Comments on: Universe a computer simulation

By: jimh

jimh — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Thanks for all the fish!

By: Frank W

Frank W — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:50:00 +0000

And by the way, the simulation will run till Friday.

By: FoolishOwl

FoolishOwl — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:13:00 +0000

I’m feeling better about that game of Civilization V I’m playing with my stepson, in which there’s never been armed conflict in the history of the world. I hope those sims appreciate it.

By: FoolishOwl

FoolishOwl — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:13:00 +0000

That was excellent.

By: Shashwath T.R.

Shashwath T.R. — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:22:00 +0000

Also, the electrons don’t exactly have elliptical orbits; their orbitals are more like probability densities with some fairly complex shapes…

The electron circling a nucleus is the venerable Bohr model, not QM…

By: Shinkuhadoken

Shinkuhadoken — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:40:00 +0000

Beverly Crusher: Here’s a question you shouldn’t be able to answer: Computer, what is the nature of the universe?
Computer: The universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter.

By: jmzero

jmzero — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:35:00 +0000

This perspective also makes sense of some quantum weirdness. The universe only bothers to resolve normally irrelevant quantum phenomenon when there’s an observer.

By: Mark McAndrew

Mark McAndrew — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:08:00 +0000

Would explain wave-particle. It really is an equation, and only resolved when observed.

It’s all just grey nothingness behind your head…

By: Alex Cooper

Alex Cooper — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:07:00 +0000

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand putting the first paragraph into google turns up this article http://www.news.com.au/technology/experiments-to-see-if-the-universe-exists-within-a-computer-simulation-from-the-future/story-e6frfro0-1226536251540 that makes a lot more sense, even if the science still seems a bit sketchy.

By: Alex Cooper

Alex Cooper — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:04:00 +0000

A very obvious problem with this article:
- the very first word indicates that the article was written in Melbourne (not India), but is talking about a study done in the US
- no mention is given of the author’s name or where they actually work

By: Marios P.

Marios P. — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:32:00 +0000

did anybody read the article saying that our current solar system has about 2.5% chance of forming the way it is today?

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:06:00 +0000

Well, I hope they have a good backup strategy.

By: chellberty

chellberty — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:35:00 +0000

Note: pkd interview http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo

By: Drabula

Drabula — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:33:00 +0000

But then who’s to say whether this particular simulation might or might not be purposely set up to observe the very process of simulation-realization.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:12:00 +0000

Um, if the universe is a simulation then it is not a simulation. See what I am getting at?

By: CH

CH — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:04:00 +0000

Yeah, and the game balance is all effed up.

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:57:00 +0000

It’s poorly commented, too, the rat-bastards
/fuct

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:55:00 +0000

We haven’t found any ripples in the Matrix yet… but I imagine someday we will.

By: CH

CH — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:54:00 +0000

“I’ve always liked to think that foggy days are when the simulation we live in needs to devote resources elsewhere and has to drop the draw distance.”
Yep, that’s what I always assume. I try to catch it in the middle of drawing stuff at the edge of the fog barrier. Oh, and have you noticed how sometimes the same thing starts to appear everywhere (say, you learn a new word, and suddenly you see & hear it everywhere)… cache! Everything cannot be loaded into the memory all the time, so it reuses stuff that is in the cache.

Oh… and the graphics artists tend to occasionally get carried away a bit. For instance, the sun “god rays” tend to be waaaaaay overdone to look realistic. And just the other day when I looked out the window the snow was going all around like we were in a giant snow globe getting shaken around. Yeah, right… guys, it needs to be realistic!

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Comma, caret, what’s the difference?

By: Listener43

Listener43 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Onanism is, after all, basically a simulation ….

By: ChrisG

ChrisG — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:32:00 +0000

It’s simultations all the way down.

By: Scotia Mas

Scotia Mas — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:16:00 +0000

So there’s a chance I’m not living in a simulation? Well, crap. I was sort of counting on this being a simulation.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:05:00 +0000

Could be, but could you imagin the job it took programming in quantium mechanics as a patch to not have to deal with absolute tracking? Good god that’d probably be some of the ugliest code in existential.

By: andygates

andygates — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:36:00 +0000

That one’s fun, but it doesn’t get past kid’s cartoons, really. We can see the large structure of our universe.

By: Silicon Scherazade

Silicon Scherazade — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:35:00 +0000

So does that mean the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is just the result of low resolution?

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Queston. Do we sound like simmish to them?

By: Werther deGoethe

Werther deGoethe — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:30:00 +0000

In other words, Philip K. Dick was right.

By: lafave

lafave — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:29:00 +0000

I appreciate the nude mods but I think the political system needs a patch.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Weird. The little people are building structures and congregating to form idiograms… .No scratch that. They’re spelling something.

F. U. C…. Oh dear lord they DO understand what’s going to happen.