Is the Universe a Simulation?
Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation
I'm posting this thread in Nat. Sci. to capture an audience more likely to read and follow the paper (PDF), but you don't need an ability to do lattice QCD to follow the broader implications for theology. If there is a singular God, and the universe around us is Its creation, this is a peek behind the curtain into how it was done.
Mathematics has historically played a role in theologies, from incorporation of the golden mean — (1+root(5))/2, sports fans — in the religious architecture of Greek polytheists to the apologetics of career Christians like William Lane Craig arguing the non-existence of actual infinities. Mathematical entities lay uncontroversial claim to many of the most controversial descriptive aspects of our human gods: They are eternal, objective, self-existent, and independent of our universe.
On the femto-scale, lattice QCD allows us, as humans, to answer the age-old retort of Creationists asking us to duplicate creation by "getting our own dirt."
As ever, Jesse
What kinds of things are mathematical entities and theorems, that they are knowable in this way? Do they exist somewhere, a set of immaterial objects in the enchanted gardens of the Platonic world, waiting to be discovered? Or are they mere creations of the human mind?
Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation
Observable consequences of the hypothesis that the observed universe is a numerical simulation performed on a cubic space-time lattice or grid are explored. The simulation scenario is first motivated by extrapolating current trends in computational resource requirements for lattice QCD into the future. Using the historical development of lattice gauge theory technology as a guide, we assume that our universe is an early numerical simulation with unimproved Wilson fermion discretization and investigate potentially-observable consequences. Among the observables that are considered are the muon g-2 and the current differences between determinations of alpha, but the most stringent bound on the inverse lattice spacing of the universe, b^(-1) >~ 10^(11) GeV, is derived from the high-energy cut off of the cosmic ray spectrum. The numerical simulation scenario could reveal itself in the distributions of the highest energy cosmic rays exhibiting a degree of rotational symmetry breaking that reflects the structure of the underlying lattice.
I'm posting this thread in Nat. Sci. to capture an audience more likely to read and follow the paper (PDF), but you don't need an ability to do lattice QCD to follow the broader implications for theology. If there is a singular God, and the universe around us is Its creation, this is a peek behind the curtain into how it was done.
Mathematics has historically played a role in theologies, from incorporation of the golden mean — (1+root(5))/2, sports fans — in the religious architecture of Greek polytheists to the apologetics of career Christians like William Lane Craig arguing the non-existence of actual infinities. Mathematical entities lay uncontroversial claim to many of the most controversial descriptive aspects of our human gods: They are eternal, objective, self-existent, and independent of our universe.
On the femto-scale, lattice QCD allows us, as humans, to answer the age-old retort of Creationists asking us to duplicate creation by "getting our own dirt."
As ever, Jesse
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