How can we eliminate the possibility that we are living in a reality simulation?
Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?
Any exact description of a non-simulated physical object probably entails using an infinitely long string of symbols. Simulated reality would require finite algorithms though. Can the uncertainty principle be simulated?
ABSTRACT. This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.