Small Universe Theory
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From: Hein Hundal on 20 Jul 2010 11:47 Here is a wacky theory that I though of a few years ago. Small Universe Theory Hypotheses 1) Our universe can be simulated by running a program on a super big computer. 2) That program is among the shortest programs that can simulate intelligent life. Supposing that 1) and 2) are true, I think it might explain the following observations about our universe: a) Our universe is only 3 dimensional. b) Our universe does not seem to have existed forever. It has a beginning. Our universe is only 13 billion years old. c) Our universe seems to contain a finite amount of matter. It contains significantly less than 1 google atoms. d) Quantum mechanics exists. e) There are physical laws for our universe that do not seem to change much outside of our solar system or outside of our galaxy. Furthermore, the physical laws do not seem to change much with time. f) The physical laws of our universe can mostly be written down using fairly short formulas.
From: Pubkeybreaker on 20 Jul 2010 12:06 On Jul 20, 11:47 am, Hein Hundal <hunda...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Here is a wacky theory that I though of a few years ago. > > Small Universe Theory Why is this drivel in sci.math? You seem unable to understand the difference between math and physics.
From: Hein Hundal on 20 Jul 2010 12:30 On Jul 20, 12:06 pm, Pubkeybreaker <pubkeybrea...(a)aol.com> wrote: > On Jul 20, 11:47 am, Hein Hundal <hunda...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Here is a wacky theory that I though of a few years ago. > > > Small Universe Theory > > Why is this drivel in sci.math? > > You seem unable to understand the difference between > math and physics. Pubkeybreaker, Well maybe a physics or philosophy group would have been better. I think the idea is partly mathematical. How big would a computer need to be to "simulate" our universe? I imagine a computer with 10^100 transistors might be big enough. How big long would a computer program need to be to "simulate the universe." I imagine it might require a lot of RAM, but I don't think it would be more than 1,000,000 lines of C. The idea of choosing the shortest program that describes a phenomenon is strongly related to Kolmogorov complexity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolmogorov_complexity How many particles does a universe have to have to spontaneously produce intelligent life? If I post that question to a philosophy newsgroup, will I get an informed answer. (Is it possible to create an informed answer or educated guess?) Quantum mechanics seems to imply that if the universe is a discrete set of points, then the points might be 10^(-35) meters apart (the Plank length). Maybe sci.math is not the right place for the original post, but, in that case, what is the right place? Cheers, Hein
From: Pubkeybreaker on 20 Jul 2010 13:50 On Jul 20, 12:30 pm, Hein Hundal <hunda...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Maybe sci.math is not the right place for the original post, but, > in that case, what is the right place? /dev/null
From: fishfry on 20 Jul 2010 19:00
In article <d296667f-6bb1-4789-b371-8c1fc19b0159(a)g35g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>, Hein Hundal <hundalhh(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Here is a wacky theory that I though of a few years ago. > > Small Universe Theory > > Hypotheses > > 1) Our universe can be simulated by running a program on a super big > computer. Since the entire universe would be simulated, it follows that the program running on the computer would itself be simulated within the simulation. You'd immediately have a descending chain of simulations of programs that can simulate the universe. Have you considered the consequences? It most likely makes it logically impossible for your hypothesis to be logically consistent, since eventually one of the simulated programs would have to be too short to simulate much of anything. Remember, a program consists of an integer number of characters, so each simulation is strictly smaller than the one above it and the limit of the program lengths approaches zero. How do you handle this objection? |