It’s a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization’s supercomputer. But new research from UBC Okanagan has mathematically proven this isn’t just unlikely—it’s impossible.
Dr. Mir Faizal, Adjunct Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, and his international colleagues, Drs. Lawrence M. Krauss, Arshid Shabir and Francesco Marino have shown that the fundamental nature of reality operates in a way that no computer could ever simulate.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we’re not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.
“It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation. This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation,” says Dr. Faizal. “This idea was once thought to lie beyond the reach of scientific inquiry. However, our recent research has demonstrated that it can, in fact, be scientifically addressed.”
Always seemed a stupid theory anyway.
If you simulate a computer doing a difficult calculation, you cannot skip the cost of the calculation. If a universe were a simulation containing another universe in a simulation, then the outer computer is processing the cost of simulating 2 universes, so it was either over-engineered for the original task, or the second universe is parasitising the processing available to the first universe. Either way, running 1 big universe is probably significantly more efficient than running a concentric series of ever more inefficient virtual universes inside virtual universes.
Tldr: if we’re in a simulation, we’re either right at the top, or we’re a dumbed down bottom tier universe inside the 20-dimensional computer of a bored hyper intelligent being beyond our ability to imagine, and we’re the equivalent to a pond slime experiment.
I agree it’s a stupid theory.
But of course, if I designed the simulation, I don’t have to actually simulate any of the complex bits, I just have to alter each simulated person to remember successfully observing the results of the complex bits.
Edit: Of course, my solution breaks the infitine chain of nested worlds anyway. I don’t have to simulate infitine nested worlds in my simulation’s computers - I just simulate a small believable set of memories of having done so. So even those infitine nested worlds are just paper cutouts of the real thing.
I guess either way, I don’t spend infitine processing power, so the average person has a 50/50 chance of being inside or outside the top level simulation.
Edit 2: But ironically, each person has 100% chance of believing that they are taking part in an infinite set of nested simulated worlds - if my simulated memories are believable enough.