How to test if we're living in a computer simulation

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Abstract

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets and ultimately life to develop? The expansive force of the universe, dark energy, for example, is much weaker than theory suggests it should be – allowing matter to clump together rather than being ripped apart.
A common answer is that we live in an infinite multiverse of universes, so we shouldn’t be surprised that at least one universe has turned out as ours. But another is that our universe is a computer simulation, with someone fine-tuning the conditions.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages2
Specialist publicationThe Conversation
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • simulation hypothesis
  • information theory

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