I thought it was pretty interesting the first three times this was posted.
Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
11–20 of 211 posts
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#12If 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?
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#13I really hope they don't accidentally trigger a divide by zero error and we have to start over again.
gives a whole new meaning to the term blue screen of death
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#14I really hope they don't accidentally trigger a divide by zero error and we have to start over again.
Imagine if you not only realized you were living in a simulation but that the simulation involved randomness (god playing dice) and you could somehow force backtracking with a simple button so that different values were chosen. Now, play the lottery and hit that button whenever you don't win; you could then surface an unlikely universe where you get really lucky.
like "cmd z" all the way back to the big bang?
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#15If 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?
Could you?
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#16I really hope they don't accidentally trigger a divide by zero error and we have to start over again.
I'm sure they do checkpointing and can roll back in the event of a problem. This has probably happened many times already.
I cant help but picture two mice trying to reconstruct the question from a human brain
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#17I really hope they don't accidentally trigger a divide by zero error and we have to start over again.
Imagine if you not only realized you were living in a simulation but that the simulation involved randomness (god playing dice) and you could somehow force backtracking with a simple button so that different values were chosen. Now, play the lottery and hit that button whenever you don't win; you could then surface an unlikely universe where you get really lucky.
It's unlikely to work unless the button is so reliable that you have a better chance of winning the lottery than the button/mechanism failing in some (possibly undetectable) way. It's the same argument against trying to use quantum immortality to force a miracle by killing yourself, or constructing a machine to kill you, unless some desirable event occurs. It's much more likely that your machine will fail, or you'll change your mind.
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#18If we were created like this, wouldn't it be feasible to say that the creators could just patch this up so the experiment will appear to work but is indeed, rigged.
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#19I thought it was pretty interesting the first three times this was posted.
Those postings were just simulations.
Re: Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine if you not only realized you were living in a simulation but that the simulation involved randomness (god playing dice) and you could somehow force backtracking with a simple button so that different values were chosen. Now, play the lottery and hit that button whenever you don't win; you could then surface an unlikely universe where you get really lucky.
Have you heard of Max Tegmark's quantum suicide argument? If you believe it sufficiently, well, buy a lottery ticket and cyanide, and really commit yourself to it :) (No, please, do NOT do this.)
Let us for a moment, assume that the quantum suicide argument is correct. It is probably more likely that you will somehow survive the cyanide with life-long debilitating effects than for you to actually win the lottery.