Is the Universe a computer simulation?

[devogue]

I would like a definitive answer to this, please.

[charlou]

No, dev, it is not.

[Coito ergo sum]

The universe is a simulation of itself.

[GoogleBot]

Yes, dev, it is.

[charlou]

'tis not.

[GoogleBot]

'tis.

[charlou]

[GoogleBot]

[Audley Strange]

Its doubtful. Bostrom talks about it with his hypothesis on simulated realities. His argument is that If a civilisation can simulate realities then it is entirely probable that ours is not the prime universe but a simulation. This has been somewhat extrapolated by idiots who looks as things like The Sims and WoW as evidence towards this. However they are not simulated realities, they are at best interactive audio/visual presentations.

As such we have no reason to ever think that just because our screens and processors can still develop that we can somehow simulate smell or taste. I heard there are some guys working on tactile holograms, so I wouldn't dismiss it outright, but until we have evidence that we can simulate even one rudimentary reality, we might as well dismiss it.

[Robert_S]

I'll get back to you on this shortly after the hashish arrives.

[Bella Fortuna]

If it is, I've been stuck with the Microsoft version.

[GoogleBot]

[GrahamH]

Its doubtful. Bostrom talks about it with his hypothesis on simulated realities. His argument is that If a civilisation can simulate realities then it is entirely probable that ours is not the prime universe but a simulation. This has been somewhat extrapolated by idiots who looks as things like The Sims and WoW as evidence towards this. However they are not simulated realities, they are at best interactive audio/visual presentations.

As such we have no reason to ever think that just because our screens and processors can still develop that we can somehow simulate smell or taste. I heard there are some guys working on tactile holograms, so I wouldn't dismiss it outright, but until we have evidence that we can simulate even one rudimentary reality, we might as well dismiss it.

A simulated taste, in a simulated universe, is not a sensation observed/experienced from outside the simulation. A Bostrom scenario is a super-SIMS where the sims interpret the SIM world in terms of tastes, objects, being able to see X but not Y, recognising an avatar as 'me', etc.

Simulated characters can certainly behave according to what they can 'see', or what objects they 'touch'.

It is an error to think of yourself, outside a simulation, looking at the simulation as a 'presentation'. You have to think about it on the inside of the simulation. The sim-ball falls due to sim-gravity untill it hits the sim-ground. These simulated objects have no access to the simulator or the 'real world' in which the simulator exists.

We should also consider that simulations within simulations tell us little about what is possible in the real of the top-level simulator. The Super-SIMS don't get to work out the limits of how our world works by making their own simulated world, although there are likely to be resemblances. If we are Super-SIMS we can't reach out to reality beyond the simulation unless the simulator provides the means to do so.

I don't think Bostrom's numbers game is too convincing, but I don't think we can entirely dismiss the notion based on what we have simulated to date.

If we are Super-SIMS does it matter? What difference would it make to your life if you believed you were a Super-SIMM?

[Rum]

There's a similar proposition I read about a while back - the Omega something or other which suggests that given the ever and exponential increase in computer power the universe will one day digitise itself and the Big Bang or something like it is actually the 'simulation' booting up.

Slightly more plausible than a God in my book. Slightly.

[Atheist-Lite]

The universe is not a simulation, it is all inside your head.