THEY ARE SERIOUSLY ASKING:
Are we living in a simulated universe?
By Bradley Bartholomew
February 2014
Mainstream scientists are taking very seriously the possibility that we are living in a universe that has been simulated by our own very advanced and technologically savvy descendants, presumably using a quantum computer with virtually infinite processing power.
John D. Barrow, the Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, wrote an article Living in a Simulated Universe. He refers to his own earlier theory about how an advanced civilization of our own descendants could be simulating us. He then goes on to talk about the ‘slippery slope’ that opens up before you once you accept that all possible real physical universes exist in parallel. “We see that once conscious observers are allowed to intervene in the universe, rather than being merely lumped into the category of ‘observers’ who do nothing, that we end up with a scenario in which the gods reappear in unlimited numbers in the guise of the simulators who have the power of life and death over the simulated realities that they bring into being. The simulators determine the laws, and can change the laws, that govern their worlds. They can engineer anthropic fine-tunings. They can pull the plug on the simulation at any moment, intervene or distance themselves from their simulation; watch as the simulated creatures argue about whether there is a god who controls or intervenes; work miracles or impose their ethical principles upon the simulated reality. All the time they can avoid having a twinge of conscience about hurting anyone because their toy reality isn’t real, is it? They can even watch their simulated realities grow to a level of sophistication that allows them to simulate higher-order realities of their own.”
There is a basic concept in experimental physics called Lorentz symmetry. Essentially the experimental results should not reflect the orientation or framework of the experimental apparatus. Using a cubic space-time lattice to simulate electrons and muons at some point it is necessary to introduce a specific operator into the equations which will fine tune away the ‘lattice spacing’ artifacts. This operator has to do with recovering Lorentz symmetry in the lattice calculations. As the lattice spacing vanishes when compared with the scales of the system however, the Lorentz symmetry is recovered without the necessity of introducing this operator. They therefore calculate an approximate upper bound on the lattice spacing, below which the artifacts will not be observed. So they conclude that this breaking of rotational symmetry, if they were to observe it out there in the real physical world “would be a solid indicator of an underlying space-time grid, although not the only one.” They go on to point out that “another scenario that gives rise to rotational invariance violation involves the introduction of an external background with a preferred direction”.
In a recent book, Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe, Robert Lanza, MD, basically argues that the universe external to our mind does not and cannot actually exist unless it is perceived by a conscious being. There is nothing new in this proposition, in fact similar arguments go back as far as Descartes in the 17th Century who was led to question or ‘doubt’ the information being derived from his senses. And then came George Berkeley in the 18th Century who pretty much stated this proposition word for word. Lanza does however seem to advance the argument somewhat in that he asserts that human consciousness is somehow ‘creating’ the world out there. You can see from the title of his book that it is consciousness which leads to a true understanding of the external world.