Limited Fidelity—reduced ability to accurately reproduce or represent something
For as long as I can remember , I have been fascinated by the strange inconsistencies at the quantum world. The idea that a particle can exist in a superposition and that a wave function can suddenly collapse when measured has filled my mind with more questions than answers. At times it feels as if we are very close to ripping apart the very fabric of reality as we know it.
I have began to wonder weather these quantum irregularities are not random at all , but the signs of a world running at the edge of its informational or computational limit. As if the universe at its smallest scale is struggling to render itself.
Note : This Hypothesis is not meant to be revolutionary , grand or original. Many people have already explored similar ideas. I am simply a curious fellow trying to make sense of the universe with the tools of imagination and observation available to me.
The Multilevel Simulation Problem
Lets say that there exists a “Base Reality,” or a parent universe. Everything within it is truly real, from atoms and molecules to stars, planets, and conscious beings. Now within this universe, lets say a highly advanced civilization manages to simulate another universe inside it, a child universe.
I would like to hope that we are the base reality , but my ideas and intuition tell me other wise.
Naturally the creators of this simulation attempt to make the child universe as close as possible to their own. However, this immediately produces a fundamental paradox:
A system cannot perfectly simulate another system of equal or greater complexity.
If the parent universe contains, for simplicity say, 1 GB of information, then the simulated child universe cannot also contain 1 GB or more, because it would require storing equal or greater information inside something that already uses that same amount. In simple terms, the child universe must always have less informational capacity than its parent.
Now imagine that the beings inside the child universe then they create their own version of simulation, a grandchild universe. This new universe would again hold even less information. Going down the chain, each subsequent universe becomes progressively “weaker” in its informational and computational fidelity,like a photocopy of a photocopy.
Quantum Fluctuations as Signs of Limited Fidelity
This brings me to my main idea.
What if the quantum Fluctuations that we observe in the smallest scales are simply the signs of our universe reaching the boundary of its informational budget?
Perhaps superposition, probabilistic behavior, and wave-function collapse are not deep metaphysical mysteries, but symptoms of a system that cannot afford to render every particle’s state with infinite precision.
Perhaps randomness at the quantum level is not true randomness at all, but a blurry or fuzzy computational approximation of a higher-fidelity base reality, similar to how a video game simulates a world without tracking every atom, only the parts needed to maintain the illusion of completeness. This is what I call the Limited Fidelity Simulation Hypothesis.
A Further Question: Would Physics Look Different in the Base Reality?
Hmm, now lets say if this was true then Naturally another question arises would the laws of physics would be different in the base reality and would the famous double slit experiment give out different results? It leads to a more deeper rabbit hole. For now, I simply acknowledge that if our universe is a lower‑fidelity simulation, then the physics of the base reality might be far more precise, stable, or deterministic than what we observe here.
Limited Fidelity Simulation Hypothesis
Limited Fidelity—reduced ability to accurately reproduce or represent something
For as long as I can remember , I have been fascinated by the strange inconsistencies at the quantum world. The idea that a particle can exist in a superposition and that a wave function can suddenly collapse when measured has filled my mind with more questions than answers. At times it feels as if we are very close to ripping apart the very fabric of reality as we know it.
I have began to wonder weather these quantum irregularities are not random at all , but the signs of a world running at the edge of its informational or computational limit. As if the universe at its smallest scale is struggling to render itself.
Note : This Hypothesis is not meant to be revolutionary , grand or original. Many people have already explored similar ideas. I am simply a curious fellow trying to make sense of the universe with the tools of imagination and observation available to me.
The Multilevel Simulation Problem
Lets say that there exists a “Base Reality,” or a parent universe. Everything within it is truly real, from atoms and molecules to stars, planets, and conscious beings. Now within this universe, lets say a highly advanced civilization manages to simulate another universe inside it, a child universe.
I would like to hope that we are the base reality , but my ideas and intuition tell me other wise.
Naturally the creators of this simulation attempt to make the child universe as close as possible to their own. However, this immediately produces a fundamental paradox:
If the parent universe contains, for simplicity say, 1 GB of information, then the simulated child universe cannot also contain 1 GB or more, because it would require storing equal or greater information inside something that already uses that same amount. In simple terms, the child universe must always have less informational capacity than its parent.
Now imagine that the beings inside the child universe then they create their own version of simulation, a grandchild universe. This new universe would again hold even less information. Going down the chain, each subsequent universe becomes progressively “weaker” in its informational and computational fidelity,like a photocopy of a photocopy.
Quantum Fluctuations as Signs of Limited Fidelity
This brings me to my main idea.
What if the quantum Fluctuations that we observe in the smallest scales are simply the signs of our universe reaching the boundary of its informational budget?
Perhaps superposition, probabilistic behavior, and wave-function collapse are not deep metaphysical mysteries, but symptoms of a system that cannot afford to render every particle’s state with infinite precision.
Perhaps randomness at the quantum level is not true randomness at all, but a blurry or fuzzy computational approximation of a higher-fidelity base reality, similar to how a video game simulates a world without tracking every atom, only the parts needed to maintain the illusion of completeness. This is what I call the Limited Fidelity Simulation Hypothesis.
A Further Question: Would Physics Look Different in the Base Reality?
Hmm, now lets say if this was true then Naturally another question arises would the laws of physics would be different in the base reality and would the famous double slit experiment give out different results? It leads to a more deeper rabbit hole. For now, I simply acknowledge that if our universe is a lower‑fidelity simulation, then the physics of the base reality might be far more precise, stable, or deterministic than what we observe here.