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No, We Probably Don't Live in a Computer Simulation, Says Physicist (gizmodo.com)
Science doesn't have all the answers. There are plenty of things it may never prove, like whether there's a God. Or whether we're living in a computer simulation, something proposed by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. From an article on Gizmodo: This kind of thinking made at least one person angry, theoretical physicist and science writer Sabine Hossenfelder from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany. Last week, she took to her blog Backreactions to vent. It's not the statement "we're living in a simulation" that upsets Hossenfelder. It's the fact that philosophers are making assertions that, if true, should most certainly manifest themselves in our laws of physics. "I'm not saying it's impossible," Hossenfelder told Gizmodo. "But I want to see some backup for this claim." Backup to prove such a claim would require a lot of work and a lot of math, enough to solve some of the most complex problems in theoretical physics.
If life was a simulation, it was probably located in God's big toe. Yeah... Monty Python was a bad philosophical influence.
This is exactly what an Agent would say.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Depends on what programming language that the programmer used to create the universe. That alone would start a few religious wars.
But Elon Musk say it's a billion to one likelihood that we live in a simulation! He can't be wrong, can he????
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
If the universe is a simulation then one can speculate on the purpose of the simulation. A good bet, based on our own world, would be it's a role playing game. If so the "players" are presumably the Elites in the game.
Ah, so we just need to look for player characters who picked a generic white-male avatar, blundered around because they picked "easy mode," but still wound up doing and completing some of the fun missions and sidequests in the game. For example:
1. Started life as a player character with extra gold
2. Flew fighter planes
3. Managed a baseball team
4. Caught fish in the "pond on own private ranch" cliche
5. Became president of USA. Bonus for second term election.
Hmm, someone like that would be unbelievable and stick out like a sore thumb.
It isn't even a theory though, as there isn't anything to support it.
There is no conclusive proof, but there is plenty of evidence that the universe is a simulation. In many ways, the universe appears to be designed to be easy to simulate. If you were designing a universe simulation, what would you do?
1. Due to limited computational resources, the simulated universe would be granular or "quantum". 2. To limit computation, reality would be held in a fuzzy probabilistic "superposition" state until it is actually observed, similar to how a GPU running OpenGL will skip the generation of hidden polygons. 3. The maximum speed of information transfer would be finite, to limit the propagation of changes through the universe.
All of these are actually true in our universe, ergo, we are very likely a simulation.
The whole shebang may be sitting on a table at a science fair with the label:
Kinetic Sculpture with Self Aware Components
By G. Hova
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office