One of the popular conspiracy theories claims that the world around us actually exists only in virtual form. In this case, how to prove that this is just a matrix and not real reality? On social networks and forums you can find stories of people who believe that they witnessed a “software failure”...
Glitch in the matrix: examples
Thus, one of the users reported that he and his friend once went to a Chinese restaurant. There, they both ordered chicken with rice and egg rolls for lunch. But when the user's friend opened his container, there was no chicken, but there were shrimp, noodles and fried rice. The narrator's container contained the same thing. Friends had already decided that their orders had been mixed up.
But then for some reason the narrator’s friend opened his container again. It came with chicken, white rice and an egg roll. Both were shocked...
Another forum visitor said that he once had a very realistic dream. In the dream he was a fishmonger. He remembered all the details in great detail: he supposedly woke up early in the morning, did his household chores, had breakfast and went to the docks, where he bought a catch from the fishermen to sell. At the same time, I bargained because the fish turned out to be not very fresh. Then the man went to the market and spent the whole day trading...
“It was so real,” the narrator recalls. “I talked to friends, smoked cheap cigarettes, bargained with customers, had lunch, drank tea, and just lived all day. In the evening, I washed my hands, counted the proceeds, paid the rent and went home. I cooked some fish that I didn’t have time to sell, with vegetables and rice, which I also sold. I drank some tea again, relaxed, and then took a hot bath. I lay in the bath, smoked, and then went to bed.”
Waking up the next morning, the man was about to go to the docks again to buy fish, but discovered that it was a dream and that he was not a fishmonger by profession. In the dream he was not married, but in real life he had a wife.
Since it was a day off, the couple planned to go to Oregon to ski. Also, in the dream the man smoked, but in real life he did not. And most importantly, in a dream he was Chinese and spoke Chinese, but in reality he was an American and spoke, naturally, English. In addition, he knew Spanish and a little Russian... “It was very strange. I have never worked at a fish market,” the author of the message writes.
Many stories are connected with the suddenly awakened knowledge of foreign languages. Thus, one of the users recalls: “A few years ago I was with my (now ex) girlfriend. We woke up in the morning and chatted a little in the purest French. I got up, went to the shower and suddenly realized that neither of us spoke French.
When I got out of the shower, I asked my friend about it. She remembered, but wasn't as embarrassed as I was. I can't even remember what we talked about because I don't know French. The brain is a strange thing."
Here's another user's comment on this post: "I was in Paris on Christmas Eve and went to a nightclub. I drank a lot and jumped into a taxi with one girl from the club. She said this morning that she was amazed at how fluent I was in speaking English." French. I told her that I don’t know French at all. But she convinced me that I chatted in perfect French for about 30 minutes with the taxi driver.”
It can be assumed that as a result of a “glitch” we are thrown into another “program”, where we order different dishes in a restaurant, live a completely different life, or are able to speak languages that are not known to us in this life. But we perceive it as a “dream” or a “glitch”...
Photos of people in exactly the same clothes, seemingly unfamiliar with each other, have also been published on the Internet. One photo shows two cars with exactly the same license plates. According to the authors of the photo, this can also be considered arguments in favor of the Matrix...
Our matrix was created by an advanced civilization
Back in 2003, Swedish transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom suggested that our reality is a simulation, the result of a computer simulation carried out by a civilization that has reached a high stage of development. And in 2012, a team of physicists from Germany and the USA figured out how to test this experimentally. They assumed that the computers of the future operate on a quantum basis.
In this case, the resolution limit of the spatial “cells” of the simulated reality cannot be infinite. Indeed, there is a Greisen - Zatsepin - Kuzmin limit, which limits the energy of cosmic radiation. And humanity will learn to model a space with parameters like ours in about 140 years.
So it is possible that the Universe consists of many realities that model each other. And what reality is real is unknown...
Margarita Troitsyna
Even the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who lived almost two and a half millennia ago, suggested that our world is not real. With the advent of computer technology and the acquisition of virtual reality, humanity is increasingly coming to the understanding that the world in which it lives can be a simulation of reality - a matrix, and who created it and why, we will most likely never know.
