The idea that we’re living inside a simulation, as popularized by “The Matrix” franchise, has piqued the interest of scientists for decades.
In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in a highly influential paper that if a civilization were to become capable of creating simulated universes, it would create so many of them — many of them containing even more simulated universes, and so on — that statistically we would almost certainly be living in one.
The theory has sparked countless late-night dorm room discussions and caught the attention of influential figures ranging from Elon Musk to Neil deGrasse Tyson. But not everyone is convinced.
In a recent paper published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, University of British Columbia Okanagan adjunct professor Mir Faizal and colleagues say they’ve proven that the fundamental nature of reality simply cannot be simulated on any computer.
By using mathematical theorems, they argued that some truths can only be understood through non-algorithmic understanding.
“It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated,” said Faizal in a statement. “If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation.”
“This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation,” he added. “This idea was once thought to lie beyond the reach of scientific inquiry. However, our recent research has demonstrated that it can, in fact, be scientifically addressed.”
The team argued that the Platonic realm — a concept referring to an ideal plane that lies beyond the physical world that represents pure information — cannot describe reality using just computation.
In their paper, they argue that describing everything in this realm requires a “non-algorithmic understanding,” which doesn’t stem from following a sequence of logical steps.
The team employed mathematician Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, which state that any consistent mathematical system contains true statements that can’t be proven.
“We have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity,” Faizal explained. “Therefore, no physically complete and consistent theory of everything can be derived from computation alone.”
“Rather, it requires a non-algorithmic understanding, which is more fundamental than the computational laws of quantum gravity and therefore more fundamental than spacetime itself,” he added.
In other words, the universe “cannot be, and could never be, a simulation,” per Faizal, “since a simulation is inherently algorithmic,” and reality is “based on non-algorithmic understanding.”
“The fundamental laws of physics cannot be contained within space and time, because they generate them,” coauthor and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss explained. “It has long been hoped, however, that a truly fundamental theory of everything could eventually describe all physical phenomena through computations grounded in these laws.”
“Yet we have demonstrated that this is not possible,” he added.
More on the simulation theory: The Man Who Proposed Simulation Theory Has a Dire Warning