Astrophysicist Rules Out Theory We Are Living In A Simulation

Good news! (We think.) An astrophysicist says he has been able to rule out one theory that we are all actually living in some sort of simulation. Phew!

In 2003, philosopher and University of Oxford professor Nick Bostrom came up with what is known as the Simulation Hypothesis, which essentially states that, based on what we already know is possible, advanced computers may have already been created that allow a race to perform simulations involving conscious beings, with those conscious beings being us.

His theory has been put to the test many times over the years. For example, in 2020, using Bostrom’s theory, Australian Catholic University associate professor Sam Baron calculated the odds that we are actually living in a simulation as being 1 in 3. That same year, astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University went a step further and determined that the chances of us living in a simulation are 1 in 2, or 50 percent.

Now, however, Franco Vazza, associate professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Bologna, claims the “Simulation Hypothesis” put forth by Bostrom is “simply incompatible with all we know about physics.”

In his study, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Physics, Vazza investigated the simulation of the entire visible Universe, the simulation of Earth only, and a low-resolution simulation of Earth compatible with high-energy neutrino observations.

“Our starting point is that ‘Information is physical’, and hence any numerical computation requires a certain amount of power, energy, computing time, and the laws of physics can clearly tell us what is possible to simulate, and under which conditions,” Vazza explained. “We can use these simple concepts to assess the physical plausibility – or impossibility – of a simulation reproducing the Universe we live within, and even of some lower resolution version of it.”

By the end of his study, Vazza had come to one conclusion.

“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,” he determined. “Only universes with very different physical properties can produce some version of this Universe as a simulation.”

In conclusion, Vazza added, “It is simply impossible for this Universe to be simulated by a universe sharing the same properties, regardless of technological advancements in the far future.”