Even today, having, for example, the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer (China), capable of performing almost one hundred quadrillion calculations per second, it is possible to simulate several million years of human history in a matter of days. But quantum computers are coming, which will work millions of times faster than the current ones. What parameters will computers have in fifty or a hundred years?
Now imagine that a certain civilization has been developing for many billions of years, and in comparison with it, ours, which is only a few thousand, is just a newborn baby. Do you think these highly developed beings are able to create a computer or some other machine capable of simulating our world? It seems that the question of whether it is possible to create a matrix has, in principle, been resolved positively (esoreiter.ru).
Who would create the matrix and why?
So, a matrix can be created; even our civilization has come close to this. But another question arises: who allowed this, since from a moral point of view this action is not entirely legal and justified. What if something goes wrong in this illusory world? Isn’t the creator of such a matrix taking on too much responsibility?
On the other hand, it can be assumed that we live in a matrix created, so to speak, illegally - by someone who is simply having fun in this way, and therefore does not even question the morality of his virtual game.
There is also a possible option: some highly developed society ran this simulation for scientific purposes, for example, as a diagnostic test to find out what and why went wrong with the real world, and subsequently correct the situation.
The Matrix is revealed through its flaws
It can be assumed that in the case of a sufficiently high-quality simulation of reality, no one inside the matrix will even understand that this is an artificial world. But here's the problem: any program, even the most advanced one, can have glitches.
These are the ones we constantly notice, although we cannot rationally explain them. For example, the effect of deja vu, when it seems to us that we have already lived through some situation, but in principle this cannot be. The same applies to many other mysterious facts and phenomena. For example, where do people disappear without a trace, sometimes right in front of witnesses? Why does some stranger suddenly start meeting us several times a day? Why is one person seen in several places at the same time?.. Search on the Internet: similar cases are described there in thousands. And how many undescribed things are stored in people’s memory?..
Matrix is based on mathematics
The world we live in can be represented in binary code. In general, the Universe is better explained mathematically than verbally; for example, even our DNA was solved using a computer during the Human Genome Project.
It turns out that, in principle, a virtual person can be created based on this genome. And if it is possible to build one such conditional personality, then it means the whole world (the only question is the power of the computer).
Many researchers of the matrix phenomenon suggest that someone has already created such a world, and this is exactly the simulation in which we live. Using the same mathematics, scientists are trying to determine whether this is really the case. However, for now they are only making guesses...
The anthropic principle as a proof of the matrix
Scientists have long been surprised to note that in some incomprehensible way ideal conditions for life have been created on Earth (the anthropic principle). Even our solar system is unique! At the same time, in the space of the Universe observable by the most powerful telescopes there is nothing else like it.
The question arises: why did these conditions suit us so well? Maybe they are created artificially? For example, in some laboratory on a universal scale?.. Or maybe there is no Universe at all and this vast starry sky is also a simulation?
Further, on the other side of the model in which we find ourselves, there may not even be people, but creatures whose appearance, structure, and state are difficult for us to even imagine. And in this program there may be aliens who know the conditions of this game well or are even its guides (regulators) - remember the film “The Matrix”. That's why they are practically omnipotent in this simulation...
The anthropic principle echoes the Fermi paradox, according to which in an infinite Universe there must be many worlds similar to ours. And the fact that we remain alone in the Universe leads to a sad thought: we are in the matrix, and its creator is interested in just such a scenario - “loneliness of the mind”...
Parallel worlds as proof of the matrix
The theory of the multiverse - the existence of parallel universes with an infinite set of all possible parameters - is another indirect proof of the matrix. Judge for yourself: where did all these universes come from and what role do they play in the universe?
However, if we assume a simulation of reality, then many similar worlds are quite understandable: these are numerous models with different variables necessary for the creator of the matrix, say, to test a particular scenario in order to obtain the best result.
God created the matrix
According to this theory, our matrix was created by the Almighty, and in almost the same way as we create virtual reality in computer games: using binary code. At the same time, the Creator not only simulated the real world, but also put the concept of the Creator into the consciousness of people. Hence the numerous religions, belief in higher powers, and worship of God.
