Comments on: If the Universe is a Simulation, then What? http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what The Future of the Web, Search Technology, and the Global Brain Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:45:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Terry Schermerhorn http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3922 Terry Schermerhorn Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:41:19 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3922 <p>Could this be the answer to the question "why are we here?" In our attempt to discover our own meaning to our existence I refer to "Horton hears a who". This is almost the same thing. I'm not suggesting we try to signal a passing elephant in an even larger universe, but perhaps all we need to do is find a clue that leads to the switch that turns on the microphone. If this really is a type of software simulation, then it stands to reason a bug, or anomaly, or even a digital signature, has already been introduced into it. So how do we find it, and how do we recognize it once we do?</p> Could this be the answer to the question "why are we here?" In our attempt to discover our own meaning to our existence I refer to "Horton hears a who". This is almost the same thing. I'm not suggesting we try to signal a passing elephant in an even larger universe, but perhaps all we need to do is find a clue that leads to the switch that turns on the microphone. If this really is a type of software simulation, then it stands to reason a bug, or anomaly, or even a digital signature, has already been introduced into it. So how do we find it, and how do we recognize it once we do?

]]> By: Kybernetica.com http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3923 Kybernetica.com Sun, 26 Jun 2005 09:40:25 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3923 <strong>If the Universe is a Simulation, then What?</strong> [Source: Minding the Planet] quoted: Ipropose that consciousness is an example of such a unsimulatable-thing.If we find that consciousness cannot be simulated by a computer, then Iwould conclude that our universe (which contains consciousness,seemingly... If the Universe is a Simulation, then What?

[Source: Minding the Planet] quoted: Ipropose that consciousness is an example of such a unsimulatable-thing.If we find that consciousness cannot be simulated by a computer, then Iwould conclude that our universe (which contains consciousness,seemingly…

]]> By: jHenosch http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3921 jHenosch Mon, 02 May 2005 23:35:31 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3921 If we try to intercept all our neurons by tiny manmade nanotransceivers, that can figure out where they are in the brainnetwork, it is just a question of high fidelity representation of all patterns in the brain wihtin, by a computer that is able to download and upload experiences and memory from and to the biobrain. The outside represented brainpattern is similar to the real conscienceness of the biotissue of your good old fleshborn body. And when our biological body starts to fail and deteriorate through age, we can (slowly) take over the biobrain by our sythetic brainpattern in the computer, and live our lives furher in the blessing of virtuality, giving up our deceased flesh. If this brainpattern can be stored, we as humans, the facto have reached immortality. It is not really necessary to get yourself back into a cloned body, because robotting can deliver the same manipulation of material needed to maintain our life(computer)systems. And because people go virtual virtual at the end of their biolife, there are no limits to our natural environment anymore, cause cyberexperiencing at that time will be more real than reality itself. indeed,as the bible scriptures say: a new earth and a new heaven !! If we try to intercept all our neurons by tiny manmade nanotransceivers, that can figure out where they are in the brainnetwork, it is just a question of high fidelity representation of all patterns in the brain wihtin, by a computer that is able to download and upload experiences and memory from and to the biobrain.
The outside represented brainpattern is similar to the real conscienceness of the biotissue of your good old fleshborn body.
And when our biological body starts to fail and deteriorate through age, we can (slowly) take over the biobrain by our sythetic brainpattern in the computer, and live our lives furher in the blessing of virtuality, giving up our deceased flesh.
If this brainpattern can be stored, we as humans, the facto have reached immortality.
It is not really necessary to get yourself back into a cloned body, because robotting can deliver the same manipulation of material needed to maintain our life(computer)systems.
And because people go virtual virtual at the end of their biolife, there are no limits to our natural environment anymore, cause cyberexperiencing at that time will be more real than reality itself.
indeed,as the bible scriptures say:
a new earth and a new heaven !!

]]> By: X.Mitchell http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3920 X.Mitchell Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:33:12 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3920 indeed, throwing our numbers around more dimensions should enhance the contours of our own simulation, letting us harness a couple of fundamentals and send back our "genitors" a winning signal-to-noise ratio. It's interesting to think that this might be our primary engine and the reason why our universe is so fertile. Thank you for the senario. Question: how far can we go hanging on to a real.external/simulated.inside dichotomy ? Such binary oppositions would seem to be excess baggage if we want flexible semantics for our math to grow "out" of its "insides" ;-) indeed, throwing our numbers around more dimensions should enhance the contours of our own simulation, letting us harness a couple of fundamentals and send back our “genitors” a winning signal-to-noise ratio. It’s interesting to think that this might be our primary engine and the reason why our universe is so fertile. Thank you for the senario.
Question: how far can we go hanging on to a real.external/simulated.inside dichotomy ?
Such binary oppositions would seem to be excess baggage if we want flexible semantics for our math to grow “out” of its “insides” ;-)

]]> By: Nova http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3919 Nova Sat, 20 Nov 2004 05:17:57 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3919 Very interesting suggestion! I never thought of that. Adds another nice angle to all of this, thanks! Nova Very interesting suggestion! I never thought of that. Adds another nice angle to all of this, thanks!
Nova

