Could Our Universe Just Be A Experiment?

[Sylandro]

I know this may sound insane, but a idea just came to me.

To quote the title of this thread, could our universe just be a experiment? We could just be the result of a simple science experiment, by a extrauniversal extraterrestrial race that had the sufficient technology to create black holes in their research laboratories, but of course, you know black holes, a immense gravitational well; Pulled in some matter and then; bang.

The Big Bang.

[FREEFALL1984]

Indeed, the whole universe could be small anomaly in a research lab somewhere, perhaps being watched right now by the "creator"

Or it could be a ball of some mysterious matter and energy experiment in a glass orb or something stuffed into a store room in some university like what Terri Pratchett wrote about in his book "snuff"

Or it could just be a simulation on a mindbogglingly powerful supercomputer.

Perhaps once we understand every aspect of the universe and all its nuances, we too could create a computer powerful enough to run the comparatively simple simulations which would in turn produce a universe of its own.

Once this simulated universe grows and develops, perhaps sentient life will be naturally created within it, the "life" will become intelligent enough to understand the laws of its own universe. Then it will produce a computer capable of running the same simulations, and we end up having three universes stacked inside each other like russian dolls. Perhaps the universe which ours exists within as a simulation, exists within another universe, perhaps time is scalable and each universe it simulated faster than the last. Perhaps the universe that ours lives within has only been simulating us for 1000000th of a second yet billions of years have passed.

Or we could just be barking up the wrong tree, either way, we'll never know.

[Starwhip]

Or it could just be a simulation on a mindbogglingly powerful supercomputer.

I could simulate our entire universe on my laptop. Remember, for those inside the universe, there is no such thing as "lag" because their brains operate based on the computer; if the computer is not "running" them then they perceive no time passing. And time is all you would need to simulate a universe.

[Idobox]

I could simulate our entire universe on my laptop. Remember, for those inside the universe, there is no such thing as "lag" because their brains operate based on the computer; if the computer is not "running" them then they perceive no time passing. And time is all you would need to simulate a universe.

Well, your laptop probably doesn't have enough memory, but yeah, you don't need especially fast computing.

Also, when we simulate stuff, we usually use a simplified model. Our universe might be such a simple model, because more complex physics allow for incredibly better computers.

[vger]

My Father told me he'd had this thought back when he was a kid.

It's really not far off from the Matrix concept, just that it's there for a different purpose.

My version of it comes with a dose of morbid humor. The scientists in the lab are all taking bets on how long it takes us to destroy ourselves.

[Mazon Del]

There has been several papers on this possibility over the years. One stated that to actually have a computer that could calculate the interactions between every atom in the universe to accurately simulate the world, that such a computer would require the electricity roughly equal to the mass of the universe to run in anything approaching real time. A few years later someone did a few calculations and realized that you don't actually NEED to model every atom in the universe. Think of it a bit like The Sims. Does it matter to Bob-sim if the interaction between his cheap, yet tasteful, linoleum tile floor and the bottom of his feet is modeled down to the nearest proton? Or does it just matter that it looks the way it is supposed to, and he doesn't fall through it? The idea was that the universe only renders macro-scale objects until there is a reason to go smaller. IE, the computer only models atoms when you are somehow directly observing them. When taking into account the savings gained by not having to calculate every atomic interaction, he calculated that a computer powerful enough to simulate the universe to a reasonable degree of accuracy could be available within 50-100 years assuming Moores Law holds true.

[vger]

Think of it a bit like The Sims. Does it matter to Bob-sim if the interaction between his cheap, yet tasteful, linoleum tile floor and the bottom of his feet is modeled down to the nearest proton? Or does it just matter that it looks the way it is supposed to, and he doesn't fall through it? The idea was that the universe only renders macro-scale objects until there is a reason to go smaller. IE, the computer only models atoms when you are somehow directly observing them.

And the uncertainty principle fits in quite nicely with the 'simulation' concept.

Clearly, to be efficient, if a tree fell in the forest and nobody was there to hear it, it certainly wouldn't make a sound.

And Schrodinger's Cat technically wouldn't be dead until the box was opened. It wouldn't exist at all actually until then. After all, why bother to render an object when nobody can see it? (this is assuming of course, that the cat is an NPC)

[Seret]

It's completely possible, but what difference would it make if it were true?

[KerikBalm]

Well, your laptop probably doesn't have enough memory, but yeah, you don't need especially fast computing.

Also, when we simulate stuff, we usually use a simplified model. Our universe might be such a simple model, because more complex physics allow for incredibly better computers.

Indeed, sometimes when I hear of quantum effects, and how things seem to behave differently on different scales, and this "waveform collapse" upon observation, makes me wonder if the universe is a simulation... like how KSP physics doesn't actually fully simulate a ship until you make it active, or it is within 2.5km of another ship.

This would also be how I would explain the existence of a god able to defy naturals laws, if there were good evidence that such a god exists

[vger]

It's completely possible, but what difference would it make if it were true?

Maybe OP is just planning to write a movie about a rebellion on an extra-universal scale.

