It's a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization's supercomputer. But new research from UBC Okanagan has mathematically proven this isn't just unlikely—it's impossible.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we’re not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.

  • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 days ago

    Yeah it seems more than likely that we will be able to make a universe in a computer and plug ourselves in one day. Which for me proves that it’s possible that we already live in a simulated universe. Not likely or unlikely, but not impossible.

    • Object299@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      It does seem like the eventual destination of any civilization to plug themselves into a simulation. Seeing that the universe expands at the speed of light, with our current understanding of physics and tech, we just simply wouldn’t be able to expand as quickly as the universe did. So, we’d always be trapped in this bubble and unable to reach any further.

      Why bother with all that trouble when you can be essentially gods in your own virtual reality simulation? You can have any life that you could possibly want in there if it was advanced enough.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      If we ever develop a computer that is capable is simulating every aspect of the universe that we have ever observed, and we then make a simulation of our exact universe and run that simulation up the the point that ourselves in the simulation make the simulation of their own universe, the likelihood that we are in a simulation created by a higher order of ourselves as well is nearly 100%. And nearly 100% chance that they too are simulations. The depths of thess nested simulations would be potentially infinite, and only one could ever be the “real” world. So there is almost almost no chance that any of an infinite set is the “real” one.