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Game Not** Over

Physicists have recently disproven a popular notion in theoretical science that humans are living in a simulated universe.  While for some, this may come as no shock, others, including high profile believers such as Tesla founder Elon Musk and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, will be disinclined to believe such evidence.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has been outspoken about this theory, attempting to provide evidence on many such occasions.  Just this past year, Musk claimed that he was 99.9 percent certain that humans are living in a computer simulation (Rogers).  Musk stated that the advancements seen in technology over the past 40 years have been so drastic that they will continue and that soon it will be impossible to tell the difference between what is simulation and what is reality (Smart).  Arguments that favor the notion of a world of computer simulation where the simulation would not have to be an exact replica of what the actual reality is, it would just have to be close enough to that prototype (Eck).

However, a new study discovered that it would be impossible to evaluate our universe given the infinite number of body effects each person experiences.  It would be impossible to compute the equations necessary to create such a simulation (Rogers).  The physicists proved this to be impossible given "the sign problem", which shows that there is no solution (Eck).

Works Cited

Eck, Allison. “Physicists Confirm That We’Re Not Living In a Computer Simulation.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 3 Oct. 2017, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/physicists-confirm-that-were-not-living-in-a-computer-simulation/.

Rogers, Shelby. “New Study Says We Are Definitely Not Living in a Computer Simulation.” Interesting Engineering, Interesting Engineering, 25 Oct. 2017, interestingengineering.com/new-study-says-we-are-definitely-not-living-in-a-computer-simulation.

Smart, Riccardo Manzotti and Andrew. “Elon Musk Is Wrong. We Aren't Living in a Simulation.” Motherboard, Vice, 20 June 2016, motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yp3b7w/we-dont-live-in-a-simulation.



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