This idea has its own discrepancies in the interpretation of the Creator. Some believe that the Almighty is just a programmer, albeit of the highest level, inaccessible to humans, who also has a supercomputer on a universal scale.
Others believe that God creates this Universe in some other way, for example, cosmic or - in our understanding - mystical. In this case, this world can also, albeit with a stretch, be considered a matrix, but then it is not clear what is considered the real world?..
What is beyond the matrix?
Considering the world as a matrix, we naturally ask the question: what is beyond its boundaries? A supercomputer surrounded by programmers - creators of numerous matrix programs?
However, these programmers themselves may not be real, that is, the Universe may be infinite both in width (many parallel worlds within one program) and in depth (many layers of the simulation itself). It was this theory that was put forward at one time by the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, who believed that the creatures who created our matrix could themselves be simulated, and the creators of these post-humans, in turn, too - and so on ad infinitum. We see something similar in the film “The Thirteenth Floor,” although only two levels of the simulation are shown there.
The main question remains: who created the real world, and does it even exist? If not, then who created all these self-nested matrices? Of course, one can argue this way ad infinitum. It’s all one thing to try to understand: if God created this whole world, then who created God himself? According to psychologists, persistent thinking on such topics is a direct path to a mental hospital...
The Matrix is a much deeper concept
Some researchers have a question: is it even worth creating all these complex matrix programs with multi-billion people, not to mention endless universes? Maybe everything is much simpler, because each person interacts only with a certain set of people and situations. What if, apart from the main character, that is you, all other people are fakes? It is no coincidence that with certain mental and emotional efforts a person can radically change the world around him. It turns out that either each person has his own world, his own matrix, or each of us is the only player in a single matrix? And that only player is you! And even the article about the simulation that you are reading right now is a program code necessary for your development (or for the game), like everything else that surrounds you.
The latter is, of course, hard to believe, because in this case there are infinitely many matrices not only in depth and width, but also in the infinity of other dimensions, about which we still have no idea. Of course, you can convince yourself that there is a super programmer behind all this. But how then is he different from the Almighty? And who is above him? There is no answer, and can there be one?..
Arguments and facts for the fact that the world is a simulation for us and we live in a matrix. Have you ever thought that our world could be inside some kind of supercomputer that simulates hundreds of billions of planets, Universes, intelligent races, as well as the behavior of creatures, Gods and common things. It models consciousness and feelings, habits and friends. Absolutely everything.
At first, this may seem like nonsense, and as one of the frequent commentators on my channel said, “they used to burn at the stake for this and such thoughts were considered heresy.” But is this heresy? And for whom? For people who don't want to consider alternative theories of our world, this may be complete nonsense! They are content to be the center of the mega-world, they shake their uniqueness like a huge bar of gold, presenting themselves as aborigines from ancient times who are at an early stage of their development.
I will say this, if you read some of Plato's works, you will understand that the theory of the unreality of the world is not new. Humanity did not begin to think about this when Hollywood introduced the world to the Matrix trilogy and other films based on the idea of unreality and the programmatic nature of the world. Filmmakers often use popular ideas for their films. But to their credit, they were able to raise the discussion of the Matrix to a new level and many scientists began to look for evidence on Earth. And then I will give you “Revelations”, which may make you take a fresh look at the theory of the unreality of the world.
1. Modern computers are capable of creating simulations and simulations of various events. Even your phone is capable of more than your brain. It processes hundreds or thousands of operations per second. In a few decades, computers will be so powerful that they will create simulations of events using sentient beings who have reason and intelligence and they will not understand that they are in a simulation. Do you doubt it?
2. No matter how perfect the simulation program is, it may contain errors that require correction. There is probably no person who has not experienced the feeling that these events have already happened and are as if being repeated. Oh yeah, déjà vu! Ghosts, miracles and other unknown things in the world are a software error and many understand that some kind of nonsense is happening, but are afraid to express their opinion.
