Do We Live in a Simulation? Chances Are about 50–50

How to test whether we're living in a computer simulation

Melvin M. Vopson

Another curiosity in physics supporting the simulation hypothesis is the maximum speed limit in our universe, which is the speed of light. In a virtual reality, this limit would correspond to the speed limit of the processor, or the processing power limit. We know that an overloaded processor slows down computer processing in a simulation. Similarly, Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity shows that time slows in the vicinity of a black hole.

I have postulated that information is in fact a fifth form of matter in the universe. I've even calculated the expected information content per elementary particle. These studies led to the publication, in 2022, of an experimental protocol to test these predictions. The experiment involves erasing the information contained inside elementary particles by letting them and their antiparticles (all particles have "anti" versions of themselves which are identical but have opposite charge) annihilate in a flash of energy—emitting "photons," or light particles.

I have predicted the exact range of expected frequencies of the resulting photons based on information physics. The experiment is highly achievable with our existing tools, and we have launched a crowdfunding site) to achieve it.

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Can we hack our way out of the universe?

Roman V. Yampolskiy

In this speculative long read, Roman V. Yampolskiy argues if we are living inside a simulation, we should be able to hack our way out of it. Elon Musk thinks it is >99.9999999% certain that we are in a simulation. Using examples from video games, to exploring quantum mechanics, Yampolskiy leaves no stone unturned as to how we might be able to hack our way out of it.

In 2016, news reports have emerged about private efforts to fund scientific research into “breaking us out of the simulation” [69, 70], to date no public disclosure on the state of the project has emerged. In 2019, George Hotz famous for jailbreaking iPhone and PlayStation has given a talk on Jailbreaking the Simulation [71] in which he claimed that "it's possible to take actions here that affect the upper world" [72], but didn’t provide actionable insights. He did suggest that he would like to "redirect society's efforts into getting out" [72].

Given primacy of consciousness [94] in our world it may also be designed to generate large number of diverse experiences to select from, serving as a qualia mining farm [95], with top experience recreated for enjoyment by simulators. Qualia mining simulations can be classified as a type of entertainment simulation and would have comparable security. If our simulators are AIs (which is likely [96, 97] the simulation may be a byproduct of their “thinking” process, for example in the context of trying to better understand human preferences [98].