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jimrandomh comments on Physicists To Test If Universe Is A Computer Simulation (link) - Less Wrong
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Comments (48)
This is testing for discretization of space. Which would be a very interesting fact about the universe, but somewhat orthogonal to whether it's a simulation; a root-level universe could still be discretized, and a simulated universe could be continuous or discretized more finely than any instrument can detect.
Really? Wow. That's FAR more interesting than the actual subject title.
I'm quite partial to the idea that this was actually the whole point of the experiment, and they just spun it as "Let's see if we're in the Matrix!" to get more public attention (and easier grant monies).
If you're interested in that kind of stuff, see this.
Thanks for the link. I like seeing empiricism used to actively narrow the search space for quantum gravity theory candidates.
IIRC, they tested for a specific kind of space discretization that, if it wasn't for the SH, wouldn't be particularly easy to locate in hypothesis-space. (Actually, it wouldn't be terribly easy to locate in hypothesis-space even given the SH, if I understand this correctly.)
These are good points. Do you think that if the researchers did find the sort of discretization that they are hypothesizing, that this would represent at least some weak evidence in favor of the simulation hypothesis, or do you think it's completely uninformative with respect to the simulation hypothesis?
I'd say it would be very weak to negligible evidence in favor.
I think that the simulation hypothesis does not permit any evidence for or against that does not violate the laws of physics. There's no way to distinguish between being in a real universe, a discrete simulation of a continuous universe, a discrete simulation of a discrete universe, or a continuous simulation of either a discrete or continuous universe with limited measuring tools.
If the laws of physics starting changing in dramatically interesting ways, I might see that as evidence of simulation... and now I need to reevaluate the evidence about cold fusion in that light...