3. Our entire Universe consists of numbers, but what are computer programs made of? Are you catching up? Even the names of God and Lucifer have numbers. Numbers play a key role in our lives. Mathematics underlies the binary code with which programs are written and the same simulation and modeling is based on it. If people could create a simulation, then why couldn't others? Still have doubts and consider me a liar? Let's continue!
4. Why is our planet a planet with almost ideal conditions for life? Why not Venus or Mars, why people on Earth? We are far from the Sun, the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from radiation, we have water and food, a temperate climate and much more, as if artificially created for an ideal life. Isn't it too perfect? The answer lies on the surface. These conditions are created in the simulation.
5. The theory of parallel worlds and multi-Universes. It is logical that our creators need to test various options for their simulations and modeling. It’s like updating programs, including those on your gadgets. There are bugs everywhere that need to be corrected and a new update version released. Billions of simulation options help with this.
6. The earth is in almost ideal conditions! But logically, throughout the Universe there are billions of planets that are both younger and older than ours. But for some reason humanity has not discovered any intelligent creatures in the Universe, which is quite strange, given the scope of outer space. In this case, several theories are born about why we have not made contact with other civilizations. According to the first version of the modeling or simulation, we were deliberately placed away from everyone else in order to observe how we would cope with the task alone. Will we be able to reach other inhabited planets or not? And here the theory of multi-Universes, where there are different numbers of inhabited planets, comes into play. It is possible that in ours we are alone, but in other Universes there is a different number of inhabited planets. There may also be those in which there are no signs of life at all, why not? Well, the last theory may be that we are programmed to consider ourselves the only ones in the entire Universe in order to see what happens. Difficult to understand? In my opinion no, everything is as simple as the world itself :-)
7. Let's look at how God can fit into the whole idea of biomass, which is food for worms:-) Why does God have to be something floating in the clouds, surrounded by angels? Isn't the programmer the same Creator who is capable of creating worlds and their inhabitants? Does the programmer want us to be his slaves and serve him? As we know from the example of people, we are all different. Some are selfless and do not need extra attention, others want to enslave the world and make everyone their subjects. Or maybe he didn’t want anyone to know about him and his creations themselves guessed about his existence and came up with a religion in which his desires were supposedly written down. What about the idea of creating a world in 7 days? I think there is no need to explain anything here at all. Programmers are workaholics, but sometimes they still take a break from their numbers.
8. What is at the edge of the Universe? And why is it growing? As many people know, games are complemented by various modifications, levels, updates, and the game can grow from small to huge. What if our programmers are constantly working on our Universe, improving and increasing its size?
9. What if the simulation is multi-level and our creators are another simulation and so on ad infinitum. This is similar to the idea of artificial intelligence that trains itself and creates its own kind. Do you know that people are now working on a similar program? Does it sound so fantastic now? But if this is an endless simulation, where then are the true Creators, the Originals, who created this whole big game?
10. What if all the distant galaxies in our Universe are empty and made in order to create for us the illusion of something big? What if it’s just a set, like in Hollywood films. The outside is beautiful, but inside the planets may just be binary code and so we need to get to the farthest corners of the Universe to check it out. But by this point, our Creators may create an update and launch it into our simulation or simply erase our memory.
ITC readers became acquainted with the basics of the “Matrix” hypothesis back in December last year - the corresponding one then caused a real flurry of discussion.
Let us briefly recall that, despite the seemingly absurdity of assumptions about the unreality of our existence, scientists now take the hypothesis about the artificial origin of “objective reality” quite seriously. Although it still remains unproven, more and more data is being discovered every day that points to its correctness.
And just the other day, researchers from Canada, Italy and England announced that they had found yet another proof of the illusory nature of our existence. To do this, they studied the inhomogeneity of the cosmic microwave background radiation (the "afterglow" of the Big Bang) and discovered the "first significant evidence" that our visible world is a hologram.
Scientists presented their scientific research in the form of a visual image:
The illustration provided by the researchers shows a timeline. On the left, at the very beginning, there is a cloudy and fuzzy holographic phase. The vagueness is due to the fact that time and space have not yet been formed. Here the Universe is as close as possible to the moment of the Big Bang - it is supposedly flat. This is a kind of matrix from which volume then emerges.
