20-04-2013, 03:33 AM
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Physicists to test if universe is a computer simulation
Ah, shades of The Matrix. (I'll take the blue pill, thanks.)Exerpt: Physicists have devised a new experiment to test if the universe is a computer.
A philosophical thought experiment has long held that it is more likely than not that we're living inside a machine.
The theory basically goes that any civilisation which could evolve to a 'post-human' stage would almost certainly learn to run simulations on the scale of a universe. And that given the size of reality - billions of worlds, around billions of suns - it is fairly likely that if this is possible, it has already happened.
And if it has? Well, then the statistical likelihood is that we're located somewhere in that chain of simulations within simulations. The alternative - that we're the first civilisation, in the first universe - is virtually (no pun intended) absurd.
Link to article.
20-04-2013, 08:02 AM
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Re: Physicists to test if universe is a computer simulation
I do find things like this intriguing but other than a situation similar to Star Trek's holodeck, I can't see it as realistic. I'd rather they spent the money on exploring all these different dimensions and what exists in them.
20-04-2013, 01:22 PM
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Re: Physicists to test if universe is a computer simulation
Originally Posted by Rachel
->
Given that I can't even prove I exist, let alone the rest of you, I don't really see the point
Would I live differently knowing I was part of a computer simulation? Yes, I think I might be a bit more of a risk-taker, test the boundaries. Being a character in a universal online game might explain the idea of reincarnation too.
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