this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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No such thing. Ask away!

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The theory, which I probably misunderstand because I have a similar level of education to a macaque, states that because a simulated world would eventually develop to the point where it creates its own simulations, it's then just a matter of probability that we are in a simulation. That is, if there's one real world, and a zillion simulated ones, it's more likely that we're in a simulated world. That's probably an oversimplification, but it's the gist I got from listening to people talk about the theory.

But if the real world sets up a simulated world which more or less perfectly simulates itself, the processing required to create a mirror sim-within-a-sim would need at least twice that much power/resources, no? How could the infinitely recursive simulations even begin to be set up unless more and more hardware is constantly being added by the real meat people to its initial simulation? It would be like that cartoon (or was it a silent movie?) of a guy laying down train track struts while sitting on the cowcatcher of a moving train. Except in this case the train would be moving at close to the speed of light.

Doesn't this fact alone disprove the entire hypothesis? If I set up a 1:1 simulation of our universe, then just sit back and watch, any attempts by my simulant people to create something that would exhaust all of my hardware would just... not work? Blue screen? Crash the system? Crunching the numbers of a 1:1 sim within a 1:1 sim would not be physically possible for a processor that can just about handle the first simulation. The simulation's own simulated processors would still need to have their processing done by Meat World, you're essentially just passing the CPU-buck backwards like it's a rugby ball until it lands in the lap of the real world.

And this is just if the simulated people create ONE simulation. If 10 people in that one world decide to set up similar simulations simultaneously, the hardware for the entire sim reality would be toast overnight.

What am I not getting about this?

Cheers!

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[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You're thinking in terms of how we do simulations within our universe. If the universe is a simulation then the machine that is simulating it is necessarily outside of the known universe. We can't know for sure that it has to play by the same rules of physics or even of logic and reasoning as a machine within our universe. Maybe in the upper echelon universe computers don't need power, or they have infinite time for calculations for reasons beyond our understanding.

[–] Trollivier@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or what if the entity that stimulates can just "dream" the simulation to make it happen?

[–] learningduck@programming.dev 4 points 4 months ago

Like Azathoth?

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But that's just a guess. It's not necessarily true. You're just saying "simulations might be possible, therefore they are definitely possible, therefore we are likely in a simulation".

That's not logically sound. You can replace "simulation" with "God" and prove the existence of God similarly. It's just a guess.

[–] steuls@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yes thats why no one says its a fact, its a theory

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as "theory", is in fact, a "hypothesis"...

[–] bitfucker@programming.dev 5 points 4 months ago

Some might say a game theory