Abstract question here, but does this paper prove we’re not living in a simulation, versus proving that at our current amount of knowledge, we can’t prove if we’re in one, or not?
The bigger question, of course, would be how many simulations deep we are at, and how long until we make our own.
To take this a step farther; while this doesn’t prove we’re not in a simulation, I think if you accept that our universe can’t be simulated from a universe that looks like ours, it destroys the whole anthro/ probability argument in favor of simulations, because that argument seems to rely on the claim that we will eventually create a singularity which will simulate a lot of universes like ours. If that’s not possible, then the main positive argument for the simulation hypothesis gets a lot weaker, I think.
Maybe there’s a higher level universe with more permissive computational constraints, maybe not, but either way I’m not sure I see how you can make a probability argument for or against it.
Abstract question here, but does this paper prove we’re not living in a simulation, versus proving that at our current amount of knowledge, we can’t prove if we’re in one, or not?
The bigger question, of course, would be how many simulations deep we are at, and how long until we make our own.
I’d say it proves that we are not living in a simulation that
a) runs in a universe that has the same computational constraints as ours and b) simulates quantum effects faithfully at macroscopic levels
To take this a step farther; while this doesn’t prove we’re not in a simulation, I think if you accept that our universe can’t be simulated from a universe that looks like ours, it destroys the whole anthro/ probability argument in favor of simulations, because that argument seems to rely on the claim that we will eventually create a singularity which will simulate a lot of universes like ours. If that’s not possible, then the main positive argument for the simulation hypothesis gets a lot weaker, I think.
Maybe there’s a higher level universe with more permissive computational constraints, maybe not, but either way I’m not sure I see how you can make a probability argument for or against it.