If we were to somehow shrink down small enough to be inside this universe, we might be able to detect that it's a construct by observing how certain energies interact with the lattice. Within this simulation, researchers use a lattice structure to represent the space-time continuum. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter - a femtometer is one-quadrillionth, or 10 -15 meters. It's on the femto scale, which is even smaller than the nano scale. Using high-performance computing (HPC), it's possible for researchers to simulate an incredibly small universe in an effort to study QCD. Quantum chromodynamics is a theory that explains the fundamental nature of the strong force in four space-time dimensions. But why stop there? Three physicists suggest there may be a way to detect whether our universe is really an advanced video game. It's not exactly a happy picture.Īs far as philosophical arguments go, this one is a doozy. That could be due to technological limitations, or it might mean that humans could go extinct before ever reaching the level of sophistication required to simulate a universe on that scale. The truth might be that it's impossible for us to reach a point in which we can simulate a universe to that extent.
#Are we living in a computer simulation series
It becomes a dizzying series of universe nesting dolls, each one contained within another universe.īostrom says this doesn't mean that we're definitely living in a computer simulation. Everything we can observe and test would exist within the realm of the simulation, giving us no clue that our reality is in fact just a bunch of ones and zeroes.Įven more mind boggling is the possibility that our universe could be a simulation within another simulation and that we, in turn, could create our own simulations. That's because we can't assume that some other version of intelligent beings - human or otherwise - hasn't already hit that technological landmark and created a simulation in which we are now living. Bostrom states that if this is technologically possible, then it's virtually impossible that we aren't living in a computer simulation already. Next, we assume that the virtual inhabitants of the simulated universe possess characteristics similar to our own, including consciousness, but are unaware that they're in a simulation. Further, we would probably create as many simulations as we could in order to learn more about our own universe, among other reasons. Bostrom argues that if we can create a universe simulation, we almost certainly will do so. This could be the singularity, when humans use our understanding of technology and biology to become transhuman. First, Bostrom says, assume that we will reach a point technologically in which we can create a simulated version of a universe - perhaps even a copy of our own.
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