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Devs (2020, FX/Hulu). Not a movie, but movie-like (8-part series). I’m not religious and I don’t believe in the traditional religious god. But Devs presents a

• KineticLensman 6y ago
  > that passes the nerd/science test Apart from the fact that it completely ignores... [spoiler] ... the uncertainty principle and stochastic processes so that a single computer can confidently model the past and future of the universe. This blew it for me.
  • nlh 6y ago
    Totally agree with that. [spoilers] What I found fascinating: The conceptual model of a complete universe simulation, however computationally complex, with software that allows camera placement anywhere for "peeking" into the simulation, and the ability to pause/rewind/rewatch (even if forward-looking prediction doesn't make sense). This is the closest "science" parallel to the classical idea of an all-seeing god (the operator who controls the software). Whether or not it's technically feasible, it's certainly technically plausible. This, compared to traditional religious which always tried to explain the theory of gods as "trust us" or "there is no explanation", clicked. (That doesn't suddenly make me religious, btw, but it certainly presents a theory that isn't dismissible on its face.) I know this isn't unique to Devs, and I presume anyone who's spent time thinking about any sort of Simulation Hypothesis has seen these parallels as well, but this was pretty mind-opening for me.