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No Elon! We are NOT in a Simulation! If We Were, Here's How We'd know...

2025-02-24 Science & Technology
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Arvin Ash
Arvin Ash
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Try InVideo AI for free here: https://invideo.io/i/ArvinAsh This will save you hundreds of dollars that you would otherwise spend on editing, animating and other production costs. Talk to Arvin on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arvinash REFERENCES Is Reality Fake? https://youtu.be/NcvuZTJFXig Inspired by Medium article: https://tinyurl.com/255cze8u CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro to simulation argument 1:13 What is simulation? 2:06 What computing capacity is needed for simulation? 5:07 Nick Bostrom's argument favoring simulation 6:23 Arguments against Bostrom's ideas 7:53 Does quantum mechanics support simulation? 10:03 Biggest DANGER of believing simulation hypothesis 10:40 Signs that we could be living in a simulation 14:03 InVideo AI SUMMARY The simulation hypothesis is the idea that everything we experience, including our memories and consciousness could be an advanced digital simulation created by a technologically advanced civilization. It's so advanced that it’s indistinguishable from reality. Supporters believe that even the complexity of a character’s simulated brain would be enough to make it sentient. But since we as characters would be oblivious to this, we would not know if we are in one. How much computing power this would require? Hans Morovec and expert in AI, calculates that this would require about 10^14 operations per second, based on computer modelling of neurons. Other experts calculate the number to be up to 10^21 operations per second. This could make the simulated beings conscious because they would have the same brain capability as real humans. We don't have this computing power now, but many people like futurist Ray Kurzweil believe the technology is 20 years away. K. Eric Drexler, from MIT outlined a design for a system the size of a sugar cube that could perform 10^21 operations per second. Robert Bradbury, has conceptualized a computing megastructure, a Matryoshka brain, based on a planet sized Dyson sphere with computing power of 10^42 operations per second. Based on the highest number needed to simulate a brain, 10^21, a total computing power of 10^31 would simulate the brains of every person on earth. We would only need to simulate the brain and nothing else because all human perception resides in the brain. A structure the size of the Empire state building could easily simulate millions of universes. Philosopher Nick Bostrom, who popularized the idea of simulation theory, has argued that if civilizations similar to ours continue to be on a rising technological trajectory, unless they all go extinct, or have no interest, will inevitably create simulations that mimic their ancestors. And they could create millions of them. If so, then the odds favor that we are more likely to be in one of those million of simulations, than the one true reality. But there are flaws to this argument. First, Bostrum’s hypothesis is unfalsifiable. We can’t ever prove that we’re not in a simulation, because any evidence we collect could itself be simulated. Second we can't simulate consciousness because we don’t yet know how it works, or which part of the brain it's in. Third, why would advanced civilizations want to dedicate such a significant portion of their total computational and energy to ancestor simulations? Some scientists have argued that quantum mechanics supports the idea of a simulation, because the quantized nature of matter and energy might be a consequence of the storage limits of the underlying computer. The observer effect might be a sign of this limitation. Quantum entanglement might be due to a code setting global values. But the problem is that if the phenomena of quantum physics is due to simulation, then the physics of the base reality can’t be quantum, since it’s not simulated. But quantum physics is the basis of all reality including chemistry and biology. So what exactly are the advanced beings trying to simulate if base reality is not quantum, because this universe would be nothing like a universe without quantum physics. #simulationtheory Here are some things we could use to prove or disprove simulation theory: First, there might be an energy limit due to the finite resources of the simulation. If there’s a sudden drop-off in the energy of cosmic rays that defies physics, it could suggest that the simulation. Second, in quantum computing, error corrections are made in order to maintain the stability of quantum information, sometimes by making multiple copies of the same code. if spacetime is found to have duplicate information encoded throughout the universe, it could be an error correction code. #simulationtheory We could also test the physical constants of the universe. If we are living in a simulation, these constants could be subtly altered in different parts of the universe, possibly due to the limitations of the simulation’s resources.

Top Comments (10)

@anonymousanonymous1546 2025-02-24

It's weird to try to argue whether we are in a simulation based on the limitations of the alleged simulation. If we are in a simulation we cannot assume that the same rules apply outside of it. The whole argument that to simulate the universe would require a computer larger than the universe doesn't prove anything since there may very well be a universe much larger than the one we know. We can simulate a 2D reality much better than we could if we lived in 2D reality.

414 65 replies
@gorkyrojas9346 2025-02-25

Minecraft villager explains why they are not in a simulation: "It would require a redstone computer larger than all the chunks in the universe!"

166 16 replies
@davids9027 2025-02-25

'Indistinguishable from reality"? If we never experienced " reality" how would we have a basis for comparison?

162 34 replies
@Carson_Van_McUber 2025-02-25

It doesn't really matter if we are in a simulation. It changes nothing in your live other than knowing you are in a simulation. The bills will still need to get paid.

146 22 replies
@ArvinAsh 2025-02-24

Many thanks to InVideo AI. Try it for free here: https://invideo.io/i/ArvinAsh This could save you hundreds of dollars that you would otherwise spend on editing, animating and other production costs.

27 36 replies
@zoltankaldy 2025-02-26

We should take care of our planet and ourselves regardless if this is a simulation or not. Computing power is not an issue for running a simulation - this might be very slow/fast in the real world; the simulated ones have no clue about "real time", they sense only the "simulated time". E.g: you can pause or even save and months later load your Sims game, the characters in is will not notify anything, they will think (if they could tink) nothing happened, time just went on as usual.

9 1 replies
@NewDave 2025-02-26

This all assumes that there's more than one person in the simulation. You could be the last person on earth, in a pod, living out digital reincarnation.

5
@jjt1881 2025-02-27

I have thought about this problem for many years, and I agree wit Arvin on this one.

4
@DavideCardella 2025-02-26

I can find a couple of reasons why we would want to fully simulate a universe: for example we could use it as a model to watch how things would do prior to commitment

3 1 replies
@farshadostadalirezania1936 2025-04-13

Thank you so much for the program Mr. Arvin Ash, as usual you explain the hardest problems in science clearly and easy to understand. I'm sure that you are aware of the simulation hypothesis of the universe in a sense like the sticker on the credit card where motion and light makes it look like it's a 3D in motion. Reality seems it's on a surface of a bubble like black hole where many other universe bubbles exist, and light observed from the outside of these bubbles looks jus like how we observe black holes images as a 3D image of a light that is bending around the gravity of the black hole that makes it look like a 3D object. Nature it seems repeats itself starting from simple forms to complicated forms with more dimensions. Thank you very much.

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