Our Simulated Reality: Computer Code in Physics Equations

There have been a few posts on Steemit regarding the idea that our reality is actually a computer simulation, and I have referenced them at the bottom of this post. As I said in my previous post, this is not a new idea, but what is new is that several scientists have begun to seriously investigate this as a viable explanation of our reality. I emphasize that "begun to investigate" by no means proves that the theory is fact. Before this or any other view of reality is accepted, hard evidence is needed, and that does not exist yet for the simulated universe hypothesis. But there is some tantalizing circumstantial evidence that does exist for it, and one of those is the recent discovery that within the equations of String Theory, one can see computer code.

Strings, Superstrings, and Computer Code

String theory is one of several approaches to developing a "Theory of Everything". Quite a few theoretical physicists around the world have been working on it since the 1960s. To date no experimental evidence exists to prove the theory, but recently some scientists have proposed some tests can could be done to collect such evidence. This is important since any scientific theory must be testable to be considered a viable physical theory.

There are actually 5 different string theories in existence. Some scientists believe that the 5 different types are really different limits to one type of string theory called M-theory. One of the most interesting types (or limits) is superstring theory. The 'super' comes from the fact that it has supersymmetry describing the nature of space-time. One of the leading theoretical physicists in this field is Dr. Sylvester James Gates at the University of Maryland.

While investigating superstring theory, Dr. Gates found something very interesting. To put it in his own words he states that "deep within the equation of supersymmetry" there are;

“doubly-even self-dual linear binary error-correcting block codes. This unsuspected connection suggests that these codes may be ubiquitous in nature, and could even be embedded in the essence of reality. If this is the case, we might have something in common with the Matrix science-fiction films, which depict a world where everything human being’s experience is the product of a virtual-reality-generating computer network.”

above quote by Dr. Sylvester James Gates

So, what exactly is a "doubly-even self-dual linear binary error-correcting block code". This is a type of computer code that is used to correct errors in computer transmissions. These codes are found in browsers that you use to explore the internet. The same code is found in superstring theory!

Mathematics and Reality

It's amazing that mathematics can be used to describe reality at all. However, there is a big difference between mathematics describing nature and mathematics BEING nature, The idea that we ARE mathematics is very old , with some ancient Greek philosophers believing this. But the difference now is that the math being discovered in string theory looks like real computer code, and some scientists are proposing other experiments to test the simulation hypothesis of reality.

short (12 minute) excerpt of panel discussion on simulated reality hypothesis

full 2 hour panel discussion is here

I watched that entire 2 hour presentation the other day. I thought those theoretical physicists would have benefitted from someone who knows a lot about procedural algorithms and generating large amounts of data and even behavior from very small source input. It could solve many of the problems that various physicists on that stage were posing. Being a brilliant physicists does not mean we can honestly expect them to be super beings that know everything across all disciplines.

That was truly a 2 hour video I enjoyed watching immensely.

As to Dr. James Gates that sounds a lot like CRC coding for error checks. It also sounds similar to parity bits and other techniques used to handle crashes of drives in a RAID setup.

Very cool stuff. Good post.