Over the past few years - not decades, as one might think, but years - the idea that we live in a virtual world has gained unheard of popularity. Yes, on this idea films like "The Matrix" gained fame in their time, but the general public began to think about the depth of this thought only with the widespread use of the Internet, games, the fruits of quantum mechanics and, again, films on this topic. A few months ago, one of the loudest voices of our time, "billionaire, philanthropist and playboy" Elon Musk even addressed this topic. For me, the topic of life in the virtual universe has become practically a religion - and you could not help but notice.
The funny thing is, Musk and I are most likely right.
But it doesn't really matter.
And before we figure out why, let's get back to basics. Why can our world be … an illusion?
The idea of a computer simulation of our world goes back to the ancient Greeks. They just called her a dream, a dream, a fantasy. The first thing to learn is that our perception of reality is already separated from reality itself. Reality is simply an electrical impulse that your brain interprets. We perceive the world indirectly and imperfectly. If we could see the world as it is, there would be no optical illusion, no color blindness, no magic moving pictures.
Furthermore, we are only experiencing a simplified version of all this mediated sensory information. Why? Because observing our world requires too much computational power - so the brain breaks it down into heuristics (or simplified, but still useful representations). Our mind is constantly looking for repeating pictures, patterns, patterns, patterns in our world and arranges them in accordance with our perception.
From this, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Our perception is already different from reality itself. What we call reality is just an attempt by our brain to process the incoming stream of sensory data, sensory experience.
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2. If our perception of reality depends on a simplified flow of information, it doesn't matter what the source of this information is - be it the physical world or a computer simulation that feeds us the same information. But how realistic is it to create such a powerful simulation?
Let's look at the universe from a physical point of view.
A Brief History of the Laws of the Universe
From the point of view of physics, there are four main forces at the heart of everything: strong interaction, electromagnetic force, weak interaction and gravity. These forces regulate the interaction of all particles in the known universe. Their combination and balance determine how this world works.
Calculating these forces and simulating simple interactions is a fairly straightforward exercise, and we already do, to some extent. This calculation becomes more difficult the more particles begin to interact with each other, but this is a matter of computational power, not a fundamental possibility.
At the moment, we do not have enough computing power to simulate the whole universe. Physicists may say that it is impossible to simulate the work of the universe on a computer - not because it is difficult, but because the computer that will simulate this work must be larger than the universe itself. Why? Because you have to simulate each particle, and that will require bits and bytes to store its position, spin and type, and to calculate.
You don't need to be a professor to understand the impossibility of this event. Nevertheless, this approach has its drawbacks, which stem from the mathematical warehouse of most physicists.
There is a big difference between simulating an entire universe and creating a virtual experience of life in an entire universe.
Here again heuristics will help us. Many computational scenarios would be impossible if our human minds weren't so easily tricked. Real-time calculations, moving images, video streams and much more - all this gives us the feeling that everything is continuous and does not stop, although deception lies at the very basis of the reality we are used to.
The basic trick remains the same: reduce detail until you find the best balance between quality and complexity, so our minds can't tell the difference.
There are many tricks we can use to reduce the required calculated power to simulate the universe to the level that we can believe in it. The most obvious one: you don't need to render something that no one is looking at. You probably know about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the observer effect. Modern physics tells us that reality, or rather the smallest particles of which it is composed, depend on the observer. Roughly speaking, forms don't exist until you look at them. And try to prove the opposite.
The next trick you can use is to create a universe that appears vast and limitless, even if it isn't. By reducing the granularity of distant objects, you can save enormous amounts of computing power and generate objects only as they are detected. For example, there is the game No Man's Sky - it uses procedural generation of worlds as they are discovered, and the number of them is truly infinite even in this small computer game.
Finally, basic physical principles can be added that will make it much more difficult or impossible to reach any other planet. The creatures will be attached to their own world. (The speed of light or the exponentially expanding universe, che-che).
When you combine these tricks with mathematical tricks like repetitive patterns and basic fractal geometry, you can get a perfectly working heuristic model of the universe, which will seem almost infinite and limitless. Yet this does not explain why the theory of the virtual universe has gained such popularity. Why are we, with a high degree of probability, in such a world?
Modeling argument and mathematics
The modeling (simulation) argument is a logical chain proposed by Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom. It is based on some assumptions that, depending on your point of view, may lead to the conclusion that our universe is most likely illusory, modeled. It's simple:
1. It is possible to model the universe (we discussed this premise above).
2. Each civilization either dies out (pessimistic view) before it becomes technically capable of simulating the universe; either loses interest in the development of simulation technology; or it continues to evolve until it finally becomes technically capable of simulating the universe - and does. It's just a matter of time. Are we capable of this? Of course they can.
3. Once such a society succeeds, it will create many different models; the number of simulations will be totally uncountable. After all, everyone will want to have their own universe.
4. When the model reaches a certain level (development), it will also create its own imitations, and so on.
If you are good at math, very soon you will get to the point where you have to admit that the likelihood of living in the real world is extremely small, since it is just tiny compared to the number of simulations that exist.
If you look like this, maybe our world is somewhere on the 20th rung of the vicious ladder of simulation, which leaves the real world.
The first thought that arises after realizing this, plunges into shock and horror. Because living in a virtual world is a little creepy. But the good news is that it doesn't matter.
"Real" is just a word, information is just currency
We have already found out that our understanding of reality is very different from reality itself. But let's also assume for a second that our universe is a computer model. Simulation. An imitation of the real world that we never knew. This assumption leads us to the next logical chain.
1. If the universe is modeled, then it is essentially a combination of bits and bytes (or qubits, or something else) - that is, information.
2. If the universe is information or data, so are you. We are all information.
3. If we are all information, then our bodies are simply representations of this information - like an avatar. Information has one good property: it is not tied to a specific object. It can be copied, transformed, changed at will. You just need to have the right tools.
4. Any society capable of creating a virtual world is also capable of giving your "personal" information a new avatar (because it takes less brains to do this than to create the universe).
All of this leads to the idea that we are all information, and information is not tied to a specific object like your body. Philosophers and theologians have long been trying to find a connection between the soul and the body, and scientists (those who have a mathematical view of the world) are skeptical about both philosophers and the concept of the soul. After all, the theory of the virtual world is another religion, slightly more modern than others. Or offering a more rational explanation of the universe.
Let's summarize. Reality is information, just like us. Simulation is part of the reality that creates it, and everything that is born further is already modeled from the point of view of those who were modeled. Therefore, reality is what we receive along with sensory experience. From a physical point of view, there is no objectivity in quantum space - only a very subjective perspective. It turns out that everything is “real” as long as you feel, see, understand, realize and comprehend along with everyday experience. The universe that has been simulated is as real to its inhabitants as the real world is to us. Is it worth worrying? Not. Perhaps one more time to admire how everything is … well arranged.
ILYA KHEL