Andrei Linde - Are We Living in a Simulation?

Could our entire universe have been created by a super-intelligent species, just like computer scientists write software to simulate chemical reactions or the weather? It may sound silly, but with the exponential increase in computing power, it could be conceivable? And if for humans, why not for others? If our universe were a simulation, how could we tell?

Andrei Dmitriyevich Linde is a theoretical physicist and the Harald Trap Friis Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[TheFragilityOfIdeas]

I often ponder this… then I stub my toe on a chair leg and suddenly realise simulation or not, that is some real pain.

[jaddaj]

Great interview with a brilliant physicist. Very honest and humble responses.

[arjunbhandari]

The human brain wants to know everything. But it has dimensional restrictions. Maximum it can do is "think and interpret" But the truth is above the realm of

[seangilmore]

We wouldn't necessarily be living in a computer simulation, but that doesn't mean it isn't a simulation. We could just be an extension of an already existing reality, a projected version of beings that can transfer or alter their consciousness to far-flung places without endangering their original forms.

[Graybeard_]

When you have spent the last 50 years playing computer games from the release of Pong to today's 4K MMORPGs, understanding the concept of actually being in the simulation, is not a far fetch at all.

[thickdickwad]

Always great ideas from Andrei Linde’s mind ❤

[Justwantahover]

If we were in a simulation, then when we dream, we are in a simulation of a simulation. 😅

[johnh]

The idea that our reality is a simulation seems, in effect, like a backdoor version of Intelligent Design.
Also, if we’re a simulation, what about the higher level beings that created us as a simulation? Does their universe have actual reality, or are they being simulated by the next level up in reality? So, where does it end? Is it simulations all the way up? Something like turtles all the way down?

[kokomanation]

For the people suffering in this world this question would be irrelevant.I don’t think anyone could create a simulation with so much emotional and physical pain

[solidandshade]

You may want to talk about double slit experiment. It is truly practical yet just as bizzare experiment as Schrödinger's cat and have similar implications.

[bruno]

In the book "Contact"", the message is in the number pi

[MilushevGeorgi]

The speed of light is a convenient constraint for a simulation. Also per sightings, those tictocs flying around and getting detected by the military, the way they don’t react with air and water, seems as the representation of a higher dimensional object into 3d space, a way for the creators to observe in 3d.

Also the fiftyfiftyness of the wave function collapse looks like randomization for the sake of creating conscious life in the simulation.

Lastly entropy seems as a pre planned way to disperse concentrated energy, be the reason for life creation. I honestly prefer that we live in a simulation, I’d hate it if we are the base, it will be something in addition to the universe, they can give us the cheat sheet on fusion energy and interstellar travel. I like to imagine that the goal of the exercise is to see of how elevated of a conciousness can the system produce, in the correct circumstances and over time I reckon that a society in the computer can end being up morally superior to the one of the creators.

[gunner]

like asking the goldfish who made the bowl

[JordanGreen-iv]

Maybe universes don’t exist parallel or adjacent to each other but within others like a Mandelbrot zoom

[pastasauce]

Boys and Girls, I propose We build a webcam to see the outside computer.

[claudiozanella]

Yes, something in physics would actually suggest that you are in a simulation. All simulation systems work in a determined range and begin to show issues when you get close to the limits of that range. For example, in computer science, - given a limited number of available bits - you have problems when zooming into much detail, you start to see the single different pixels of an image corresponding to single bits and the system no longer works properly: the image is not correctly reproduced anymore, no longer recognizable. But the same thing happens in our physics: this is why it's called the "quantum" mechanics. That is, you go from a normal ANALOG perception of reality to a DIGITAL perception, made of quantum jumps, in which determinations of positions and velocities become impossible. The available resources appear to plummet: there are only a limited number of states in which matter can be. For what reason? There is no apparent logical reason. Other phenomena such as entanglement are mathematically explainable, but their existence is nonsensical in my opinion since it can occur at infinite distance at infinite speed. Thus physics (the alleged simulation) actually appears to get problems when going into the microscopic world. But - when numbers are very large - also there you can see that strange things show up, you must face a nice speed limit c. Why can't you go faster? When approaching that limit objects show a strange behavior, they distort their shape, increase their mass...All what above could represent a clue that you are getting close to the limits of a range of a simulation. That is, a simulation exists.

[RyanK-]

What kind of a message could be encoded in the fundamental constants of nature? I mean really, how do you encode, "Love one another?" Or are we encoding pi? Big deal, in that case. It would be indistinguishable from another spot that pi appears.

[shephusted]

given the fact that we have seen so many interesting experiments like quantum eraser in the past few years it is clear that there are many more depths to plumb in terms of physics and reality - things are much stranger than we could ever hope to imagine and that is just damn interesting plus it has real world implications which we can use to understand nature better and reality more thoroughly - all in all it is a deep pocket and fund of knowledge physicists are exploring and we all wait patiently for the next big discovery.

[arthurwieczorek]

If we, indeed, are living in a simulation, does that mean there's no such thing as reality?

[kallianpublico]

What you're really asking is if Nature is prior to consciousness; or if consciousness is prior to Nature?
If Nature is prior to consciousness then there is no simulation. If consciousness is prior to Nature then knowledge is not an "answer" provided by questions asked of Nature. The answer of knowledge is provided by questions asked of...? The questions and the answers are provided by consciousness, no?