Sub atomic particles may be pixels in a simulated reality.
Computers and the Internet have changed the way we conceive of the universe. Complex systems, algorithms, programming, pixels, data-mining, viral propagation and virtual realities are new additions to the vocabulary of modern thought. These concepts have migrated to books, films and TV and to the single most powerful way we create models of our universe, scientific hypothesis.
Welcome to The Simulation Theory, because without computers, this theory couldn’t exist.
If you’ve seen The Matrix, you already know a lot about this theory. Neo is trapped in an extremely compelling artificial reality. He wakes up in the real world which is nowhere near as seductive or addictive as the illusory Matrix.
The theory was first proposed by the futurist Hans Moravec (Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University) and was elaborated on in a paper by Professor Nick Bostrom (Oxford University) who theorized we could all be living in a simulation. But Bostrom doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say it is likely we are already in a simulation being run by a “post human” civilization in our own future. Simulation Theory continues to ignite excitement in the scientific community, recently being championed by NASA/JPL’s Rich Terrell and turning up in scientific papers.
Are we living in a bubble?
Could a technically advanced society simulate a reality indistinguishable from actual reality? Could the universe we perceive be such a simulacrum? What about our conscious minds? Are we simulated too?
Could the rules of physics be changed from world to world?
The Simulation Argument
Here’s is an excerpt from Dr. Bostrom’s paper.
It may be possible for simulated civilizations to become posthuman. They may then run their own ancestor-simulations on powerful computers they build in their simulated universe. Such computers would be “virtual machines”, a familiar concept in computer science. (Java script web-applets, for instance, run on a virtual machine – a simulated computer – inside your desktop.) Virtual machines can be stacked: it’s possible to simulate a machine simulating another machine, and so on, in arbitrarily many steps of iteration. If we do go on to create our own ancestor-simulations, this would be strong evidence against (1) and (2), and we would therefore have to conclude that we live in a simulation. Moreover, we would have to suspect that the posthumans running our simulation are themselves simulated beings; and their creators, in turn, may also be simulated beings.
According to Bostrom, life could be a vast computer program with a complex set of rules accounting for growth, reproduction and death. Our senses could be an illusion. We could be simulacra.
Are we simulacra?
Is God a computer programmer?
The sticky little issue The Simulation Theory ultimately creates, is the idea of God. Creationists sometimes latch onto the theory as a potential way to prove there is a creator. Scientists usually propose the simulation is generated by an advanced society or our future selves. Physicists like Stephen Hawking have sold a lot of books using the God trigger. But whether the universe is an organic phenomena or a simulation, the rules of science are the ultimate tool to perceive it.
Rich Terrell, of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena appeared on Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole and discussed this very point. “What are the requirements for God? He’s an inter-dimensional being, connected with everything in the Universe, a creator, responsible for everything in the Universe, and in some way can change the law of physics, if he wanted to. I think those are good requirements for what God ought to be.” The definition is awfully close to what computer programmers do, when building simulated environments. Terell offers a thought equation as proof, “Look at the way the Universe behaves, it’s quantized, it’s made of pixels. Space is quantized, matter is quantized, energy is quantized, everything is made of individual pixels. Which means the Universe has a finite number of components. Which means a finite number of states. Which means it’s computer.” And Rich Terrell estimates that we will be able to create a “photo real simulation of all that we see around us” in ten years. Ten year may sound astoundingly quick, but according to Moore’s law, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. Although Terrell believes that’s a slow estimation and that in a decade computational power will increase by 500.
Will computers create a photo real simulation in 10 years?
Holy Moore’s Law!
Anyone who has played The Sims knows that creator Will Wright, somehow codified the ordinary rules of life into an artificial reality. Just like a Phillip K. Dick’s novel, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, where Martian colonists project themselves into avatars to play Perky Pat. The Sims allows players to operate a community of humans. The Sims even has a form of simulated karma. I once played an early version of The Sims where if you neglected the game the house caught on fire!
Even though virtual reality is only a crude shadow of a simulated reality, programmers like Will Wright are still able to create physics for their world. Will Wright’s game Spore, takes the idea further, allowing the player to act as a god and play with the virtual world’s physics, creating lifeforms that evolve from microscopic organisms into complex animals, then intelligent beings. Once a species reaches planetary mastery, it ascends into space to interact with alien species across the galaxy.
Does reality assemble for our consciousness?
Holy Schrödinger’s Cat!
Some scientists are proposing ways to prove the Simulation theory. Rich Terrell points out that the famous double slit experiment involving interference and diffraction of particles is evidence that the universe may be assembling itself only when we observe it, and disassembling when we aren’t paying attention… sort of like a computer game. “The experiment shows something really rather extraordinary, that matter, even though it behaves when you are looking at it, measuring it, as individual particles, when you are not looking at it, matter is diffuse. It spreads out, it doesn’t have a finite form in the Universe… The Universe gives you what you are looking at when you look at it,” Terrell says.“When you are not looking at it, it’s not necessarily there.”
How can we prove we are in a simulation? Researchers Silas R. Beane, Zohreh Davoudi, Martin J. Savage propose we look for signs of “constraint” in the Universe. “The numerical simulation scenario could reveal itself in the distributions of the highest energy cosmic rays exhibiting a degree of rotational symmetry breaking that reflects the structure of the underlying lattice.” So if we measure the highest-energy cosmic rays known in the universe and find out those cosmic rays are constrained in some way, we may be living inside a bubble.
Anybody got a million dollars?
Rich Terrell talks about The Simulation Theory on Through the Wormhole:
Nick Bostrom talks about The Simulation Argument:
Simulation Theory: Is God a Computer Programmer?
