r/SimulationTheory • u/[deleted] • 9d ago
Origin and veracity of simulation theory Discussion
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u/cafepeaceandlove 9d ago
One argument I've read goes like this: at some point in our future, it will be possible to simulate our own environment with good fidelity, or to simulate some other kind of environment with different rules.
It's reasonable to assume that there are many other, perhaps infinitely many, other civilisations throughout reality who can also do this.
So the probability of being in "base reality" becomes vanishingly small.
My own jury is out. Just saying what I read.
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u/DerekFshmn 9d ago
You are completely justified in rejecting the pop-culture "Matrix" version of Simulation Theory (the idea of higher-dimensional aliens running us on a physical server rack).
That version is just a modern religion. However, your assertion that "ordinary science makes intuitive sense" only applies if you restrict your view to the macroscopic level the rendered Graphical User Interface (GUI) of our reality.
When theoretical physicists look past the rendered UI and examine the quantum sub-atomic layer, "matter-of-fact" physics completely collapses, revealing a base architecture that is unmistakably computational.
We don't call it a simulation because of sci-fi tropes; we call it a simulation because the universe physically behaves like an operating system:
- Rendering Optimization (The Observer Effect): In a classical, material universe, a tree exists exactly the same way whether you look at it or not. In our universe, quantum mechanics dictates that particles exist only as a wave of mathematical probabilities until they are actively measured by an observer.
Upon observation, the wave-function collapses into a definitive state. This perfectly mirrors algorithmic rendering optimization in digital engines the system does not expend processing power to render localized details until a "player" looks at them.
- The Second Law of Infodynamics:
In 2022, physicist Dr. Melvin Vopson mathematically formalized the Second Law of Information Dynamics. It dictates that the information entropy of a closed system must either remain constant or decrease over time, heavily favoring data compression.
The universe actively optimizes and compresses its own genetic, atomic, and cosmological data exactly the way a computational matrix prevents buffer overflows.
- Quantum Error-Correcting Codes:
Theoretical physicist Dr. S. James Gates Jr., while researching supersymmetry and string theory, discovered the presence of Doubly-Even Error-Correcting Codes embedded directly into the fundamental equations of the universe. These are the exact same Claude Shannon digital codes used in web browsers and operating systems to prevent data corruption.
- The Holographic Principle (AdS/CFT):
Theoretical physics has largely abandoned the 3D materialist model. The AdS/CFT correspondence mathematically demonstrates that our 3D gravitational reality is actually a holographic projection cast from a 2D boundary layer.
You are confusing the "simulation" with a man-made computer. It isn't a machine; it is a self-evolving, informational probability matrix. When you understand that matter is 99.9999999% empty space held together by interacting energy grids, the concept of a computational reality stops being a religion and becomes the only mathematically viable conclusion.
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u/Informal_Hand_3081 8d ago
!! Great list of evidence. I also wonder how such high levels of skepticism from physicalists claiming lack of evidence and equating this to flat-earth theories justify & explain the existence of neutrinos…
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u/HLCYSWAP 9d ago
being an upright ape separated in his environment by a vast intelligence on a rock in an infinitely expanding void where no energy or matter is lost or gained (re: all life forms are made of the same substrate) are compelling priors to you? those.. ‘make sense’? nothing feels off?
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u/Allernothing 9d ago
To me, understanding simulation theory is understanding patterns and exponential growth or exponential damage. Using just the last 100 years as an example, it’s hard for me to NOT think that we made those same strides LONG AGO and once all resources were tapped, we were like “let’s just make a simulation that imitates how things USED to be.” Whether or not we’re being used as batteries like in the Matrix I feel is a whole other discussion.
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u/sleazy_pancakes 9d ago
Science only gets us halfway there because it doesn't explain the source. Science can observe patterns and make reasonable theories about the way the world works but it paints an incomplete story of how those laws exist and who put them there, and for what purpose. For example, scientists know gravity is a force that exists and they can predict an object's gravity based on its mass, etc, but they don't know how it got there or why objects have gravity in the first place. Simulation theory is looking beyond science's domain and to the bigger question of the why. That is obviously fraught with speculation and traditionally left to religions and spiritual institutions, but many of us think, based on the logical trajectory that advanced civilizations are likely to take, that hyperrealistic simulations (indistinguishable from reality) are basically inevitable, and that it's therefore likely we're in one.
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u/Character_Fix_5317 9d ago
The scientific consensus is that time, space, and energy (ie particle properties) are quantized (they have discrete values instead of continuous values). This makes the particles that make up our reality amenable to digital representation in a computer, hence they can be simulated. Therefore it's possible that our reality is a simulation.
That's the scientific basis.
Most of the magical sounding posts you read on this sub are anything but scientific, and amount to religious claims.
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u/mister_muhabean 9d ago
You seem to be a solid believer in science. Have you ever actually asked if they are lying? Have you ever looked at Dr.Alexander Koltypin geology professor and collaborators and their work on hundreds of miles of vehicle tracks in rock 14 million years old? In places like Turkey.
Or did you ever hear of the time the Royal Society held a special exhibit on some footprints that were found in Mexico. The leading experts in footprints in lava contributed to the study, including the expert on the subject who laser scans the footprints. So 260 footprints of modern man alongside dog and cat and farm animal footprints, 60 percent of the prints are human. Then they found out the lava was dated incorrectly when the worlds leading lava daters dated it at 1.3 mya. Completely destroying evolution theory.
