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Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
While I think it's a very real possibility we live in a simulation, it's still a very low possibility imo. The reason I think this, is because our Universe is so enormous. Mind numbingly enormous. And every single atom in the Universe is extremely complex. To simulate every single atom in a single living cell with real physics, requires a computer 1000x more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer on Earth. Imagine trying to simulate a whole person, or the entire planet, or even our entire solar system, or our entire galaxy. The amount of power required to achieve such a feat is beyond comprehension... let alone trying to simulate the entire Universe.
Don't even try to imagine how much power that would require because I can tell you that none of us here have the ability to comprehend how much computing power that would require. We have trouble even comprehending the distance to the nearest star in our own galaxy, or the distance between our galaxy and the nearest galaxy. Keep in mind there are billions of galaxies in our Universe. In fact the Universe may be infinite for all we know, we can only see so far, and no matter how far we look there appears to be no end. These facts lead me to believe we are in a "genuine" Universe, and not a simulated one. But I'm not completely convinced either way.
Lets say we have a particle accelerator which accelerates a particle to something like 99% the speed of light, something our particle accelerators often do. From our frame of reference (standing still on the Earth), we can measure the speed and say it's travelling at 99% the speed of light.
But what happens if we were to account for the speed of our planet through the solar system, or our solar system through the galaxy, or the galaxy through the universe? I'm pretty sure the total speed of that particle would be greater than the speed of light, which seems to bring up some problems.
Quantum mechanics has many features which seem to indicate we may be living in a computer simulation
Originally posted by WhoKnows100
Quantum mechanics has many features which seem to indicate we may be living in a computer simulation
Or is that those who theorise quantum mechanics already believe a supposition to be true and are merely writing 'laws' and 'theoretical models' which seem to prove them true?
Originally posted by watchitburn
I love threads like this.
Good brain exercise.
Originally posted by watchitburn
I don't think I have any trouble comprehending the vast distances of the universe. Or maybe I just think that I don't, and my brain is really just protecting it's self?
Originally posted by Astyanax
You've done a lot of watching and thinking. Concerning quantum mechanics, it isn't so much that particles turn into waves and vice versa so much as that they are always something that could be either a wave or a particle, depending (literally) on how you look at it. The way you're looking at it right now, the nature of absolute reality still depends on the observer. In sober fact, it doesn't—as you know, for if it did, pigs would sprout fairy wings, and all sorts of implausible things would happen constantly.
Originally posted by Astyanax
I wonder whether instantaneous communication between objects travelling at relativistic speed relative to one another is possible. Here's why: there is no absolute frame of reference and hence no Universal Clock. As you correctly explain, time elapses at different rates for observers moving relative to each other at different speeds. What this really means is that one and the same event, observed by both, appears to occur at different times. Now, if the members of an entangled particle pair are likewise moving relative to one another at such speeds, could a change in the entangled state still be simultaneous? After all, the two entangled particles occupy different frames of reference in which time is running at different rates.
Originally posted by Astyanax
You see the problem. Imagine that, ten years after your ship departs, an enterprising engineer at Mission Control decides to send an accomplice on the crew that day's winning number in the Grand Interplanetary Lotto, with instructions to relay it back immediately. The message is sent using some device based on the principle of quantum entanglement, and it works perfectly; the communication is instantaneous.
Now aboard the ship, only ten months have gone by since leaving solar orbit. So the doughty and enterprising starfarer manning the entanglement device receives the engineer's message a mere ten months after the ship's date of departure, and transmits the winning number back to Earth immediately—where it is received by the crafty engineer a full nine years and two months before he sent the message...
What does quantum mechanics tell us about reality?
Entangled particles are not in fact separate entities but rather a projection of the same single entity within the computer. A shared memory area from which different manifestations of the same entity or information are created. Faster than light signaling is thus an illusion.
What baffles me is the fact that quantum mechanics seems to completely sidestep many traditional big questions concerning nature of reality.
Is reality deterministic? Is reality stochastic? Is the universe unique or just part of a multiverse? Is reality local or nonlocal? Does the observer play a role? Are particles still there when nobody is looking?
You will find interpretations of quantum mechanics where any of these can be true or false, and they all seem to make sense.
Originally posted by purplemer
reply to post by ChaoticOrder
Hello Chaoticorder.
If as you say things only exist when we observe them. Does that mean their is a possibility that reality exists only in the mind of the observer.
Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by Maslo
Are particles still there when nobody is looking?
I tried to examine this question in some detail in the opening posts (did you read that part?). QM tells us that the particles are still there in some form or another. If we lived in a simulation as QM seems to suggest, the particles would still exist as "background calculations".
Well I think it does depend on the observer to a certain extent. One of my theories... is that the complexity of a system dictates how much "uncertainty" any "object" will have... However when we move down into the smaller scales... they start to exhibit quantum behavior, which is generally an increase in the level of uncertainty. When we are observing these particles, we become a part of the particle's system by linking our equipment to the particle in some way in order to observe it. This increases the complexity of the system in which the particle is participating, causing its level of quantum uncertainty to immediately collapse (wave-function collapse).
As I explained, all the particles on the ship should actually slow down as time slows down... but how on Earth can two particles be entangled in a way which permits them to communicate information instantly, if each particle is supposed to be doing things at a different speed? Quantum entanglement tells us that if we manipulate one particle, the other should react instantly.
So you tell me how one particle in motion can instantly act out the life of its entangled partner, if the one in motion (relative to its partner) is supposed to be experiencing a slower rate of time? That seems like a clear violation in the laws of physics to me.
Either quantum entanglement is wrong, or our understanding of time dilation is not correct.
I don't quite follow, I think you may be misunderstanding how this would work. Only ten months may have passed on the ship, but time is still ticking faster on Earth and many years have passed; hence the reason why the message can be sent from Earth in the first place. Sending a message back from the ship will not sent it back into the past even if the message is instant. It's like I said, the rate of time flows differently at these two locations in space (ship and Earth). So if people on Earth were to observe the ship, the clock on the ship would appear to be running slow, but the people on the ship don't realize it because they are also undergoing the effects of time dilation since they are moving at the same velocity as the ship.