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.

  • Zink@programming.devEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    That’s right about observation events. They are often called interactions instead.

    But the wave-particle duality applies to literally everything at the quantum level, per the standard model and quantum field theory anyway. And that’s a model with an incredible track record.

    Looking at a particle as a wave is usually in the context of that particle by itself moving in a straight line through a vacuum. There isn’t really vibration and temperature; there aren’t even atoms! You just have the particle’s energy in eV.

    Whether we can subjectively compare the packets of energy in quantum fields with the waves of energy through matter, I have no idea. The math is solid though.