Get the latest tech news
Why it is (nearly) impossible that we live in a simulation
We assess how physically realistic the ''simulation hypothesis'' for this Universe is, based on physical constraints arising from the link between information and energy, and on known astrophysical constraints. We investigate three cases: the simulation of the entire visible Universe, the simulation of Earth only, or a low resolution simulation of Earth, compatible with high-energy neutrino observations. In all cases, the amounts of energy or power required by any version of the simulation hypothesis are entirely incompatible with physics, or (literally) astronomically large, even in the lowest resolution case. Only universes with very different physical properties can produce some version of this Universe as a simulation. On the other hand, our results show that it is just impossible that this Universe is simulated by a universe sharing the same properties, regardless of technological advancements of the far future.
View PDFHTML (experimental) Abstract:We assess how physically realistic the ''simulation hypothesis'' for this Universe is, based on physical constraints arising from the link between information and energy, and on known astrophysical constraints. In all cases, the amounts of energy or power required by any version of the simulation hypothesis are entirely incompatible with physics, or (literally) astronomically large, even in the lowest resolution case. From: Franco Vazza [ view email][v1] Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:47:45 UTC (449 KB)
Or read this on Hacker News
