I wonder if the content of such simulations wouldn’t be under-determined. Lets say you have a proposed set of starting conditions and physical laws. You can test different progressions of the wave function against the present state of the universe. But a) there are fundamental limits on measuring the present state of the universe and b) I’m not sure whether or not each possible present state of the universe uniquely corresponds to a particular wave function progression. If they don’t correspond uniquely or just if we can’t measure the present state exactly any simulation might contain some degree of error. I wonder how large that error would be- would it just be in determining the position of some air particle at time t. Or would we have trouble determining whether or not Ramesses I had an even number of hairs on his head when he was crowned pharaoh.
Anyone here know enough physics to say if this is the kind of thing we have no idea about yet or if it’s something current quantum mechanics can actually speak to?
I wonder if the content of such simulations wouldn’t be under-determined. Lets say you have a proposed set of starting conditions and physical laws. You can test different progressions of the wave function against the present state of the universe. But a) there are fundamental limits on measuring the present state of the universe and b) I’m not sure whether or not each possible present state of the universe uniquely corresponds to a particular wave function progression. If they don’t correspond uniquely or just if we can’t measure the present state exactly any simulation might contain some degree of error. I wonder how large that error would be- would it just be in determining the position of some air particle at time t. Or would we have trouble determining whether or not Ramesses I had an even number of hairs on his head when he was crowned pharaoh.
Anyone here know enough physics to say if this is the kind of thing we have no idea about yet or if it’s something current quantum mechanics can actually speak to?