Are we living in a computer simulation?
A physicist at the University of Portsmouth has explored whether a new law of physics could support the much-debated theory that we are merely characters in an advanced virtual world.
The Simulated Universe Hypothesis argues that what humans experience is actually an artificial reality, like a computer simulation, of which humans themselves are constructs.
The theory is popular among many prominent figures, including Elon Musk, and in a branch of science known as information physics, which holds that physical reality is fundamentally composed of bits of information.
Previously published research by Dr. Melvin Vopson has shown that information has mass, and that all elementary particles - the smallest known building blocks in the universe - store information about themselves, similar to the way humans have DNA.
In 2022, he discovered a new law of physics that predicts genetic mutations in organisms (including viruses) and helps determine their potential consequences.
It is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy - a measure of disorder in isolated systems - can only increase or remain constant.
Dr. Wopson originally thought that entropy in information systems would also increase over time, but in studying the evolution of these systems, he found that entropy stays the same or decreases. It was then that he established the second law of information dynamics (or infodynamics), which would have a major impact on the study of genetics and the theory of evolution.
A new paper published in AIP Advances explores the scientific implications of the new law for a number of other physical systems and environments, including biology, atomic physics and cosmology.
Dr. Wopson, of the university's School of Mathematics and Physics, said, "I knew then that this revelation would have far-reaching implications for a variety of scientific disciplines. The next thing I wanted to do was to test the law to see if it could further support the simulation hypothesis and push it from the realm of philosophy into mainstream science."
The experimental team's key findings include:
- Biological systems: the second law of information dynamics challenges the conventional understanding of genetic mutations, showing that they follow a pattern governed by information entropy. This finding has far-reaching implications for the fields of genetic research, evolutionary biology, gene therapy, pharmacology, virology and pandemic surveillance.
- Atomic Physics: The paper explains the behavior of electrons in multi-electron atoms, providing insights into phenomena such as Hund's rule, which states that the term with the greatest multiplicity has the lowest energy. The arrangement of electrons in a way that minimizes their information entropy provides insights into atomic physics and chemical stability.
- Cosmology: The papers demonstrate the cosmological necessity of the "second law of information entropy" and support its validity by applying thermodynamic factors to an adiabatic expanding universe.
Their paper also provides an explanation for the symmetry prevalent in the universe -
"Symmetry principles play an important role in the laws of nature, but so far there has been little explanation of why this is the case. My findings suggest that high symmetry corresponds to the lowest information entropy state, which makes it possible to explain why nature favors high symmetry."
"This method of removing redundant information is similar to the process by which computers remove or compress deprecated code to save storage space and optimize energy consumption. Thus, this supports the idea that we are living in a simulation."
Dr. Wopson's previous research has shown that information is a fundamental part of the universe and has physical mass. He has even claimed that information may be the elusive dark matter that makes up almost a third of the universe, which he calls the mass-energy-information equivalence principle.
The paper argues that the second law of information dynamics provides support for this principle, potentially validating the idea that information is a physical entity equivalent to mass and energy.
