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wasn't this here only yesterday or the day before? it is interesting, but some fantastic naivete shines through the article... it early on states that the rule

by jheriko 13y ago

wasn't this here only yesterday or the day before? it is interesting, but some fantastic naivete shines through the article... it early on states that the rules of our universe need not be the rules of the external universe, then begins to discuss constraints that only apply if the rules are identical in both. populist pseudoscience imo. still entertaining though...

Houshalter 13y ago
Eh, computational constraints are likely to be true in a large number of universes. There is no way to prove the universe isn't a simulation in a universe with arbitrarily powerful computers, but we can rule out universes with high constraints (like our own), or else test for things like approximations going on under the hood. I think it's pretty unlikely, but it's possible and if a test confirmed it that would be incredibly important.
- jheriko 13y ago
  sure we can detect it from the inside, but its incredibly naive and arrogant imo to assume anything about the outside world. as a programmer i am very aware of exactly how much power i have over the insides of my target hardware - i can easily imagine creating a simulation where any 'life' inside of it would be subject to utterly different rules. everything like conservation of energy, even the concepts of mass and energy, momentum, velocities, space and time are completely unrequired for the simulation. you would never ben able to guess these constraints from the inside without finding some bug or unintended behaviour - and even then, if you are used to a different set of concepts you wouldn't recognise the artefacts as being due to energy or mass constraints, the dimensionality of space-time or any of those things... there wouldn't be anywhere near enough evidence to draw that conclusion.
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    It's entirely possible clues of what the outside world is like could be left behind. It reminds me of this: http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/
    - jheriko 13y ago
      sure, but its also possible that the universe was generated by a giant spaghetti monster.
      - Houshalter 13y ago
        It seems reasonably likely to me that there would be clues left behind if we are in a simulation.
        jheriko 13y ago
        i'm curious why? why wouldn't we just interpret these clues as laws of nature

by jheriko 13y ago

Houshalter 13y ago

Eh, computational constraints are likely to be true in a large number of universes. There is no way to prove the universe isn't a simulation in a universe with arbitrarily powerful computers, but we can rule out universes with high constraints (like our own), or else test for things like approximations going on under the hood. I think it's pretty unlikely, but it's possible and if a test confirmed it that would be incredibly important.

jheriko 13y ago
sure we can detect it from the inside, but its incredibly naive and arrogant imo to assume anything about the outside world. as a programmer i am very aware of exactly how much power i have over the insides of my target hardware - i can easily imagine creating a simulation where any 'life' inside of it would be subject to utterly different rules. everything like conservation of energy, even the concepts of mass and energy, momentum, velocities, space and time are completely unrequired for the simulation. you would never ben able to guess these constraints from the inside without finding some bug or unintended behaviour - and even then, if you are used to a different set of concepts you wouldn't recognise the artefacts as being due to energy or mass constraints, the dimensionality of space-time or any of those things... there wouldn't be anywhere near enough evidence to draw that conclusion.
- Houshalter 13y ago
  It's entirely possible clues of what the outside world is like could be left behind. It reminds me of this: http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/
  - jheriko 13y ago
    sure, but its also possible that the universe was generated by a giant spaghetti monster.
    - Houshalter 13y ago
      It seems reasonably likely to me that there would be clues left behind if we are in a simulation.
      - jheriko 13y ago
        i'm curious why? why wouldn't we just interpret these clues as laws of nature