]]> By: Richard http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3918 Richard Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:02:26 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3918 "<i>If we find that consciousness cannot be simulated by a computer, then I would conclude that our universe (which contains consciousness, seemingly) cannot be a computer simulation.</i>" I'm not convinced that follows, as it seems possible that although our universe is simulated, our consciousness is something that occurs outside of the simulation, due to our external/real brains. (Indeed, I think this is the case in Dave Chalmers' "Matrix" scenario.) So, instead of concluding that the universe cannot be simulated in such as case, you should instead (I think) conclude that <i>we</i> cannot be merely simulated beings. We might find ourselves in an artificial universe, but we ourselves must be real (i.e. have some grounding to our existence outside of the simulation). “If we find that consciousness cannot be simulated by a computer, then I would conclude that our universe (which contains consciousness, seemingly) cannot be a computer simulation.”
I’m not convinced that follows, as it seems possible that although our universe is simulated, our consciousness is something that occurs outside of the simulation, due to our external/real brains. (Indeed, I think this is the case in Dave Chalmers’ “Matrix” scenario.)
So, instead of concluding that the universe cannot be simulated in such as case, you should instead (I think) conclude that we cannot be merely simulated beings. We might find ourselves in an artificial universe, but we ourselves must be real (i.e. have some grounding to our existence outside of the simulation).

]]> By: Nova http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3917 Nova Wed, 17 Nov 2004 04:04:17 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3917 http://redshift.vif.com/JournalFiles/Pre2001/V00NO20PDF/NR20KOK.PDF -- This paper presents a number of cases of cosmological coincidences that may be the kinds of "clues" we should be looknig at more closely. Here are some interesting astronomical coincidences that are still unexplained: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bmoler/astroco.htm Here are some mathematical coincidences of note http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_coincidences Of course there is also the idea, put forth by Carl Sagan in his book, Contact, that there might be message hidden within the numerical sequence of Pi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi. Here is an interesting article that analyzes and graphs the randomness of digits of Pi: http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/math/pi/RandPI.html Others have wondered about whether there is a hidden message in the distribution of the prime numbers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number This page summarizes some interesting directions in research that point to connections between number theory and physics http://www.sciscoop.com/comments/2003/12/13/221728/41/4?mode=alone;showrate=1 And this site points out some "evolutionary" aspects of prime number distributions: http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~mwatkins/isoc/index.htm This site lists many known patterns in the primes... http://www.geocities.com/~harveyh/primes.htm Ulam's Prime Number Spiral is also a very interesting curiousity...could there be something here? Perhaps instead of a spiral a different way of arranging the primes, perhaps in more dimensions, will yeield even more structure? http://www.hermetic.ch/pns/pns.htm And here's a little more about it: http://www.abarim-publications.com/artctulam.html The Anthropic Principle is also relevant to this discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle Here's another very interesting study that attempted to find hidden patterns in the mass ratios of the fundamental particles, by doing an exhaustive search of known number sequences: http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/%7Eplouffe/Search.htm http://redshift.vif.com/JournalFiles/Pre2001/V00NO20PDF/NR20KOK.PDF — This paper presents a number of cases of cosmological coincidences that may be the kinds of “clues” we should be looknig at more closely.
Here are some interesting astronomical coincidences that are still unexplained:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bmoler/astroco.htm
Here are some mathematical coincidences of note
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_coincidences
Of course there is also the idea, put forth by Carl Sagan in his book, Contact, that there might be message hidden within the numerical sequence of Pi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi.
Here is an interesting article that analyzes and graphs the randomness of digits of Pi:
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/math/pi/RandPI.html
Others have wondered about whether there is a hidden message in the distribution of the prime numbers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number
This page summarizes some interesting directions in research that point to connections between number theory and physics
http://www.sciscoop.com/comments/2003/12/13/221728/41/4?mode=alone;showrate=1
And this site points out some “evolutionary” aspects of prime number distributions:
http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~mwatkins/isoc/index.htm
This site lists many known patterns in the primes…
http://www.geocities.com/~harveyh/primes.htm
Ulam’s Prime Number Spiral is also a very interesting curiousity…could there be something here? Perhaps instead of a spiral a different way of arranging the primes, perhaps in more dimensions, will yeield even more structure?
http://www.hermetic.ch/pns/pns.htm
And here’s a little more about it: http://www.abarim-publications.com/artctulam.html
The Anthropic Principle is also relevant to this discussion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle
Here’s another very interesting study that attempted to find hidden patterns in the mass ratios of the fundamental particles, by doing an exhaustive search of known number sequences: http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/%7Eplouffe/Search.htm

]]> By: Dave Martindale http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3916 Dave Martindale Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:40:08 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3916 Hi, very interesting article! You wrote, "perhaps there are certain non-random patterns in space-time, or our number system, or the physical constants that are extremely unlikely to have happened by accident. In fact, such patterns have been found..." Does anyone have some examples of these patterns? Hi, very interesting article!
You wrote, “perhaps there are certain non-random patterns in space-time, or our number system, or the physical constants that are extremely unlikely to have happened by accident. In fact, such patterns have been found…”
Does anyone have some examples of these patterns?

]]> By: Bram Boroson http://www.novaspivack.com/science/if-the-universe-is-a-simulation-then-what/comment-page-1#comment-3915 Bram Boroson Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:18:02 +0000 http://www.novaspivack.com/?p=533#comment-3915 Hey Nova, interesting and speculative entries. I should visit more often. Hey Nova, interesting and speculative entries. I should visit more often.

]]>