By the end of the holographic phase, space takes on geometric shapes - shown in the 3rd ellipse - and is already described by Einstein's equations. After 375,000 years, the cosmic microwave background radiation appears. It contains the templates for the development of stars and galaxies in the later Universe - far right image.
In other words, scientists have come to the conclusion that our three-dimensional space, along with time, is contained within 2D boundaries and is a projection of some flat universe from another dimension.
“Imagine that everything you see, feel and hear in three dimensions is actually a distortion of a flat two-dimensional field. — says study co-author Professor Kostas Skenderis. “Essentially, we discovered that our Universe is a three-dimensional hologram on a two-dimensional surface.”
For ease of understanding, the professor “not entirely correctly” compares this phenomenon with watching 3D films. The viewer sees the width, depth, volume of objects, but at the same time understands that their source is the flat screen of the cinema. Only in our reality we not only observe the depth of objects, but we can also feel them.
“The situation is similar with holographic cards,” adds the professor, “where a three-dimensional image is encoded on a plane. The only difference is that in our case the whole universe is encoded on the plane.”
Thus, scientists have once again come to the conclusion that what we see is more of a “fantasy” of our brain than an objective reality.
Finally, Professor Skenderis noted: “The hologram is a huge leap forward in understanding the structure of the Universe and the moment of its creation. Einstein's general theory of relativity works great when it comes to large scales. When research descends to the quantum level, it begins to fall apart. Scientists have worked for decades to reconcile quantum theory and Einstein's theory of gravity. Some believe this can be achieved through holographic representation. We hope we are getting closer to that point.”
US and German physicists Silas Bean, Zohra Davoudi and Martin Savage have proposed an experimental way to test a philosophical idea known as the simulation hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, there is a possibility that we live inside a huge computer model that some posthumans launched to study their own past. Despite, let's be honest, its dubious natural scientific value, the work of Bean, Davoudi and Savage deserves detailed coverage: there is quantum chromodynamics, and philosophy, and in general - it is not every day that physicists offer to test ideas inspired by the film "The Matrix".
Nick Bostrom and his simulation
In 2003, the famous Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom published in Philosophical Quarterly work under the almost fantastic title “Are we all living in a computer simulation?” It should be noted that Bostrom is not some outcast living on the outskirts of modern philosophy. This is one of the most important figures of transhumanism of our time, co-founder of the World Association of Transhumanists (established in 1998, now renamed “Humanity Plus”). He is the winner of many prestigious awards, and his works on the anthropic principle have been translated into more than 100 languages.
Transhumanism- a worldview based on understanding the achievements and prospects of science, recognizing the possibility and necessity of fundamental changes in man himself with the help of advanced technologies. The goal of these changes is the elimination of suffering, aging, death, as well as strengthening the physical, mental and psychological capabilities of people.
Anthropic principle- a principle formulated in the form of the formula “We see the Universe like this, because only in such a Universe could an observer, a person, arise.”
Theory of everything- a hypothetical physical and mathematical theory that describes all known fundamental interactions (strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational)
Before moving on to the formulation of Bostrom’s main result, let’s get acquainted with some concepts (based on the critical work of Danila Medvedev “Are we living in Nick Bostrom’s speculation?”). Posthuman civilization (consisting of posthumans) is understood as “a civilization of human descendants who have changed to such an extent that they can no longer be considered human.” The main difference between this civilization and the modern one will be the incredible computing capabilities that it will have. A simulation is a program that simulates the consciousness of one or more people, perhaps even all of humanity. A historical simulation is, accordingly, a simulation of a historical process in which many simulated individuals take part.
In his work, Bostrom adheres to the concept according to which consciousness depends on intelligence (computing power), the structure of individual parts, the logical relationship between them and much more, but does not depend at all on the carrier, that is, biological tissue - the human brain. This means that consciousness can also be realized in the form of a set of electrical impulses in some computer. Considering that the work is about simulations created by posthumans, the people simulated inside the simulation (Bostrom calls them a civilization of a lower level compared to the civilization that launched the simulation) have consciousness. For them, the model will seem like reality.
