00:00Good news! Physicists claim they have proof the universe isn't a simulation.
00:05A new study suggests that it is mathematically impossible for the universe to be an ultra-sophisticated computer-generated simulation.
00:13The study, conducted by an international group of theoretical physicists, explains how it would be impossible for any computer to replicate an entire universe.
00:22The physicists argue that there is no algorithm, regardless of how advanced, that could possibly compute the fabric of reality.
00:29Therefore, despite numerous theories that have been put forth, we can't be living in a simulation.
00:34It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation.
00:46Lead author and theoretical physicist at the University of British Columbia Dr. Mir Faisal said in a statement,
00:52This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation.
01:02This idea was once thought to lie beyond the reach of scientific inquiry.
01:07However, our recent research has demonstrated that it can, in fact, be scientifically addressed.
01:13Here's a basic example using the statement, This true statement is not provable.
01:17If it were provable, it would be false, making logic inconsistent.
01:21If it's not provable, then it's true.
01:23But that makes any system trying to prove it incomplete.
01:26Either way, pure computation fails.
01:29We have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity, says Faisal.
01:38Therefore, no physically complete and consistent theory of everything can be derived from computation alone.
01:44Of course, all of this assumes human limitations concerning the ability of computers have identified the peak of technology.
01:51It does not take into account technology that could exist outside of our universe, which far exceeds what we have achieved.
01:57As Melvin Vopsin, the head of the Information Physics Institute, told Popular Science, the study set limits upon the system that hosts our reality.
02:06Despite any naysayers, Faisal maintains, any simulation is inherently algorithmic, it must follow programmed rules.
02:13But since the fundamental level of reality is based on non-algorithmic understanding, the universe cannot be, and could never be, a simulation.
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