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For several years, among some physicists, there has been an idea kicking around that the universe could be a simulation. This idea has no doubt been inspired by The Martix films as well as the steady improvement in the realism of computer games. One could imagine that some advanced civilization built a computer so big and powerful that they ran a very detailed simulation of a universe, perhaps testing what would happen with an inverse-square gravitational law, quarks that formed protons and neutrons, which in turn combined with electrons to form atoms, which then formed molecules, which then made life possible. Mark Sumner (aka Devilstower) wrote about this hypothesis a few years ago, and I would link his diary on it, but I can’t find it. [EDIT: BMScott has located Mark’s diary here.) There are any number of directions that one could take concerning the simulated universe hypothesis, and Mark took us there. What if the intelligent beings generated in a simulated universe decided to simulate their universe? And what if the simulated universe within the simulated universe is ours? What happens to us when somebody stops the simulation? It’s a wild hypothesis, and what’s more, while it seemed absurd, it wasn’t quite something you could dismiss.
Until now. Physicists at the University of British Columbia claim to have proven that the universe cannot be a simulation. The proof originates with the effort theoretical physicists have put into finding a single unified theory that is capable of describing all the forces, a “Theory of Everything,” and their failure to do so up to this point, and then applying other mathematical theorems, in particular Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, to demonstrate that the universe is too complex to be the result of an algorithmic computer program.
In 1931, Kurt Gödel proved that it was impossible to prove all true statements that applied to a consistent mathematical system by algorithmic means. The classic example is the sentence “This statement cannot be proven.” The statement is true, because if it were false, we would be able to prove it to be true resulting in a contradiction. The truth of such a statement requires viewing the mathematical system from the outside and apply logic that can’t be adapted to an algorithm. Because computer programs are all algorithmic, Gödel’s Theorem also applies to them; the implication is that even the most complex computer program will be incomplete when is comes to an accurate simulation of the universe.
"Drawing on mathematical theorems related to incompleteness and indefinability, we demonstrate that a fully consistent and complete description of reality cannot be achieved through computation alone," Faizal explains.
"It requires non-algorithmic understanding, which by definition is beyond algorithmic computation and therefore cannot be simulated. Hence, this Universe cannot be a simulation."
So if you were living in fear that Mr Smith would make an appearance in your life, or that some alien would turn off the computer running the simulation of our universe anytime soon, you can relax. Instead, we can concentrate on the many problems we clearly have, both actual and existential.
Comments are below the fold.
Top Comments (November 30, 2025):
From belinda ridgewood:
In bsegel's daily Bob's Picture of the Day diary, RandomNeuron's comment contained not only a lovely photo of his own, but also a wonderful story of holiday shopping with his nonverbal son.
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