To assess the theoretical feasibility of conducting this kind of simulation in principle, Bostrom conducts several assessments. Thus, to the roughest approximation, the computing power of the human brain is limited to about 10 17 operations per second. In this case, the amount of information received by a person is about 10 8 bits per second. Based on this, Bostrom concludes that simulating the entire history of mankind would require about 10 33 - 10 36 operations (assuming 50 years per person and estimating the total number of all people who have existed on the planet to date at 100 billion people).
If we talk about modeling the entire Universe from the time of the Big Bang to the present, and not just the history of mankind, then physicist Seth Lloyd from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published in 2002 Physical Review Letters, in which he provided calculations of the required capacities. It turned out that this would require a machine with 10 90 bits of memory, which would have to perform 10 120 logical operations.
Humanity Plus emblem
These numbers (both Bostrom's and Lloyd's) seem simply incredible. However, in 2000, the same Lloyd published another remarkable work - he tried to calculate the maximum power of a computer weighing 1 kilogram and volume of one cubic decimeter, based on considerations of quantum mechanics. He succeeded (pdf) - it turns out that this amount of matter can perform about 10 50 operations per second. Therefore, based on the power of such an extreme computer, the simulation Bostrom talks about does not seem too fantastic. Lloyd even estimated the time it would take to achieve such power - provided that the power of computers continues to grow according to Moore's law (which, of course, is completely doubtful: some scientists predict that the law will be 75 years away). So, this time was only 250 years.
However, let's return to Bostrom. Based on the above assessments, the Swedish philosopher not only concluded that simulation is possible, but also made a paradoxical conclusion. Bostrom states that at least one of the following three statements is true (called Bostrom's trilemma):
- Humanity will die out without becoming a post-civilization;
- Humanity will develop into a post-civilization, which for some reason will not be interested in modeling the past;
- We're almost certainly living in a computer simulation
It follows from this that if we are optimists and do not believe in the extinction of humanity and, in addition, are convinced of the curiosity of our descendants, then point three is fulfilled: we are most likely living in a computer simulation. By the way, Bostrom’s work generally has many paradoxical conclusions - for example, about the likelihood of modeling people without consciousness, that is, the existence of a world in which only a few are endowed with consciousness, and the rest are “shadow zombies” (as the philosopher himself calls them ). The philosopher also interestingly discusses the ethical aspects of modeling, as well as the fact that most simulations must end someday, which means, with a probability almost equal to one, we live in a world that must end its existence (you can read more about these arguments see the partial Russian translation of the article).
Despite their popularity, Bostrom's conclusions have repeatedly been the target of criticism. In particular, opponents point to gaps in the philosopher's argumentation, as well as the large number of hidden assumptions present in his reasoning regarding a number of fundamental issues - for example, the nature of consciousness and the potential ability of simulated individuals to become self-aware. In general, there is no clear answer to the question “Do we live in the Matrix?” one cannot expect anything from philosophers (as well as other, no less “simple” questions: what is consciousness, what is reality, etc.). So let's move on to physics.
Physicists and their approach
Bostrom does not hide the fact that his work was inspired by, among other things, science fiction films. Among them, of course, is “The Matrix” (the idea of simulation) and “13th Floor” (the idea of nested simulations)
Some time ago, a preprint of the work of physicists from the USA and Germany Silas Bean, Zohra Davoudi and Martin Savage appeared on the website arXiv.org. These scientists decided to play the game proposed by Bostrom. They asked themselves this question: if the entire Universe is a computer simulation, is it possible to find evidence of this using physical methods? To do this, they tried to imagine how the physics of the simulated world would differ from the physics of the real world.
They took quantum chromodynamics, perhaps the most advanced physical theory currently existing, as a possible modeling tool. As for the modeling itself, they assumed that posthumans would carry it out on a spatial grid with some fairly small spatial step. It is clear that both assumptions are quite controversial: firstly, posthumans would probably prefer to use a theory of everything (which, undoubtedly, would already be at their disposal) for the simulation. Secondly, the numerical methods of posthumans should differ from ours in about the same way as a nuclear reactor differs from a stone axe. However, without these assumptions, the work of physicists would be generally impossible.
