoom in, it will still render smoothly

Well apparently they weren't smarter.

[grondilu]

Somehow it seems to me the following video might be relevant in this thread:


NASA | Computer Model Shows a Disk Galaxy's Life History

It's amazing how they manage to see how a galaxy gets this typical disk form.   This the central black whole, spiral-shaped branches and all.  I mean, ten years ago this process was pretty much a mystery, and now it can be reproduced on computer.  That's impressive.

[moni3z]

What happens if it's pretty conclusive it is a simulation. Can we then develop matrix like hacks for our environment