matrix.jpg
A UW researcher says he's come up with a way to test whether we're really living in a computer simulation much like the Keanu Reeves movie the Matrix. (AP image)

Are we living in the Matrix? UW prof thinks up potential test

BY Chris Sullivan  on December 10, 2012 @ 12:38 pm (Updated: 3:03 pm - 12/10/12 )

In the hit movie trilogy the Matrix, Keanu Reeves discovers his entire life is actually a computer simulation and he's really just living in a tank hooked up to a computer.

A British physicist has theorized for the past decade our descendants are running a computer simulation on how humanity evolved, with us living in it just like the movie.

"He concluded roughly speaking that if humans did develop enough time to perform numerical simulations of ourselves and we didn't nuke ourselves before getting there then it's more than likely we are a numerical simulation ourselves," says University of Washington physicist Martin Savage.

Sounds far fetched, but now, the UW researcher believes he's found a small way to try and test that theory.

"If we get enough computer time, then in the future we want to know how we got here, and so then if you have enough computer time you'll be able to run a simulation of our universe from the beginning to see how we evolved to where we are," says Savage.

And if our universe is really just a simulation, Savage and his colleagues speculate there could be other simulated universes out there as well.

Savage says it'll take decades of advancements in computer power and technology before anyone will be able to even begin running such a simulation. If we are a simulation, he speculates it's far from the movie.

"I think there's no suggestion it looks anything like Keanu Reeves finding the Matrix, but one of the deep questions we have to continue to ask ourselves is what does our universe look like at very high energies and how do quantum mechanics and general relativity come together," he says.

So what's the point?

"If you get there, you could actually make predictions for the future, possibly," says Savage.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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  • Mavila wrote...
    "he's found a small way to try and test that theory"
    December 11, 2012 6:42 am
    ...with another bong hit and a lava lamp.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DesertRez wrote...
    We already can
    December 11, 2012 7:38 am
    look at the past: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/xdf.html

    You can look at light from stars that don't even exist anymore.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • wavettore wrote...
    Free Will vs God's Will
    December 17, 2012 10:26 am
    Much confusion originates from the Bible because of the so called Free Will and of its presumed coexistence with one God's Will. While Religions try to make sense of their own words, the fact remains that One Divine Will, or Destiny, would not be compatible with any Free Will. It is one of the two, not both. Clearly, the perception of Free Will exists but are the choices we make really our own or are they also Planned beyond the concept of Time? Is it possible that every Movement is predestined and predictable (as in the rising of the Sun or the animal behavior) for all forms of energy except our own? Most people have no doubts that we are the writers of our Destiny but, Imagine you are reading a book and one of the protagonists on page 24 is about to go home tired from work when a friend calls to meet him. You may think at that point that the person had a choice to either go home or see his friend. But when you get to page 25 you will see that, no matter how many times you read that book, he will always make that same choice. One book, one choice. Is there maybe One Book and one page 25 for all of us? The Will implies also the concept of a future Time within which that Will can become manifested. Hence, it is the concept of Time which needs to be evaluated in relation to Human Will. Is the Will before Time or beyond Time? Keep in mind that beyond Time the concept of "before" does not exist. To believe in God is to also believe that about 14 billion years ago, God shattered the Stability with a Movement called Big Bang and only from that moment on the concepts of Time, Space and Movement started to exist. There are no Time and Movement if there is no Space. There are no Space and Movement without Time. There are no Space and Time without Movement. But if one of these three exists also the other two exist. As God generated that first Movement simultaneously God also created Space and Time. God's Idea, Cause of the initial Movement, is Mother of the 3 concepts: Time, Space and Movement. In a dimension that also unifies the concept of Time, the future is like the past and in such dimension there is no Free Will. Imagine God’s Idea as One Point that unifies all Time, Space and Movement since they existed and also imagine God having the knowledge of every event in history. For example, God knows of a tyranny which occurs before a revolution which occurs before a certain war, and so on. For God (and beyond Time) all events are reunited in one same instant. Now, imagine God to decide to bring Life to the World and to manifest this Idea. On a single instant can there be Life or can any Idea become manifested? Surely not, for there would be no Time in which changes could occur. In One such Idea, conceived in a state of Stability, Life is like a deck of cards thrown up in the air by God and falling back on God's Hands without the presence of Time. All cards must necessarily Move in only One way to define That singular Idea. As to say that all of us are like those cards thrown in the air and that even if only one of those cards were capable to change its Movement because of one presumed "Free Will" then that Divine Idea would no longer be the same. One Book, one choice. Then what about the perception of Free Will? The same Law of attraction (Quantum mechanics) that moves everything in the Universe also moves our perceptions. This complex form of inner magnetism, common to all Human beings, is instead confused with one fallible human perception, Free Will. Our induced perception of Free Will allows us to live the same events as protagonists instead of as spectators but this does not change the episodes of One Destiny. In fact, often the events do not coincide with our alleged Will. In each individual, the result of all perceptions that meet at one Time and in a given Space could only result in one single Movement. Thus, dictated by a complex form of magnetism, the presumed Free Will is also our only possibility ..... on "page 25". http://www.wavevolution.org/en/humanwaves.html
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  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }