The idea of the universe as a "giant brain" has been proposed by scientists - and science fiction writers - for decades. But now physicists say there may be some evidence that this is actually true in some sense.
According to a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports, the universe can grow like a giant brain - with electrical discharges between "mirror" brain cells in the form of an expanding galaxy.
This was shown by computer simulations. The researchers modeled the life of the very early universe, just after the Big Bang, looking at how quantum units of "space-time" smaller than subatomic particles form one network with another during the evolution of the universe.
They found that the simulation is a mirror image of other networks. Some links between similar nodes were the result of limited growth, while others acted as nodes for a wide variety of links. For example, some connections are limited and similar - like someone who loves sports and visits a lot of sports websites - and some are large and connect very different parts of the web such as Google and Yahoo.
It turned out that the "natural dynamics of growth" - the path of development of systems - is the same for different types of networks - be it the Internet, the human brain or the Universe as a whole. The co-author of the study, our former compatriot Dmitry Kryukov of the University of California at San Diego, says that these emerging systems are very different, but they evolved in a very similar way. As a result, scientists argue, the universe is indeed developing like a brain.
Maybe the Universe is “thinking”?
And it is possible that the Universe is just a game of supercivilizations. Serious philosopher, laureate of many prestigious awards, professor at Oxford University Nick Bostrom admitted in one of his interviews that the film "The Matrix" made such an impression on him that he wrote a book in a month entitled "We live in a computer simulation?"
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The scientist argued that with a probability of 25 percent, our world is now a matrix - a computer simulation of reality. The philosopher had in mind a program that simulates the consciousness of one, several people, or in general of all mankind.
- And the simulation was created by the so-called posthuman civilization, consisting of the descendants of today's people, but internally and externally so changed that it is difficult to call them people, - explained Bostrom.
The scientist considered these super-beings to be representatives of "true humanity". And he endowed with extraordinary capabilities - for example, computing, acquired as a result of the fusion of the brain with supercomputers.
“It cost nothing for such cyborgs to create a virtual world,” the philosopher argued. He even suggested why they needed it. To explore your own past.
“Our descendants faced gaps in their history and decided to fill the voids by launching a lot of simulated faces into the game - you and me,” Bostrom enthusiastically built his extraordinary theory.
Almost ten years have passed since the publication of Bostrom's book. It would seem that the philosopher's crazy fantasies should be forgotten. So no. On the contrary, physicists undertook to prove that computer supersimulation is possible. And our world is just a matrix.