As early as 1989, legendary physicist John Archibald Wheeler proposed that the universe is fundamentally mathematical and that the universe can be regarded as generated from information.

For a long time, physicists have been trying to explain why the universe was in the beginning suitable for life evolution. Why are the laws of physics and constants exactly very specific values that allow stars, planets and life to eventually appear? And the force and dark energy that makes the universe expand is much weaker than what theorized. In fact, it should be to let all the cosmic matter gather together, rather than expanding and tearing like the observed ones.

A common answer is We live in an infinite number of universes, namely Multiverse , So we should not be surprised that at least one of them will become our universe.

But another seemingly fantasy answer is being taken more and more seriously, that is, our universe is simulated by an external computer . This computer someone (perhaps an advanced alien species) is fine-tuning various parameters.

, a very outrageous theory, has been supported by the scientific branch of information physics. Information physics believes that Spatial and matter are not the essence of the universe . On the contrary, the physical reality we are in is essentially consists of information bits, and the time and space experience we feel is generated from these information bits. The so-called temperature is just another statement that atoms gather together to move. Basically, no atom has a temperature.

This greatly convinces scientists that our entire universe is actually just a fact simulated by computers, and there are huge possibilities.

However, this idea was not proposed recently.

As early as 1989, legendary physicist John Archibald Wheeler (John Archibald Wheeler) proposed that The universe is fundamentally mathematical , and the universe can be regarded as being generated from information. He put forward the famous saying "it from bit" (the universe comes from bit).

In 2003, Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford in the UK, also proposed his simulation hypothesis: The real universe shows that we are actually likely to live in simulations. This is because An advanced civilization will inevitably go to such a level : their technology is so complex that simulations are indistinguishable from reality, and participants will not realize that they are in the simulated world.

Physicist Seth Lloyd of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the simulation hypothesis to a new level. He said that the entire universe may be a huge quantum computer .
2016, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk (Elon Musk) even publicly stated: "We are likely to be in the simulated universe." What evidence supports

?

There is evidence that our physical reality may be simulated virtual reality, rather than an objective world that exists independently of the observer.

Because any virtual reality world will be based on information processing . This means that everything will eventually be or pixelated to a minimum size that cannot be further subdivided: bit . The quantum mechanics theory that dominates the world of atoms and particles is theoretically particularly suitable to simulate our real world. quantum mechanics theory points out that there is a minimum, discrete energy, length and time unit . The basic particles that constitute all visible matter in the universe are the smallest units of matter. In short, our world is pixelated.

Physical laws are also similar to the computer code command . The simulation of the universe will follow the algorithms of these code programs when executing programs. In addition, mathematical equations, numbers and geometric patterns fill and dominate our entire world - The world seems to be completely mathematical.

Another physics wonder that supports simulation of hypotheses, is that in our universe, the maximum speed limit for matter movement : the speed of light . In virtual reality, the limitation of means that there are limits on the computing speed of processors that simulate our universe, or there are limits on the processing power of . We know that overloaded and overloaded processors can slow down computer processing in simulations. Moreover, Einstein 's General Relativity also shows that the time around the black hole will slow down.

In fact, the most powerful evidence for the simulation hypothesis may come from the most popular and cutting-edge quantum mechanics at the moment. Quantum mechanics shows that the universe is not "real": particles in a certain state (e.g., specific positions) do not seem to exist, unless you actually observe or measure them. Instead, they will be in a mixed state of different states at the same time. The reality after virtual happens to be needs to be observed or measured to keep things in a certain state.

In addition, the quantum entanglement theory also allows two particles to be strangely connected. If you manipulate one particle, you will automatically and immediately manipulate another particle, no matter how far they are, the effect seems to be faster than the speed of light , and this, is impossible in real reality.

However, if it is a virtual world, it can be explained by the fact that in the code of virtual reality , all "positions" (points) of should communicate with central processor CPU should be approximately equal . So while we might think that two particles are millions of light years apart, this strange situation beyond the speed of light can be explained if they were created in a simulation device.

What kind of experiment can prove that the universe is virtual?

Assuming that the universe is indeed a simulated universe, then, what kind of experiment can be configured in our simulated world, to prove this?

First of all, we can reasonably assume a simulated universe, will definitely contain a large amount of information that is everywhere around us bit . These information bits represent the code itself. Therefore, detecting these information bits will naturally prove the simulation hypothesis. Physicist Melvin Vopson proposed the equivalent principle of mass-energy-information (M/E/I) —that is, mass can be expressed as energy or information, and vice versa. This means that the information bit must have a smaller quality. And this gives us something to search and verify.

He assumes that information is actually the fifth form of matter in the universe . He even calculated the expected information content for each elementary particle. These speculations led to his design of an experimental protocol in 2022 to test these predictions. This experiment considers detecting and measuring information in elementary particles by by letting elementary particles and their antiparticles (all particles have their own "anti" version, they are the same but have the opposite charge) collision to detect and measure information in elementary particles : When a matter particle is collided with an antimatter particle, they annihilate each other. And the information of the particle must go somewhere when it is annihilated. "The information in an electron is one in 22 million of its mass, but we can measure the information content by erasing it."The annihilation process converts all remaining mass of the particle into energy, usually gamma photon . Any particle containing information is converted into low-energy infrared photons.

He claims that the exact range of expected frequency of the generated photon has been predicted based on information physics. This experiment is very good with our existing tools, and he has launched a crowdfunding website to implement it.

Of course, there are other methods . The late physicist John Barrow believes that the simulation will inevitably produce slight calculation errors, and the programmer who simulates needs to fix these errors in order to continue running this virtual world. He reminded that in our universe, may experience changes in certain parameters that are considered eternal and unchanging, , for example, suddenly there are contradictory experimental results, and 's natural constant changes. Therefore, monitoring the values of these so-called cosmic constants is another way of verification.

I have to say that the reality of our universe, its true essence is one of the biggest mysteries we face.

The more we take the hypothesis of simulation, the greater the chance we will one day prove or deny it.

If you want your child to answer this question, this physics book that has a good enlightenment for primary school students. If you want to insert it here, you might as well lay a good foundation for physics knowledge for him early.

Finally, I would like to ask you,

Do you think we are living in a virtual world?

What is your evidence? [Dog Head]

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