Here, by the way, it is appropriate to note that modeling processes occurring in a fixed region of space is a fairly actively developing area of computational physics. So far, of course, the progress has been small: physicists are able to simulate a piece of the world with a diameter of no more than a few (from 2.5 to 5.8) femtometers (1 femtometer is equal to 10 -15 meters) with a step b = 0.1 femtometer. Nevertheless, models of this kind are of great theoretical interest. For example, they can help in calculating what happens under conditions that are unattainable in modern accelerators. Or, for example, with the help of modeling it will be possible to obtain some predictions of the properties of the vacuum and compare them with experimental data - and this, perhaps, will give physicists ideas regarding the mentioned theory of everything.
To begin, Bean, Davoudi, and Savage assessed the capabilities of the simulations. It turned out that for a fixed step of 0.1 femtometer, the size of the simulated region grows exponentially (that is, the same as the computing power of computers in Moore's law) - this is the result of extrapolation of data over the almost 20-year history of this field of research. It turns out that modeling a cubic meter of matter based on the laws of quantum chromodynamics with a step b = 0.1 femtometer should be expected in about 140 years (the indicator grows by about an order of magnitude every 10 years). Considering that the diameter of the visible Universe is about 10 27 meters, if regular growth is maintained (which, as noted above, is unlikely), the simulation of the required volume can be achieved in 140 + 270 = 410 years (but this is only for a fixed parameter b). However, the scientists themselves do not provide such figures, limiting themselves to the next 140 years.
Then scientists tried to evaluate the possible limitations on the physics of such a model and discovered, frankly, interesting things. They found that in the simulated universe, there should be a break in the spectrum of cosmic rays at certain energies. In theory, there really is such a cliff - this is the Greisen - Zatsepin - Kuzmin limit, which is 50 exaelectronvolts. It is due to the fact that high-energy particles must interact with photons of background microwave radiation and, as a result, lose energy. Here, however, two difficulties arise. First, for this limit to be an artifact of the computer model, its spatial step must be 11 orders of magnitude smaller than b = 0.1 femtometer. Secondly, the presence of the Greisen - Zatsepin - Kuzmin limit has not yet been proven in practice. There are many contradictory results in this direction. So, according to one of them, there really is a cliff. According to others, particles with energy exceeding this limit reach the Earth’s surface, and they arrive from rather dark regions of space (that is, they are not a product of the activity of the active galactic nuclei closest to us).
However, scientists have another way to check - the distribution of high-energy cosmic rays should be anisotropic (that is, unequal in different spatial directions). This is due to the assumption that the calculations are carried out on a cubic grid - this is exactly what the grid should be, according to physicists, for reasons of isotropy of space-time. At the same time, physicists do not discuss the possibility of detecting anisotropy of radiation. It is not even clear what kind of instruments are needed for such research - are already existing instruments (the Fermi space observatory, for example) sufficient? In general, there is no clear answer to the question “Do we live in the Matrix?” One cannot expect anything from physicists either.
In conclusion
Of course, the reader may feel disappointed at this point. Like, how is it possible: I read and read, but the answer to the main question “Do we live in the Matrix?” never received it. This, however, was expected, and here's why. For philosophy, the simulation hypothesis is just one of many versions of existence. If these versions compete with each other, it is only in the minds of their supporters and opponents, that is, they are objects of faith that do not pretend to be objective.
As for physicists, a very interesting one recently appeared: American professor from the University of Louisiana Rhett Allain analyzed the physical component of the game Bad Piggies from the company Rovio, which created Angry Birds. He did this precisely in order to determine the possible diameter of the green pigs from the game, if they existed in reality (the diameter, by the way, turned out to be 96 centimeters). So, the work of Silas Bean, Zohra Davoudi and Martin Savage is the same kind of exercise, only with slightly more complex objects and confusing mathematics. In general, this is nothing more than entertaining gymnastics for the mind - but, like any gymnastics, it is useful. Thanks to it, the reader now knows Bostrom's trilemma and the size of a hard drive on which information about the entire Universe can be recorded. This is interesting.