Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

huffingtonpost.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 211 posts

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#111

Post by jasonm23 »

XorNot wrote: post #102
jerf wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have often thought that if 20th century science tried to ram home the logical necessity of atheism, 21st century science rams home the logical necessity of agnosticism being the ground level, so to speak. If we, tiny as we still are, can even conceive of a practical way to simulate a universe (and what is truly the difference between "simulate" and "create" in the end?), how can we in good conscience fully rule out…

Agnosticism has nothing meaningful to say about this situation, because it claims to give equal weight to totally unfounded claims ("it's definitely yahweh"). Atheists would rightly consider the evidence, conclude there was a creator, but give it no due reverence because they would conclude (rightly) that none is morally due.

I think you're conflating anti-theist/philosophical anarchists with atheists.

Concluding there is a creator, simply transforms one from being an Atheist into something completely separate.

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#112

Post by Jarihd »

Just recalled one of my several questions i had when i was a small kid to which i never got any answers, so here's my kiddy question

can it be that.. we are beings living inside another huge-living-being and working for it under some laws. like the way we have cells in our body working for us, we could be something like cells working in this huge-living-being.

can this explain the multiverse idea i.e a universe inside another universe inside another universe.. and maybe finite in number.

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#114

Post by paulhodge »

paulhodge wrote: post #89
adventured wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The odds are statistically equal that we're the first civilization and that we're the 5 millionth (in this iteration of the universe).

I don't think this is true. Are we assuming that every universe has an infinite number of civilizations? It's impossible to have uniform probability across an infinite set of discrete probabilities, because every outcome would have a probability of 0. So with no other knowledge, it's slightly more likely that we are the first civilization than the 5 millionth. Of course it's tricky to talk about the "first" civilizat…

Oops, should say "infinite set of discrete possibilities"

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#115

Post by joshschreuder »

kislayverma wrote: post #113

Some believe that if you really proved that the universe was a simulation, the universe would change into a newer and better simulation. Evidence suggests this has happened before.

What are some examples of the evidence?

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#116

Post by worldsayshi »

klipt wrote: post #96
JackFr wrote: post #59

"The theory basically goes that any civilisation which could evolve to a 'post-human' stage would almost certainly learn to run simulations on the scale of a universe. And that given the size of reality - billions of worlds, around billions of suns - it is fairly likely that if this is possible, it has already happened." That sounds distinctly like Anselm's ontological proof for the existence of God, and thus likely…

> learn to run simulations on the scale of a universe Pretty sure under our current understanding of physics, it's impossible to simulate a universe like our own within our own.

Yes, this. I take it that the amount of inverse entropy is always diminishing. In order to fully simulate a universe with the same amount of entropy^-1 we need at least as much as we had at the initial moment. But entropy^-1 will always decrease.

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#117

Post by learc83 »

klipt wrote: post #96
JackFr wrote: post #59

"The theory basically goes that any civilisation which could evolve to a 'post-human' stage would almost certainly learn to run simulations on the scale of a universe. And that given the size of reality - billions of worlds, around billions of suns - it is fairly likely that if this is possible, it has already happened." That sounds distinctly like Anselm's ontological proof for the existence of God, and thus likely…

> learn to run simulations on the scale of a universe Pretty sure under our current understanding of physics, it's impossible to simulate a universe like our own within our own.

>impossible to simulate a universe like our own within our own

Impossible to perfectly model a universe, but not impossible to simulate something that looks like a tiny part of a universe.

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#118

Post by namuol »

adventured wrote: post #57
kstenerud wrote: post #24

"The alternative - that we're the first civilisation, in the first universe - is virtually (no pun intended) absurd." As opposed to us simply being some other civilization on one of the other billions of habitable planets in that same "first" universe?

The odds are statistically equal that we're the first civilization and that we're the 5 millionth (in this iteration of the universe).

Assuming there are very many civilizations in our universe, the odds that we're the first are tremendously lower than the odds that we're not. I think that's the point.

Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation

#119

Post by modarts »

marblar wrote: post #48
benhamner wrote: post #12

If you're interested in going a bit deeper on this, Nick Bostrom ( http://nickbostrom.com/ ) has pulled together an intriguing case: http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html A provoking question: if we found evidence that convinced us, beyond a reasonable doubt, that we were living in a computer simulation, would you change your behavior?

I wonder if we could devise an experiment to see if the world containing the computer was, itself, a simulation -ad infinitum.

Turtles, all the way down.
Post reply on HN