A team of physicists led by Mir Faizal at the University of British Columbia has demonstrated that the universe cannot be a computer simulation, according to research published in October 2025[1].
The key findings show that reality requires non-algorithmic understanding that cannot be simulated computationally. The researchers used mathematical theorems from Gödel, Tarski, and Chaitin to prove that a complete description of reality cannot be achieved through computation alone[1:1].
The team proposes that physics needs a “Meta Theory of Everything” (MToE) - a non-algorithmic layer above the algorithmic one to determine truth from outside the mathematical system[1:2]. This would help investigate phenomena like the black hole information paradox without violating mathematical rules.
“Any simulation is inherently algorithmic – it must follow programmed rules,” said Faizal. “But since the fundamental level of reality is based on non-algorithmic understanding, the universe cannot be, and could never be, a simulation”[1:3].
Lawrence Krauss, a co-author of the study, explained: “The fundamental laws of physics cannot exist inside space and time; they create it. This signifies that any simulation, which must be utilized within a computational framework, would never fully express the true universe”[2].
The research was published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics[1:4].
I propose that the researchers just don’t know how to create such an algorithm and therefore assume it isn’t possible.
I didn’t read more than what’s in OP’s post, but I think the reason the researchers can be so sure is because there are ways to mathematically prove that something cannot be calculated by an algorithm (this is related to how we can mathematically prove that some things cannot be proven).
One classic, simple example of this is the halting problem. It boils down to the fact that we can prove that there is no algorithm that can take any algorithm as an input and determine if that algorithm will finish (halt) after finite time.
Yeah, bold of them to assume they’d know how to simulate a universe when we still don’t understand it
Also, very strange of them to talk about algorithmic rules as the world is currently being flooded by AI… Hell Google just released one that creates a simulation
How so?
How does that contradict the findings in that paper?
AI is not algorithmic, it does not follow human logic. It’s chaos distilled through math
The process of training AI is algorithmic, it’s run and modified algorithmically, but humans make AI in the way we make a garden. We arrange the pieces and create feedback mechanisms, then you let it rip
And this is one of the darker simulation theories… That we live in the thoughts of a super intelligent AI thinking through a problem
The Google project doesn’t really prove anything, it’s just ironic timing for the paper to come out shortly after
AI is algorithmic and deterministic, because it runs on normal processors. Step by step like any other program. It only seems random, because it’s complex.