Physicist are wrestling with evidence that points to a conclusion that we are living in a probabilistic digital virtual reality. Here is my short synopsis of a couple of the ideas that support this theory. I hope you find it interesting. I did.
We are taught that time and space are continuous. This however creates some logical problems as pointed out by Zeno's Paradoxes. One of his most famous paradoxes in essence says that if space is continuous then you cannot travel from point A to point B.
In his example a traveler begins his journey by traveling half the distance from point A to point B. He then travels half the of the remaining distance to point B. He then continues in the same manner, traveling half the remaining distance to point B each time. Given that space is continuous (infinitely divisible) his journey will never end.
A similar argument can be made for time...
But if we assume that space and time come in chunks (very tiny chunks, like bits and bytes in a computer) then the problem presented in Zeno's Paradox goes away. The traveler can now reach destination B by traversing a finite number of non-continuous chunks. Yaay!
Are the edges of the universe ragged bits and bytes?
At this tiny bit and byte level each chunk of space could be thought of as a pixel (physicists call it a Planck length). Traveling from one pixel to another is like being on or off, either we are moving or we are not. The speed at which we move (in this dimension) is the speed of light. In time chunks we are either on (moving) or off (not moving). In this scenario we get around by either moving at the speed of light from one pixel to the next, or not moving at all.
The result is like a movie, still frame after still frame flickering by giving the illusion of continuous motion. But really things are happening digitally, 1 or zero, on or off, moving or not moving.
Enter probability...
When you play a video game only the scene you are in is being decoded by the computer and is being presented on the video screen. Similarly, everything we sense comes into existence for us because we sense it. And what comes into existence is selected out of a set of probabilities.
Hmmm... Got any proof?
The Double-slit experiment shows that light can act as both a particle and a wave. This has confounded physicist since the experiment was first conducted in 1801. To further complicate matters physicist found if they measured which slit the photon passed thru then the pattern was always a particle pattern. But if no measurement was made then they got the wave pattern.
One good explanation for this is that the photon's location exists as a probability until it is measured, at which time a location is selected from the probability set. This all sounds very similar to a virtual reality.
I don't know if I like the idea of living in a virtual reality. I would like it better if I knew how to use this information to better myself and others, but I don't. For now it is just an interesting possibility.
Have a great day!
Fractal images by Cosmic Cowboy
