5. The idea that the universe and reality itself could be
a simulation is not something new.
6. We can trace similar ideas as far back as
the time of ancient Greece.
Numerous philosophers around the world
alluded to the idea that reality could be an
illusion.
7. Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou
compared his own existence to
that of a dream in which he
believed himself to be a butterfly.
8. He questioned the distinction
between reality and a dream if both
could seem equally real.
10. Imagine a cave where people have
been imprisoned since birth.
11. They are chained in such a
way that they are forced
to constantly gaze upon
the wall in front of them.
They cannot look around
the cave, at each other, nor
at themselves.
All they know is this wall
and nothing else.
15. Because the prisoners doesn't
know anything else, they
believe the shadows to be real.
when a passer by is talking, the
prisoners believe it to
becoming from the shadows
themselves.
Because the prisoners doesn't
know anything else, they
believe the shadows to be
real.
16. Just like the shadows in this cave, could our
perceived reality be a shadow of something else?
17.
18. which is a collection of theoretical perspectives based on the
premise that the universe is describable by information and as
such is computable. And some of these physicists around the
world are actually to find out if our universe could be a simulation.
Commonly referred to as the Simulation Hypothesis.
19. This is done by, in various ways, comparing
the real world against our own technology. If
certain similarities are found, conclusions
can be drawn.
20.
21. A really simple example is to think of the pixels
on your screen that make up a video.
22. But we know for a fact that this is
an illusion caused by the
limitations of our sight.
If a red dot is moved across a screen,
we perceive it as a smooth sliding
action.
Nothing is really moving it's just bits of
information being modified in such a way
that, from our perspective, it's perceived as
motion.
23. we notice that the red dot isn't sliding as much as it
snaps to each individual pixel. And this is essentially
what they have observed, that the universe has a
finite resolution.
This could mean that the universe and reality is not
made out of energy or matter but is instead made
out of quantized bits of information that, from our
perspective, is perceived as energy and matter.
24. It‘s only natural for us to assume that the
complexity of the universe must be very complicated.
The world can often seem very confusing, random,
unpredictable, and even unexplainable. But complexity
can actually be the result of simplicity.
25. So let's change our perspective.
Instead of assuming the position
of the prisoners in the cave, could
we be the ones who ignite the fire
to cast shadows upon the wall?
26.
27. What we can do instead is mimic reality
by approximation. Take a look at this.
This is The Illustris Project. A giant
cosmological simulation with the aim of
studying the formation and evolution of
galaxies.
It's an ongoing project in which scientists
use the most precise data and calculations
currently available to create the most
precise model of the universe.
28. It took a supercomputer with 8192 cores, used 25 TB of RAM
and once the simulation arrived at present day, the result
was strikingly similar to what we observe in the universe.
29. This is all well and good for all scientific
endeavours. Things like astrophysics, particle
physics and the list goes on and on. But what
about creating a simulation for entertainment
purposes?
30.
31. Technology like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
are fantastic but they are not ideal. They are
only the beginning of the virtual reality
revolution that likely waits ahead.
44. Just like in a dream, maybe it's possible to
manipulate the brain's sense of time. Real
world minutes could turn into virtual years.
45. Could that be why the universe can seem so
lifeless even though it's been around for such
a long time.
46. Perhaps every civilization that reaches a
certain technological maturity realizes that
expanding outwards to explore the universe is
pointless and
when expanding inwards, using technology,
allows you to do so much more.