Indeed, sometimes when I hear of quantum effects, and how things seem to behave differently on different scales, and this "waveform collapse" upon observation, makes me wonder if the universe is a simulation...

What really gave me pause was after I had started dabbling in game development and then looked back at the periodic table. Granted, this is very over-simplified, but the idea that you could make an atom behave differently just by changing its atomic number from 1 to 2, feels analogous to how one tells a game what a certain sprite should do. Such behaviors are typically arranged into a database, with a different numeric value corresponding to each behavior.

And... just in case anyone forgot about this...

Edited April 22, 2014 by vger

[rtxoff]

Some time ago i red somewhere that scientists already have an aproach how to proof or disproof that we are all running in a simulation.

Don't know what happended with it. Will try to google it.

[tychochallenge]

this is exactly what I am writing about for my creative writing essay in english class

[rtxoff]

Also our universe could be part of a atom in a much bigger universe....

"infinite possibilities in infinite combinations"

[-Velocity-]

Our universe could be a simulation, but it's unlikely. You'd need a hugely powerful computer to simulate it any kind of appreciable speed, and a tremendous amount of memory, too. Occam's razor eliminates it as a likely explanation, as it is a more complicated explanation for the nature of the universe than our reality being truly "real".

On another note, our universe could be just be thoughts in the "head" of a tremendously intelligent and complicated being (ahem, "God"), but again, Occam's razor eliminates that as a likely explanation as well.

Just remember, the simplest explanation is usually the one that is correct.

Edited April 22, 2014 by |Velocity|

[StrandedonEarth]

Rama Revealed by Arthur C. Clarke posits this very thing

[The Fleet Master]

Honestly I thought about this before I even read up on it a few years ago. We could be just a simulation in a Hyper Intelligent lifeforms computer and this "God" would be controlling our "Free Thoughts"

[vger]

Some time ago i red somewhere that scientists already have an aproach how to proof or disproof that we are all running in a simulation.

Don't know what happended with it. Will try to google it.

Does it involve the double-slit experiment? Seems the magician can decide when he wants us to see something or not.

[Nuke]

I could simulate our entire universe on my laptop. Remember, for those inside the universe, there is no such thing as "lag" because their brains operate based on the computer; if the computer is not "running" them then they perceive no time passing. And time is all you would need to simulate a universe.

i bet the laws of physics in our universe would prevent that from working. you can run the simulation but the timescale within the simulated universe will be so small that it would take trillions of years to simulate a miniscule amount of time in the simulated universe. all while this is happening you need to keep your simulated universe safe from server malfunctions, solar events, galactic collisions, and the heat death of our universe.

you could simplify the universe a great deal, such as with conway's game of life. but simplify the universe too much and it will lack the complexity neccisary for intelligent life to emerge. even the game of life spawned a lot of unexpected objects, so i bet with an infinite grid (impossible to simulate) you could see even more complexity emerge.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Nuke

[Nuke]

oppd dp my bad

[vger]

you could simplify the universe a great deal, such as with conway's game of life. but simplify the universe too much and it will lack the complexity neccisary for intelligent life to emerge. even the game of life spawned a lot of unexpected objects, so i bet with an infinite grid (impossible to simulate) you could see even more complexity emerge.

There's a couple of apps out there already, that allow people to run evolution simulations on their own computers. Heavily simplified of course, but there's probably far more advanced ones running on supercomputers that I'm not aware of.

[Nuke]

its certainly something you can div up into blocks and let each core in the supercomputer operate its quadrant of the universe, only needing to communicate what is going on at the immediate edge of its section of the universe. makes me wonder if a cgol@home type thing would be a good idea. everyone could chip in cpu/gpu power to aid in the creation of skynet.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Nuke

[Skyler4856]

The Universe is probably just some science project some alien child got a C on...

[rtxoff]

Does it involve the double-slit experiment? Seems the magician can decide when he wants us to see something or not.

I found it, however i do not understand much of it... English is not my first language.

Maybe someone else here can decipher it: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.1847

[RuBisCO]

Consider the 5 Minute Universe Thought Experiment: Imagine that a god, one that likes a good joke, created the universe 5 minutes ago, everything was create to make the appearence that the universe was billions of years old, with light made in transit from stars billions of light years away, to our memories being fabricated. Think about it: that chair you siting in would likely be where you were born, puffed into existance with memories of a past that never was and completely unaware of your own spontanous birth. You reading off a computer that puffed into being with you, reading posts that were never truelly posted but simply came into existance with a false history and peopling thinking falsy that they made those post... How would you know? Assuming this god did a perfect job there would be no way to prove the universe was 5 minutes old and all observation and all evidence and all your memories would exist to convince you otherwise. There would be no way to truelly know.

Now if you want to crawl into a corner and enter a solipsistic catatonic stupur, I would not judge.

[vger]

makes me wonder if a cgol@home type thing would be a good idea. everyone could chip in cpu/gpu power to aid in the creation of skynet.

I read that work is in progress that will allow 'Watson' to connect to any mobile device. I think it's already happening