Ultimately, the new research just indicates that advanced civilizations could not simulate the known universe using our current understanding of computing technology. Their conclusions were a kind of side effect generated by a separate study concerning quantum systems and computational algorithms. One important detail is that Kovrizhin and his colleagues didnвЂ™t actually set out to prove or disprove the Simulation Hypothesis. Corresponding with Kovrizhin is a lot of fun if you enjoy discussing the SchrГ¶dinger equationВ and quantum Monte Carlo, which isВ likely the most efficient possible algorithm for simulating quantum particles, and the one his research focused on. It gets much more complicated than that, as you might imagine. вЂњIf one tries to extrapolate this to few hundreds of spins, then building a computer with such a memory would require more atoms than there are in the universe,вЂќ Kovrizhin says. вЂњIn order to simulate a quantum mechanical system, one would, in general, have to diagonalize this matrix on a computer, which is a computationally difficult task when the size of the matrix becomes large.вЂќДЄccording to the research teamвЂ™s best approximations, it would require a terabyte of RAM to store just 20 spins of a single particle on the quantum level. вЂњIn quantum mechanics, which is the basis for understanding of the nature, a system of particles is described by a Hamiltonian, an object that can be written as a matrix,вЂќ Kovrizhin says. Emailing from his lab in Oxford, he writes that to really and truly simulate the universe, our hypothetical future computer would need to replicate phenomena down to the quantum level. Since I donвЂ™t have a PhD or three, Kovrizhin kindly agreed to break it down for me. If you speak math, you can read all about itВ . KovrizhinвЂ“from the University of Oxford and the Hebrew University in IsraelвЂ“published their findings in the prestigious journal Science Advances. Theoretical physicists Zohar Ringel and Dmitry L. The conclusion: Based on everything we now know about physics and computers, it is mathematically impossible for the known universe to be a computer simulation.

In fact, itвЂ™s statistically probable that weвЂ™re already living inside some kind of cosmic computational construct. Some proponents of the idea take it one step further: If future computers can generate limitless simulated universes, then the likelihood of our current reality being the original universe, or the Prime Reality, is actually quite small. вЂњIf you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the will become indistinguishable from reality,вЂќ Musk says. Approximated humans within the simulationвЂ“thatвЂ™s usвЂ“would be conscious entities. These sims would essentially replicate physical reality down to the subatomic level. Projecting that rate of advancement forward, unthinkable amounts of computing power will be available to advanced species, either our own or others in the universe, who might like to create the ultimate cosmic. WeвЂ™ve gone from the Atari 2600 to high-resolution virtual reality in forty-some years. The core of the argument-perhaps made most strenuously by the philosophers David Chalmers and Nick Bostrom-concerns the incredible rate of computer advancement weвЂ™ve seen in recent decades, specifically with games and simulations. Elon Musk has suggested that, considered from a certain point of view, itвЂ™s pretty much a lockВ that weвЂ™re living inside of some kind of cosmic hard drive. At the 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate in Washington, D.C., celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted a two-hour debateВ on the subject. While the idea itself isnвЂ™t particularly newвЂ“weвЂ™re all familiar with The Matrix moviesвЂ“what a lot of people donвЂ™t know is that Simulation Hypothesis is considered entirely valid, so far as it goes, by a wide range of philosophers, mathematicians, physicists, and metaphysicists. This controlling civilization may be an existing alien culture, or it may be a future iteration of humanity, one of many spun out into the far-future multiverse of parallel realities. The gist, according to proponents, is that all of reality is actually an incredibly complex computer simulation created by an advanced civilization.

To back up: The Simulation Hypothesis, sometimes called the Simulation Argument, is a concept thatвЂ™s been bouncing around in scientific circles for several yearsвЂ“and in science fiction stories for several decadesВ before that.

Simulation argument