These two grand visions of Reality – the mathematical structure and the cosmic hologram – represent theoretical thinking at its most imaginative and beautiful. ibid.
It may be that we are standing on the verge of a new version of Reality. Physicists have redefined Reality by close measurement and observation of the material world. They have drilled down to the bottom layer. Discovered that we can change Reality just by looking at it. And begun to sense that information encoded at the edge of our universe could be more important than matter. But in the end Reality is best defined as an intelligent conversation with the Universe. ibid.
Why should I make an observation at this point? ... All I wanted to say was this: so long as you can keep violently disagreeing with each other, and slagging each other off in the popular press, you can keep yourselves on the Gravy Train for Life. Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Universe, The Computer
Q. Two old men: Deep Thought. Do you have ... Have you ...
A. Deep Thought: An answer for you? Yes.
Q. Two Old Men: Well?
A. Deep Thought: You’re really not going to like it.
Q. Two Old Men: Tell us.
A. Deep Thought: The answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything ... is ... Forty-two. ibid.
You cannot have complexity to build a computer, to build a second-life software to run us, unless the creatures that built that computer evolved ... Sooner or later regresses of that kind have to be terminated. You cannot suddenly invent complexity and intelligence. The only way to do it is to start from primeval simplify and work up gradually. Richard Dawkins, American Atheists Conference, 2009
I mean I think the closest is the idea that the fundamental constants of the universe are too good to be true. That does to me seem to need some kind of explanation, if it’s true ... It certainly doesn’t suggest to me in any way a creative intelligence because you’re still left with the problem of explaining where that come from. Richard Dawkins, The Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens
The Simulation Theory: for all we know every one of our perceived realities is simply fed to us by some all-powerful super-computer. Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: The Meaning of Life, Discovery 2012
In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness. Marshall McLuhan
Inside a simulation you can’t tell any difference between the simulated environment – the virtual reality – and the real environment. In fact this environment we now find ourselves in could be just a simulation. Professor Frank Tippler
Maybe we are The Sims and our Creator is sitting at the controls of a super-computer. Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman s1e1: Is There a Creator? Science 2010
In the past century physicists have discovered that matter really is made of tiny little pixels, fundamental indivisible particles billions of times smaller than an atom. ibid.
Our world is pixelated and only assumes definite form when observed. The very same way our computer simulations behave. ibid.
Our world bears all the hallmarks of one that is simulated ... Who would be more likely to simulate humans than humans from the future – our descendants. ibid.
Do we live in the real world or is it all in our minds? Do we see the universe as it is? Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman s4e8: Is Reality Real? Discovery Science
When your senses are shut off, your brain makes up its own version of reality. ibid.
Our brains seem to resist negative information. But only when it applies to us. ibid.
What if there is less to reality than what there appears to be? ibid.
There is a chance we are all part of a giant simulation. ibid.
Our universe certainly seems real. But what if it’s not? We may be nothing more than video game characters designed for someone else’s amusement. But how could a computer juggle every aspect of the cosmos? Maybe what looks random has already been programmed to happen. Can we discover some hidden glitch in the laws of the universe and uncover its hidden code? Do we live in the matrix? Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole s6e4: Do We Live in the Matrix?
According to Moore’s Law computer processing power will continue to double every two years. As that power increases, so does the realism of virtual reality systems. ibid.
Are we one of many simulated copies? ibid.
The insight to what became known as the Holographic principle simply happened one day when I was walking in the Physics department and came upon a hologram. Well when I saw the hologram it occurred to me that there is a very big difference between a hologram and an ordinary picture ... I said jokingly maybe the horizon of a black hole is something like a hologram. The stuff that falls into a black hole is three-dimensional; the stuff of the horizon is two-dimensional. But maybe in some way the stuff of the horizon is a hologram capturing the full three-dimensionality of the things that fall into the black hole. Professor Lenny Susskind, theoretical physicist
It is actually unreasonable how mathematics works. Why should the world behave according to mathematical laws?
It is not only that it becomes easier to describe with mathematics. As you got deeper and deeper into reality mathematics becomes the only way to describe reality. Professor Lenny Susskind
Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. Where the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this ... is unreal. Star Trek s3e6: Specter of the Gun, Spock
I perceive the entire universe as a single equation and it’s so simple. Star Trek: The Next Generation s4e19: The Nth Degree, Reginald Barclay
So how can we determine what’s real and what’s not? We can’t. We can just pick and choose what we want to believe and rationalize it as best we can. Reality, after all, is basically a movie projected inside our heads. It’s based on the colors our senses permit us to see, the sounds they permit us to hear and whatever else our brains let slip through the gates. But outside our limited senses, surrounding us, there is, unquestionably, a much greater reality, a universe we live in but cannot see. Well, most of us, anyway. Out there, in the dark, All Things Are Possible. Richard B Spence, The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories From the Orphan Trilogy
I think our entire universe is a giant mathematical structure that we are a part of. Professor Max Tegmark
We are living in a giant mathematical structure. Max Tegmark, interview Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole s2e7: How Does the Universe Work?
There’s really nothing there at the bottom level except numbers, except math. ibid.
For me Math is a window on our universe. It’s the masterkey to understanding what’s out there. Max Tegmark
Musk is just one of the people in Silicon to take a keen interest in the ‘simulation hypothesis’, which argues that what we experience as reality is actually a giant computer simulation created by a more sophisticated intelligence. If it sounds a lot like The Matrix, that’s because it is.
According to this week’s New Yorker profile of Y Combinator venture capitalist Sam Altman, there are two tech billionaires secretly engaging scientists to work on breaking us out of the simulation. But what does this mean? And what evidence is there that we are, in fact, living in The Matrix?
One popular argument for the simulation hypothesis, outside of acid trips, came from Oxford University’s Nick Bostrom in 2003 (although the idea dates back as far as the 17th-century philosopher René Descartes). In a paper titled ‘Are You Living In a Simulation?’, Bostrom suggested that members of an advanced ‘posthuman’ civilization with vast computing power might choose to run simulations of their ancestors in the universe.