How can we test whether we are living inside a computer simulation?

In a recent article published on The Conversation platform, physicist Melvin M. Vopson, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in England, explains the basis for the theory that our entire physical reality will actually be a simulated virtual reality. Last year, scientist proposes an experimental protocol to test the theory.

This thesis is not new. In 1989, theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler, Niels Bohr’s former associate, proposed that the universe is mathematical in nature and can be viewed as emerging from information. To summarize the idea, Wheeler suggested the aphorism “In a moment.”, Something like “the bit”, that is, reality (it), arises from knowledge (bit).

The theory attempts to explain why physical laws and constants assume such “correct” values ​​that lead to the formation of stars, planets, and ultimately life. We would have two options: Either we live in an infinite multiverse (only ours works), Or is our universe a computer simulation operated by an advanced alien intelligence?.

Evidence that physical reality is a computer simulation

Vopson explains that our world is completely pixelated, evidence that it is a virtual reality. Just as fundamental particles make up all visible matter in the universe, there is also a smaller, separate unit of energy, length, and time: the bit.

It’s no coincidence that the speed limit of our universe is the speed of light.. In the theory of the simulated universe, this corresponds to the power limit of the processor of the machine that simulates us.

But the strongest evidence for the simulation hypothesis comes from quantum mechanics itself. HE defends the “unreal” nature of particlesuntil an observer (our Programmer?) confirms them.

Testing the simulated Universe theory

Vopson claims that if we truly lived in a universe, there would be bits of information around us. Then, Detection of these bits will prove the simulation hypothesis. In this sense, in 2020, inspired by Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalence principle, he formulated the mass-energy-information (M/E/I) equivalence principle.

In his version, the theorist proposes: “Mass can be expressed as energy or information and vice versa”. According to him, information particles would have an extremely low mass, but still information would constitute the fifth form of matter in the universe. Vopson even calculated the expected information content per elementary particle.

In the protocol published in 2022, a University of Portsmouth professor explains how he will test his predictions. To do this, he says, it is enough to “erase the information contained in the elementary particles.” they emit ‘photons’ or particles of light, allowing them and their antiparticles to annihilate each other in a flash of energy“. The physicist launched a crowdfunding website to carry out the experiment, receiving donations from all over the world.

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