quote:

"If you make a simple calculation using Moore's Law [which roughly claims computers double in power every two years], you'll find that these supercomputers, inside of a decade, will have the ability to compute an entire human lifetime of 80 years – including every thought ever conceived during that lifetime – in the span of a month.

"In quantum mechanics, particles do not have a definite state unless they're being observed.

"Many theorists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how you explain this.

"One explanation is that we're living within a simulation, seeing what we need to see when we need to see it.

"What I find inspiring is that, even if we are in a simulation or many orders of magnitude down in levels of simulation, somewhere along the line something escaped the primordial ooze to become us and to result in simulations that made us – and that's cool."

The idea that our Universe is a fiction generated by computer code solves a number of inconsistencies and mysteries about the cosmos.

quote:

To demonstrate that our universe can indeed be seen as a hologram, physical quantities would have to be calculated using both quantum field theory and gravitational theory in “flat” space, and the results would have to match. Grumiller decided to see whether one key feature of quantum mechanics—quantum entanglement—could be replicated using gravitational theory.

When two quantum particles are entangled, they cannot be described individually, but instead form a single quantum “object,” even if they’re far apart. There is a measure that describes how entangled a quantum system is, known as the “entropy of entanglement.” After several years of work, Grumiller and his colleagues managed to show that this entropy takes on exactly the same value when calculated in gravitational theory and quantum field theory for spaces like our universe.

quote:

"Subjects frequently describe their experience as panoramic, 3-D or holographic. During a life review, the subject's perception is reported to include not only their own perspective in increased vividness, as if they were reliving a given episode itself, but that of all other parties they interact with at each point being reviewed. Betty Eadie's widely read account, in which she described the life review as her best conception of hell, also described the life review as extending to ripples of one's life and acts out into further degrees of separation. Some believe this extension to have limitations.

The term 3D is employed to approximate the inclusion of different physical perspectives onto a scene; the intensity of a life review was described by one individual as enabling him to count every nearby mosquito; but equally common is the description of feeling the emotional experience of the other parties, including in one case virtually everyone in a room. While some accounts appear to describe scenes as selected, others more commonly narrate the experience as including things they had, probably naturally, long ago entirely forgotten, with "nothing left out." Experiencers commonly describe the intense vividness and detail as making them feel more alive than when normally conscious:"

Bip Roberts posted:

Starshark posted:

I don't know if we were holographic, but I don't think we are now.

Colonel Cancer posted:

Faaaaar ouuuuut, maaaan...

Moore's Law doesn't go on forever, there are physical limitations to how many transistors you can stick on a board. Sure, other technologies may become available but there's no reason to believe that the rate of advancement shown by Moore's Law will go on.

Trent posted:

It is legitimately somewhat likely that we are a computer simulation.

Nelson Mandingo posted:

There is no percentage for it though, and no real evidence. We either are, or we aren't. It's probably more a philosophical religious question more than an intellectual one. For a random universe ordered by chaos the life cycle of a star seems pretty...constructed? For instance.

Trent posted:

True that there are no numbers. It is definitely a philosophical question rather than a scientific one, at least currently. The idea has enough merit that it is a legitimate hypothesis, though.

It may be that we shouldn't really even try to prove it. They might shut us off if we do!

Pegged Lamb posted:

Doesn't your life feel like a narrative being played out? Mine does

quote:

'Abort, Retry, Fail?' was the phrase some wormdog scrawled next to the door of the Edit Universe project room. And when the new dataspinners started working, fabricating their worlds on the huge organic comp systems, we'd remind them: if you see this message, {always} choose 'Retry.'

quote:

We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?

Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7
Activity Recorded M.Y. 2302.22467
TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED

Nelson Mandingo posted:

There is no percentage for it though, and no real evidence. We either are, or we aren't. It's probably more a philosophical religious question more than an intellectual one. For a random universe ordered by chaos the life cycle of a star seems pretty...constructed? For instance.

Mercury_Storm posted:

What should I do if I find my mobile emitter? Will they erase all my gigaquads???

VitalSigns posted:

Yes. Obviously.

This is why experimental outcomes start looking like a random number generator when you drill down to small enough scales. There wasn't enough money to buy all the memory needed to simulate all the complexity of a realistic physics down past the subatomic level, so the authors were just like "eh, just use wave functions, if an electron accidentally tunnels through a barrier no one inside will probably ever notice or care"

OtherworldlyInvader posted:

Sorry OP, the universe is the interior of a black hole.

Yudo posted:

The reason your life feels like a narrative is the same reason we see patterns in randomness, by the way: the brain is a pattern machine, always searching for heuristics to make integrating information easier.

Pegged Lamb posted:

The brain is itself a computer. See this doesn't make me feel any less convinced about the artifice of it all. Having purpose mitigates health problems and extends life as much as any vegetable leaning diet. Hospital patients with a good view from their beds recover faster. Having a pet extends life. Depression curtails it. When you think about why anything exists at all your brain sort of says nah don't worry about it. You can practically see the gauges above our heads. Of course you may well be right and I'm only noticing the patterns. It's just been a damned weird year.

I don't really care one way or another I just wanted to get your thoughts.

Main Paineframe posted:

This isn't some magical effect of emotions altering reality or something, though? The effects of stress and happiness on health have been known for decades. Stress, in particular, is partially a biological response and causes a lot of bodily effects that might be helpful in a fight-or-flight situation but tend to be detrimental over the long-term or when facing serious health issues.

I hate to say it, but while you're no Kyoon yet, the way you're posting reminds me a little bit of the kind of mindset Prester John described in his (excellent, by the way) mental health threads.

Pegged Lamb posted:

I know I seem unhinged. The stress thing seems weird to me though. You'd think there'd have been an evolutionary adaptation to increased stress somewhere in our ancestry long, long ago as creatures in the wild are more or less constantly in a high state of stress.

and then there's the conferred health benefits of meditation and any spiritual awareness whatsoever. http://www.anti-agingfirewalls.com/2015/07/16/the-top-21benefits-of-meditation/

Everything has a plausible biological explanation. But when you take it together its as if though there's this unwritten golden rule: "Dude...chill. Have fun"