Maybe we are all Neo living in a simulated universe?
If our universe is just a Matrix-like model, could we ever know about it? Physicist Silas Bean of the University of Bonn in Germany believes he knows the answer to this question. The journal "Physical Review D" published his article "The Limitations of the Universe by the Example of Numerical Simulation".
Justin Mullins: The theory that we live in a simulated world is just science fiction, isn't it?
Silas Bean: There is actually a compelling argument that we actually live in imitation. The idea is this: in the future, people can easily model entire Universes, and given the infinity of the time continuum, the number of such Universes is likely to be huge. Therefore, if you ask, "Are we living in a single real reality or in one of many simulations?", The answer, as the statistics say, is: most likely we live in imitation.
JM: How did you come up with this topic?
SB: My job is to create high-performance computational computer models of natural forces, in particular - the strong interaction of elementary particles. To visualize a small piece of time and space, my colleagues and I use a lattice grid. We put all the forces in a small cube and figure out what happens. As a result, we are modeling a tiny corner of the universe.
JM: How accurate are your models?
SB: We are able to calculate some properties of real things, such as an elementary particle. But in the process, artifacts also appear that do not appear in the real world, which we have to remove. Therefore, we thought about what artifacts can appear if we live in a simulation.
Promotional video:
JM: What conclusions did you come to?
SB: The laws of physics in our universe operate the same in any direction. But in the coordinate system, this state of affairs is changing, since now we have no space-time continuum, and the laws of physics begin to depend on the direction. Simulators can hide this effect, but they will not get rid of it completely.
DM: How can we gather evidence that we are in a simulation?
SB: Using high-energy particles. Cosmic rays have the highest energy known to us, and, as is commonly believed, their inherent energy limit is approximately 10 ^ 20 eV. We calculated that when using a lattice cell with a size of 10 ^ -27 m in the model, the energy limit can change in different directions.
JM: Do the cosmic rays change in this way?
SB: We don't know. The highest energy cosmic rays are very rare. For every square kilometer of the earth's surface, one such ray falls every hundred years, so we are not going to draw up a map of their distribution any time soon. However, even with such a map, it will be very difficult to use the results of these observations as definitive proof that we are in a simulation.
JM: But we can improve our own models?
SB: The universe we are modeling is a box with a side of 10 ^ -15 m. However, based on Moore's Law, we can make an assumption that in the future the modeling will become more extensive. If the current trends in the computer industry continue, then within a hundred years we will be able to simulate a universe the size of a person, and in 500 years we could construct a box 10 ^ 26m in size, which is commensurate with the observable part of the universe.
JM: How do people react to what you do?
SB: I gave a lecture on this topic last week and the audience was amazing. Half of the people looked at me as if I was mentally ill, and the other half was very keen.