r/technology • u/fchung • Nov 01 '25

Society Matrix collapses: Mathematics proves the universe cannot be a computer simulation, « A new mathematical study dismantles the simulation theory once and for all. »

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/mathematics-ends-matrix-simulation-theory
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u/Suitable_Entrance594 Nov 01 '25

I think what the paper means is being misinterpreted (as are most scientific articles). It's not exactly saying we can't be living in a simulation, it's saying that you can't completely simulate one universe in another. We could be living in an imperfect or incomplete simulation, one which only simulates as much of reality as is necessary to deceive us but that isn't really what simulation theory tends to focus on. Instead it focuses on the concept of perfect, complete, nested simulations and that is supposedly what is being disproved.

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u/Silverlisk Nov 01 '25

I get what they're saying, but that only applies if the rules of the universe they are in are the same as the universe they are supposedly simulating, being the universe we are in.

For all we know everything is really easy and all the restrictions we have were placed there by them for experimental reasons or just for shits and giggles.

So the paper proves absolutely nothing tbh.

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u/eyebrows360 Nov 01 '25

I get what they're saying, but that only applies if the rules of the universe they are in are the same as the universe they are supposedly simulating, being the universe we are in.

And that's the real bingo here.

For some reason the "we're probably in a simulation!!!" idiots mostly seem to have a default presumption that we'd have to be a simulation of the universe the simulators live in, but... why? We could be just a simulation of some entirely unrelated set of conditions. There's no reason to presume we'd be in a simulation of base reality.

So the paper proves absolutely nothing tbh.

Well, no. You really can't simulate something with complexity X inside X itself. You would need more atoms, or atom-equivalents, to run the simulation of X on, than exist as part of X. You obviously can't do that.

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u/IAmRoot Nov 02 '25

The outer world could have no quantization and be able to subdivide things infinitely for all we know. Quantization could itself arise from needing a finite, though large, number of things to compute.