3 ms·

If the simulation hypothesis of reality is correct, does this mean we might encounter such edge cases in physics? Where should we look?

jiggawatts 3y ago
Sure, you'd look for division-by-zero issues, like black holes. Or notice that 256-bit numbers floats are used (with 237-bit mantissas), which give roughly 10^71 distinct full-precision values: about the same as the width of the universe in plank lengths. At the edge of the universe, you'd expect the lack of precision to turn the simulation into garbage, noise, or just heat. We call that the cosmic event horizon, which is sort-of what happens when you go too far in Minecraft. The heat we call the cosmic microwave background. Similarly, you could notice that the simulation uses fixed-precision numbers for the simulation of local fields. You would expect this to manifest as a whole range of "minimum" values below which no physical process can go. Quantums of action, as it were. We call the study of this: Quantum Mechanics. One could also envisage the universe being simulated on clusters of computers, but then you run into issues with data transfer bandwidth between nodes -- the ones simulating lots of complicated stuff will have trouble sending their data to other nodes fast enough. So a simple fix is to slow them down so that they don't overwhelm their neighbours. This temporal distortion is what we call gravity, and its study is general relativity. Each cluster node running the simulation exchanges its state with its neighbours at each time step. It takes two time steps for the nodes one step further than that to receive an update. Three time steps for three nodes, and so forth. This limits the speed at which all information (causality) can flow through the grid of cluster nodes. We call this the speed of light, and its study we've named special relativity.
- fegu 3y ago
  I enjoyed this :)
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    Meh... saying cosmic event horizon is like far lands is flat earthing at cosmic scale. You can't physically get there, it's always the same distance from where you are (though it's shrinking over time they say)
    - hnuser123456 3y ago
      You don't have to get there, it will eventually come to you. https://youtu.be/eVoh27gJgME?si=ld9M-ZAfK37XdyJL https://youtu.be/eVoh27gJgME?si=ld9M-ZAfK37XdyJL
deleted 3y ago
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jiggawatts 3y ago

Sure, you'd look for division-by-zero issues, like black holes. Or notice that 256-bit numbers floats are used (with 237-bit mantissas), which give roughly 10^71 distinct full-precision values: about the same as the width of the universe in plank lengths. At the edge of the universe, you'd expect the lack of precision to turn the simulation into garbage, noise, or just heat. We call that the cosmic event horizon, which is sort-of what happens when you go too far in Minecraft. The heat we call the cosmic microwave background. Similarly, you could notice that the simulation uses fixed-precision numbers for the simulation of local fields. You would expect this to manifest as a whole range of "minimum" values below which no physical process can go. Quantums of action, as it were. We call the study of this: Quantum Mechanics. One could also envisage the universe being simulated on clusters of computers, but then you run into issues with data transfer bandwidth between nodes -- the ones simulating lots of complicated stuff will have trouble sending their data to other nodes fast enough. So a simple fix is to slow them down so that they don't overwhelm their neighbours. This temporal distortion is what we call gravity, and its study is general relativity. Each cluster node running the simulation exchanges its state with its neighbours at each time step. It takes two time steps for the nodes one step further than that to receive an update. Three time steps for three nodes, and so forth. This limits the speed at which all information (causality) can flow through the grid of cluster nodes. We call this the speed of light, and its study we've named special relativity.

fegu 3y ago
I enjoyed this :)
- throwaway290 3y ago
  Meh... saying cosmic event horizon is like far lands is flat earthing at cosmic scale. You can't physically get there, it's always the same distance from where you are (though it's shrinking over time they say)
  - hnuser123456 3y ago
    You don't have to get there, it will eventually come to you. https://youtu.be/eVoh27gJgME?si=ld9M-ZAfK37XdyJL https://youtu.be/eVoh27gJgME?si=ld9M-ZAfK37XdyJL

deleted 3y ago

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