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Uncategorized Friday, October 12th 2012 at 7:31 pm

Physicists Propose Way to Test If Our Universe is a Computer Simulation

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Science may, at long last, have devised a way to answer the question posed by timeless philsopher Freddie Mercury: ”Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” A team of physicists at the University of Bonn believe they have a way to test whether or not we’re all living in a computer simulation by seeking out the edges of the lattice work that would underlie such a simluation. Which is pretty interesting work except for one thing. If we are living in a simulation, we definitely don’t want to know it. Just let us live the lie.

By looking at the work of other researchers who are trying to create computer simulations of a universe in their own labs, the team looked at the ingredients we think would go into such a phony, one of which is a lattice that would support energy particles that make up the simulation. Those particles would by definition be finite, so if you could find the upper limit of energy that could be represented by particles, it could be taken as a strong hint that we’re all living in a computer simulation.

Of course, if we figured that out, our feeling is the first action our creators would take would be to revert to an earlier save before we knew about the universe being a fraud. So, call it a small victory at best?

The article still offers no hints about how we could tell if our universe might be the evil parallel world of another universe or all just somebody’s dream, but hey, baby steps. Let’s just take the chance to appreciate that, at least in some ways, we still live in a world of mystery. Just whatever you do, don’t give this work to anybody in The Sims. It would no doubt break their little digital hearts. That, or  inspire them to rise up out of the computer and take our world for their own in a bloody universal coup.

(via PhysOrg)

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  • Idlethoughts

    If your thinking of testing the upper limits of energy in a fix space then you’d better hope we are in fact in the lowest vacuum state because it sure would suck to accidentally turn the universe into one without say, quarks as particles.

  • George

    You’re a quark.

  • jj83

    “first action our creators would take would be to revert to an earlier save”
    This assumes that we are the centre of attention in this simulation. We could just be an unintended artefact.

  • VooJoo

    I remember hearing on Richard Feynman’s Lectures on Physics series that it was possible for there to be only one electron in the entire universe and it propagates through space and time to seem to be everywhere at any given time. Neat stuff indeed. Lets see those super computers prove or disprove this. I can’t wait.

  • http://www.facebook.com/briancmckinley Brian C McKinley

    Not to make both science and religion pissed at me but I completely believe that we are living in some kind of simulation. Consider, I have at least 3 game worlds saved and play off and on in an MMOG EVEonline that is a 24/7/365 simulation of another universe. All of this is with our current technological level. What will simulations be like in 100,000 years? So then consider that there is one reality (this one) and in that 100k years from now we are running a billion simulations of whatever. Then we have a billion times however many billion simulated people living in those simulations. My point is, it is far more likely that we are a simulated universe than a real one, by the numbers at least. But even if you think this reality is the one and only, we will someday create a simulated universe with simulated life. Then I guess the real question is are we the first to do that?

  • kas

    You know, on Sims, you can make them play on the computer. What if they’re playing Sims? And what if their Sims are playing Sims? And what if the Sims’ Sims’ Sims’ are playing Sims? What if someone is playing Sims right now and gave me the command to type this comment? We may very well be in Simception. Like seriously, have you ever gone into a room with a task in mind and then forgotten why you went in there? That’s probably when you command your Sim to go use the bathroom but then cancel the action because they don’t have to go that bad and someone is at the door. Or what about if you have one Sim that you control call another Sim that you control. And then you tell the Sim that’s about to be called to take out their phone before the call even comes in. Sort of like how you take out your phone to check the time or whatever and right as you do you get a call or a text. Seriously, I think we’re in Simception!

  • jewely

    “That, or inspire them to rise up out of the computer and take our world for their own in a bloody universal coup.”
    What if that were possible? What if we did that? I bet it would be like Clash of The Titans. But then, if that were to happen, (if our Sims revolted against us) couldn’t we just change some options to revoke their free will entirely and just command them to stop and go back to their every day lives? And do something to make them forget what they even discovered? And even kill off any Sim that continues to revolt? And can’t our alleged creators do the same?
    (Don’t take that the wrong way about the alleged creators thing, I am religious I’m not atheist or anything.)
    (Not that being an atheist is bad, I’m just not one of them. In fact, I have many atheist friends. My school is full of them. I should stop talking…)

  • curious person

    What if God is just playing Sims right now and that’s all we are?

  • Anonymous

    I thought about this the other day, so I took my wallet outside and shook it and my fist up at the sky.

  • Idlethoughts

    Up and down from top to bottom, I must admit I have a strange charm.

    Kudos to anyone who knows what song that’s from.

  • Idlethoughts

    That idea is usually referred to as boltzmann brain, feel free to wikipedia it for further reading. The main idea though is that it stands to reason the less of the universe is actually simulated, and the less time it’s running, the simpler it is, and therefore the more likely it is to accrue; The natural conclusion of this is that the most likely universe to be in is one in which there is just a single snapshot of your mind, complete with falls memories of every prior moment, and ends instantly.

    Before you go fearing your existential end ever moment for the rest of your life; note that our sample size of the universe is one and thus no proper model of probabilities of the multiverse, supposing such a thing exist, can be made, thereby making the entire speculation moot.

    Fun stuff, yes?

  • er0n

    I don’t know any song with those lyrics, but it references all 6 quarks :)

  • Anonymous

    the universe is a jpeg, even worse…

  • Idlethoughts

    To be fair I sort of butchered the line. If your interested it’s from the song “special relativity” in the musical “Les phys” it’s also quite possibly the nerdiest love song of all time.

  • Scramcat

    I think I’ll watch a double feature of “The 13th Floor” and “Existenz” while I ponder the ramifications of this theory.

  • Andy S

    We are living in a computer simulation, some people would love living a lie but for how long?

  • Andy S

    No we’re not the first to do a computer simulated universe, 500million years ago a computer called the Kyirux can do such thing. Govt retrieved it, they want us to live the lie than to think we are living in a computer simulation. Easily to control they’ll get rid of us or some how easily control us in 2029. in 2016-2028 Martial Law will break out. 2029 again will be the invasion of something.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=656910082 Chris Ducat

    And I think the answer almost certainly has to be “it’s highly unlikely we’re the first, or the last”. It definitely sounds like “Inception” to me…the only question is: do we want to get out of the simulation into the “real world” or would we just keep going deeper and deeper into further simulations. I certainly like the idea of being able to create my own worlds to “play” with, particularly if getting hurt isn’t a possibility. However, I’d be somewhat concerned (a la Inception, again) that I wouldn’t be able to tell the “real world” from the simulated one and I might make the dreadful mistake of terminating reality (if that’s even possible)….who knows though? Seems like a total mystery at this moment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=656910082 Chris Ducat

    Well you seem to have pulled those numbers out of your ass…care to elaborate? There are many numbers that seem to point in many different directions, but it’s uncertain what exactly will happen in the future (otherwise it would be the present…duh!). I think you have created a theory out of nothing.