4 ms·

The speed of light is just a compute constraint imposed on the physics simulation that is our universe. If we can just get the gods who are running that simulat

by gisely 7y ago

The speed of light is just a compute constraint imposed on the physics simulation that is our universe. If we can just get the gods who are running that simulation to give us a little extra compute time in our neck of to woods then we can all be galactic explorers.

vermilingua 7y ago
Just for the sake of argument, let's run with that. If we're in a physics simulation, we don't experience at the rate that the simulation is processed. One "tick" of the simulation could be processed in one second of the host universe, or one hour: and we wouldn't feel the difference. We are processed at the same tickrate as the rest of the universe, so we experience the passage of time at the same rate that the simulation flows. The speed of light isn't just the speed of light, it's the speed of causality. It just so happens that light moves pretty well at that "speed limit" (in a vacuum). We could ask our computational hosts to increase or decrease c, and we still wouldn't be able to travel any faster than it.
- IggleSniggle 7y ago
  The short story “Dust” (1992) by Greg Egan explores these ideas in a pretty entertaining way. Here, I found a copy: https://emperybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Greg-Egan-Dust.pdf https://emperybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Greg-Egan...
- username90 7y ago
  We could ask the host to update their algorithm to let c be a property of objects and then just do spaceship.c = 1000 * c. Would probably be a heck of a refactor to get it working without bugs though.
  - dkersten 7y ago
    Just leave the bugs in for the speedrunners to use.
    - tripzilch 7y ago
      speedrunners can restart the game if they crash it.
- mesid 7y ago
  What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that?
- dkersten 7y ago
  @mesid asked in a now dead comment: > What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that? Take a look at this video by PBS Space Time on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVuCEs8Ydo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVuCEs8Ydo You may need to go down the rabbit hole and watch the earlier videos on relativity and related topics.
ddingus 7y ago
Maybe there are glitches possible.
acchow 7y ago
Why would time outside of the simulation have any bearing on time within the simulation?
- tripzilch 7y ago
  Only via side-channel attacks.

by gisely 7y ago

vermilingua 7y ago

Just for the sake of argument, let's run with that. If we're in a physics simulation, we don't experience at the rate that the simulation is processed. One "tick" of the simulation could be processed in one second of the host universe, or one hour: and we wouldn't feel the difference. We are processed at the same tickrate as the rest of the universe, so we experience the passage of time at the same rate that the simulation flows. The speed of light isn't just the speed of light, it's the speed of causality. It just so happens that light moves pretty well at that "speed limit" (in a vacuum). We could ask our computational hosts to increase or decrease c, and we still wouldn't be able to travel any faster than it.

IggleSniggle 7y ago
The short story “Dust” (1992) by Greg Egan explores these ideas in a pretty entertaining way. Here, I found a copy: https://emperybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Greg-Egan-Dust.pdf https://emperybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Greg-Egan...
username90 7y ago
We could ask the host to update their algorithm to let c be a property of objects and then just do spaceship.c = 1000 * c. Would probably be a heck of a refactor to get it working without bugs though.
- dkersten 7y ago
  Just leave the bugs in for the speedrunners to use.
  - tripzilch 7y ago
    speedrunners can restart the game if they crash it.
mesid 7y ago
What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that?
dkersten 7y ago
@mesid asked in a now dead comment: > What does speed of causality mean? And how is light so close to that? Take a look at this video by PBS Space Time on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVuCEs8Ydo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVuCEs8Ydo You may need to go down the rabbit hole and watch the earlier videos on relativity and related topics.

ddingus 7y ago

Maybe there are glitches possible.

acchow 7y ago

Why would time outside of the simulation have any bearing on time within the simulation?

tripzilch 7y ago
Only via side-channel attacks.