Posted on 11/16/2004 4:34:43 AM PST by red_is_beautiful
The multiverse theory has spawned another - that our universe is a simulation, writes Paul Davies.
If you've ever thought life was actually a dream, take comfort. Some pretty distinguished scientists may agree with you. Philosophers have long questioned whether there is in fact a real world out there, or whether "reality" is just a figment of our imagination.
Then along came the quantum physicists, who unveiled an Alice-in-Wonderland realm of atomic uncertainty, where particles can be waves and solid objects dissolve away into ghostly patterns of quantum energy.
Now cosmologists have got in on the act, suggesting that what we perceive as the universe might in fact be nothing more than a gigantic simulation.
The story behind this bizarre suggestion began with a vexatious question: why is the universe so bio-friendly?
(Excerpt) Read more at smh.com.au ...
Great, just what I needed to think about, Kerry actually did win in a parallel universe.....
If you want to read a more adult version of this interesting idea of Life As Video Game, you might try Larry Niven's "All the Myriad Ways" or a great book called "Schroedinger's Cat." Back when college students used to actually read and write, this idea of a self-referential universe was a frequent topic of conversation.
He did. It's called Hollywood.
^^
"in search of Schroedinger's (sp?) cat"
great book!
sorry the link doesn't work, you need to register. but you can read more of this crazy stuff also at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge116.html
God help us all if its running on a Windows platform.
I'm guessing that a research scientist just smoked his first joint.
The "pretty distinguished scientists" being referenced, in this particular instance:
Is it just me, or has Paul Davies gone a bit off of the deep end in the last few years. He's a brilliant guy, but well, geez. O_o
No no no, a theorist. :D
There's a big difference.
LOL!
we wouldn't have come that far!
Hmmmmm...note to self...next time I get caught with another woman tell girlfriend that i am trapped in a simulation and can't help myself.
Now I understand why our world of SimLife is not error free, at least with some errors called terrorists. I hope we will not be flooded with blue screen of death and reboot the universe.
This is just another attempt by Davies to explain reality without God.
The Hindu religion is millennia ahead of all these theorists. To them the existence of reality IS a dream! The present universe is the dream of their main god, I can't remember his name this early, but when he wakes up, the dream is over and the universe is finished......
What are they doing? Wait, maybe I don't want to know.
thanx for the hint, i'll have a look at it.... i'm no phycicist and only familiar with heisenberg's lectures on quantum theory which i borrowed from my girlfriend (whose father is a physicist)....
Maybe that explains the screwed up world and liberals. The Admin of the universe has all the liberals stored on an old NT server with bad hardware. He can't reboot or do anything to fix it because it would cause catastrophic data loss. Now all he can do is watch them get worse by the day, until the big crash comes.
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