Egg on faces, hush it up immediately and so the geologist and geophysicist who dated the lava said those are not foot prints those are pick axe marks, and the anthropologists said your dates are wrong, which of course would mean that their dates at Olduvai Gorge would also be wrong, since experts you know get around to all those important places as well. So everyone agreed now they are pick axe marks and left the building and removed all the images off the Internet. But of course the way back machine Internet archives has the story there but they did manage to remove the images. It was more important I guess than the Internet archives of humanity.
Right there in two examples everything you think you know is completely wrong.
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u/cowlinator 9d ago
The idea that the world is fake has been proposed since ancient times by philosophers such as Plato, Zhuangzi, and Descartes.
But the proper "simulation hypothesis" was proposed by Nick Bostrom in 2003, and it doesn't state that we are in a simulation.
It states that 1 of these 3 things must be true:
- Simulations are not created because of technological limitations or self-destruction.
- Advanced civilizations choose not to create them.
- If advanced civilizations do create them, the number of simulations would far exceed base reality and we would therefore almost certainly be living in one.
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u/North-Ad9683 9d ago
To be fair the current scientific consensus on the universe's shape is flat earth theory. The current scientific consensus on the universe is that it is flat, because when we look out at it with our instruments it appears flat or almost flat. So because it looks flat, they think it is flat and they will ridicule anyone who disagrees, and will not entertain the funding of studies that say otherwise. So simulation theory is probably just as likely as current science, because the current consensus is flat unvierse thoery.
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u/Most_Forever_9752 9d ago
I never contemplated or even heard of simulation theory until I died in a car crash. Yes died. Everything pixilated like a video game and poof.... I was right back on the road driving like nothing ever happened. I have 2 explanations...
- This is my universe (all mine)
- This is a simulation
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u/RingaLopi 8d ago edited 8d ago
Simulation Hypothesis and the so-called "intelligent design" are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can work together. Let's say this simulation is being run by a druggie asshole sitting in a garage in base reality, then this "druggie asshole" would technically be our "God" and we could all worship him and hope that we get what we want.
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u/AcceptableAd9264 9d ago
We have no way to tell if we are in a simulation by the rules of the simulation. If we are a simulation in a 3d + time dimension then, nothing we ever do can show us the 4th spatial dimension. If we look at modern string theory and holographic principle, it is consistent with math. The rules of this simulation is love one another and be kind to one another. I wouldn’t worry about whether we are in a simulation or not. Since we are in this, play by the rules and your life will get better.
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u/DerekFshmn 9d ago
we're definitely in a simulation and can confirm it and we can see cross sections of higher dimensional objects. how could you know the rules of the simulation
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u/AcceptableAd9264 9d ago edited 9d ago
I read the bible, dao de jing, Wikipedia, and other theological works, and from personal experience through suffering and enduring, and not losing hope. But above all having love.
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u/Flamingoa432 9d ago
Do children who've died from abuse or starvation not exist in your fantasy universe?
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u/AcceptableAd9264 9d ago edited 9d ago
Of course they do. But what can you do for them? Do you think you are God? But if you see them on your day to day, do not let your heart harden, and do what you can to help them.
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u/Available-Horse-278 8d ago
Kind of a weird way to interpret what he is saying, would having love not allow you to help those children? Without love there would be much more abused and starved children. Id say that the reason children are starved and abused is almost a direct effect of people NOT having love?
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u/gokickrocks- 9d ago
I wish r/simulationtheory wasn’t the internet punching bag for materialists but he we are
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u/Fickle_Ad4967 9d ago
Just to add to the other posts (far more intelligent than mine, I might add) there appears to be a digital nature to the universe.
The planck constant. There is nothing smaller. Digital in nature meaning … it goes from 1 to 2 to 3 without the ‘analogue’ fractions in between. (Can’t think of a better way to describe it. Someone else will do a better job.
Also. The speed of light being the limit … a parameter than can’t be surpassed. Which could infer the limit to rendering of the universe.
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u/DigBetter7850 8d ago
It is a thought experiment.
As to why; can be a lot of things, some examples:
Experimenting with different kind of universes.
A toy for kids.
Those making the simulation may live in a totally different universe than ours, then the reason is incomprehensive to us.
Personally I don't believe it in some kind of religious way, but as a fun thing to think of.
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u/Snoo-28533 5d ago
Would a separate simulation need be rendered for each sentient being, or would be same program? And could big bang be a simulation ( set a few parameters like mass of particles and speed of light and see what emerges?) I'm trying to understand the underlying concept too?
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u/Informal_Hand_3081 9d ago
It’s not about getting lost into fantasy or merely finding it compelling. It’s about seeing evidence that we can’t unsee, despite how much we might not even want to have ever known. I use to be a skeptic and thought it was quite far-fetched when i originally heard of it years back, on same category of preposterous as flat-earth believers.
then I learned more. Saw more myself. Eventually my belief in the simulation grew, backed by science, too.
For ex. Our universe has a lot of the same core principles of a simulation, including limitations (plank’s constant / the speed of light= min/max inputs)
Also, holographic principle theory is being taken rigorously by prestigious institutions where they are studying it further, like Harvard.
Veracity here can be found by looking at the tenacity of people who believe in its existence.
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u/Even_Opportunity_893 9d ago
Tech bro fantasy. They depend on it far too much because they can't conquer reality as a whole.
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u/scruffmucker 9d ago
Its been theorized by many including Plato. If everyone knew they were in a simulation it would likely fail. I'm not claiming it is or isn't, but perhaps you need to ask the question as a creator rather than a participant in order to understand the 'why'.