It's a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization's supercomputer. But new research from UBC Okanagan has mathematically proven this isn't just unlikely—it's impossible.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we’re not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.

  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    If we ever develop a computer that is capable is simulating every aspect of the universe that we have ever observed, and we then make a simulation of our exact universe and run that simulation up the the point that ourselves in the simulation make the simulation of their own universe, the likelihood that we are in a simulation created by a higher order of ourselves as well is nearly 100%. And nearly 100% chance that they too are simulations. The depths of thess nested simulations would be potentially infinite, and only one could ever be the “real” world. So there is almost almost no chance that any of an infinite set is the “real” one.