what if we are just a computer simulation?

[Cheebsta]

velocity * time_since_last_observed = problem_solved.

I mean... There has to be *some* reason why the Standard Model and General Relativity won't sleep in the same bed anymore, right?

[magnemoe]

The universe does not work like a computer game. If I look away from one part of the night sky the stars still have to orbit, the galaxies still need to rush away from each other, all these things still need to be computed and results applied for when I look back.

A game can render only the parts that you look at because normally there's nothing happening in the bits you don't see. NPC's don't carry on walking and talking, bosses don't sit playing poker with their minions until you turn up, it's all scripted for when you get to a certain place in the terrain or time frame. So very, very different it's a silly analogy, sorry.

Yes but you you only have to calculate the stars, not the atoms, an 10 degree of magnitudes less job.

In any strategy game the AI enemy is moving around collecting resources, building and perhaps moving to attack you. This is real actions as if you view one moment and know speed you can intercept at an later point or see they are building an house and come back and see it completed at an calculated time.

Yes in games where is cheating, you can predict and intercept the Khajiit caravans in Skyrim, if you have an quest for them you can track them on the world map, same in Oblivion and Fallout 3. However they will not run into enemies unless in the same game cell as you, note that this is not rendering graphic but actions with consequences and you will find the bodies, rendering of graphic only happens then they are visible.

This has some fun effects if you are aware of it, even exploits, lasts was to tell an follower to pick up an expensive weapon on ground and move trough an load door to an indoor cell before the follower reached it. The follower grabs the weapon and follows you, however the weapon also lay on the ground where you dropped it.

The simplified out of cell AI handling did not remove the old copy.

You might see Schrödinger's Cat as some of the same effect, purpose of all this is naturally to hack your self into root access on the matrix.

[Monkeh]

You're still talking about a very finite and tiny number of variables at a time in a tiny area and a tiny amount of time. Multiply all these things out over the rather large timescales and volumes and particles and bodies we're talking about in only our medium sized galaxy and it's a very silly analogy. Never mind orders of magnitude, this is orders upon orders upon orders of magnitude.

It's a great theory and it's impossible to prove given infinite computing resources or omnipotent abilities, but I'd rather base my theory crafting somewhere near the realistic.

[magnemoe]

You're still talking about a very finite and tiny number of variables at a time in a tiny area and a tiny amount of time. Multiply all these things out over the rather large timescales and volumes and particles and bodies we're talking about in only our medium sized galaxy and it's a very silly analogy. Never mind orders of magnitude, this is orders upon orders upon orders of magnitude.

It's a great theory and it's impossible to prove given infinite computing resources or omnipotent abilities, but I'd rather base my theory crafting somewhere near the realistic.

Yes I agree, the idea is stupid however it legal to speculate

[Kerbface]

That gives me an interesting idea for a story or something. People on the first interstellar mission go out and find that the planets in neighboring star systems are poorly rendered. I don't know, sounds kind of goofy, but I feel like there's something there.

[ChrisDaBox]

Then we should all YOLO and fall off a bridge! xD

[Whirligig Girl]

we're not. However, the universe is, by nature, a quantum computer, which only slightly fits your description of a computer simulation, as us creating a quantum computer is more like us creating a simple universe more than the universe being made of silicone chips or other binary code.

[Brenok]

Then we should all YOLO and fall off a bridge! xD

...do you know what "YOLO" means?