It is fun to think about the Simulation Theory but most discussions revolve around it being likely that we are in one.

What are some concrete reasons why it’s all science fiction and not reality?

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
    131·
    10 months ago

    1. Motivation. Our universe isn’t optimized for anything.

    2. Pointless CPU resources wasted on dark matter when slightly modifing gravity would have given pretty much the same results.

    3. Occum’s razor. You can view our universe as a computer program, you can also view it as the universe. You get the same results which would mean that we should pick the simplest. The simplest is one universe the complex is a hyper universe and out universe.

    • cuppaconcrete@aussie.zone
      3·
      10 months ago
      1. The observer effect at the quantum level does feel like a CPU optimisation - the location of a particle is a probability field until measured. 1.1 In my experience these ‘optimisations’ recur at different levels - eg. economics, gravity, mass distribution, weather, even politics. Generalised models perform very well until you take local measurements - but they’re less scientifically provable.
      2. Dark matter/energy feels like a hack rather than a waste of CPU resources - it’s a vague effect unmeasureable in the baryonic reality we inhabit. In the meantime it alters the structure of solar systems, galaxies and the observable universe itself and it’s not clear how.
      3. Occum’s Razor actually works against your argument. If it’s possible for base reality to contain simulated universes then there is already an [almost?] infinite probability our universe is simulated, as base reality could potentially hold [almost?] infinite simulations. If entities within those simulations can also create their own simulations then the chance of our reality being base reality becomes vanishingly small.

      I agree that most people don’t really need to worry about our universe being a simulation or not, but your statement “You can view our universe as a computer program, you can also view it as the universe.” concerns me. This is true until you start trying to analyse how the universe works, but then all kinds of weird things crop up. It feels like you’re saying we don’t need to investigate this so why bother?

      I sometimes joke that some entity created our universe to find the solution to the Travelling Salesman Problem and if we ever figure it out they’ll switch our universe off. I’d like our universe to keep going a little bit longer so it would be nice to know if it’s simulated.