Mastodawn

I tend to think the simulation theory of the universe is a bit too literal for its own good. We may end up confirming that the laws of physics are LIKE those of a simulation, but that may simply be because our own simulations exist within the universe and therefore mimic the UNIVERSE'S laws, not the other way around.

But hey. It's not off the table. I just think it's too simple of a theory, and the truth is probably much stranger.

#simulation #simulationtheory #simulateduniverse #science #physics

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John Novak Oct 12, 2023

@benjaminallocco in this vein, I think it's very possible that the universe is a computer... in the sense that it's performing computation.

Which is decidedly not the same statement as "we are just a simulation program running in a computer".

A "computer" is a machine that performs computation, and it may just turn out that the machinery of the universe is doing "computation", by it's nature, in a sense.

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Benjamin Allocco Is Writing Oct 13, 2023

@JNovak

This is where my mind tends to go, too. The universe may indeed be composed of "bits" of information, and in some sense, there may be some form of "rendering" of spacetime and matter, but that is not the same as saying, "We live in the Matrix!"

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TiTiNoNero

Oct 13, 2023

@benjaminallocco
It's a very convenient theory. It just delegates explaining the universe to the bizarre simulation settings.

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Benjamin Allocco Is Writing Oct 13, 2023

@77nn

Yeah, to be honest, I think "simulation" is just a hot 20th-21st century buzz word that gives us a shiny new frame to look through.

Next up: "The universe is run by an AI!"

We tend to overlay the latest technology onto our theories of things we don't understand. That's not a bad thing, but we should anticipate that our technology will continue to evolve and deepen our understanding into the future.

That's not to say we are going down the wrong path, but the path is probably a lot longer than we can anticipate at any given time.