Will we ever be able to simulate the universe?

Oh yeah, I've heard of those paraplegic tests.


Recently Obama announced a "BRAIN initiative", which was picked up by all the conspiracy nuts.

"Your thoughts won't be safe or private! The Thought Police (from 1984) will catch you!"

 

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I need to read 1984 (throw the tomatoes at me now), but I'm pretty sure you need a device real close to your head to read your thoughts. So people wouldn't have to worry about that unless they were kidnapped and forced into it; so regular joes shouldn't have to worry about that. I would assume the counter to this might be some sort of implant black ops units of the future would use to prevent these machines from reading their brain...it would at least delay it.

This initiative will go a long way into reading the brain, (probably Nintendo's next console, haha) but I'm really looking forward to writing to the brain to accomplish true virtual reality. Something link this: http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/12/v...side-our-brain-not-goggles-says-ray-kurzweil/

Nanobot technology in itself will be amazing for health, but you don't really think about it for entertainment, however this side of it is about equally amazing. We'll obviously need to be able to understand and read the brain before we can write to it with nanobots, though.

 

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Looking forward? Do you think it'll happen within our lifetimes?

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If we end up with a Matrix-style jack, just imagine, we would be unable to distinguish between VR and R. Life would be so messed up. The Machines could rise and turn us all into batteries.

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I'd rather not mess with my brain unless my real life really sucked.



I'm looking forward to the Oculus Rift very much though. And Google Glass.

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Yes, if you read the article Ray Kurzweil thinks it will happen by 2030. Even if delayed by 30 more years it will most likely be within my lifetime. =)

I'm not sure how much AI can really "turn" against humans. They still have to be programmed to some extent.

Not being able to distinguish would be a good thing for me. Everything we've dreamed of we can do. I know what you mean, though, but you'll easily be able to distinguish by not being able to fly for instance. xD

 

I think 2030 is too optimistic. I remember Popular Science saying we'd all be living in outer space colonies by 2000 back in 1960. They've made tons of crappy predictions.

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Based on current tech it seems unlikely, though some genius engineer may pop up in the near future.

Isaac Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics.

And you hit the ground and die.

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garbonzo, I think you've been taking too much LSD.

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We become better at predictions as the years go by, more accurate. And we definitely could have been in space colonies by now, it's just that the government didn't invest in it or make it a priority. Now private programs have to do it, so we'll be 20 years off (from 2000 to 2020) from our first space colony. Not too bad.

I know predictions can never be foolproof, but he has more qualification than any of us.

Lol, but no, you don't have to jump off a building to be able to fly. xD I'm talking about Superman flying where you leave a crack in the cement as you lift off the ground.

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There are a lot of different ideas you are touching on.

1. Can we ever simulate OUR universe?
No.
a. Quantum physics functions largely on probability and not cause/effect. RE: Schrodingers Cat. The implication of this is that there is no single future...only possible futures.
b. As for the macro-universe...how would you capture/insert the current/initial state of the universe into the simulation?

2. Can we ever simulate A universe?
I don't see why not. World of War craft is a simulation with it's own rules and physics. There may not be any AI (true AI) in it, but it IS a persistent world that supports hundreds of thousands of people/observers at the same time. At the very least it's a start.

 

a. Yes, it would be sad is quantum physics were true. If quantum physics are true, though, wouldn't it mean our destiny is not "fixed" as a biological cause and effect as one scientist said a couple years ago?
b. I saw on a show that scientists already are developing models of the early universe.

 

Sad if QM were true? Haha. As Feynman said, "If you don't like it, go somewhere else. To another universe."

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Yeah, they've been doing that for the past few decades or so, but it's only picked up the pace in recent years.

 

What do you mean? That QM is sure to be true?

I heard Kaku say QM says there is a very small tiny possibility that we could be teleported anywhere in the universe. That's crazy. Is it true? And why hasn't this happened at least once in the trillion trillion trillions of seconds we have on record? So what that guy said can't be true about our life being able to be predicted with math then?

 

QM appears to be true. The possibility of that happening is extremely tiny.


Read up on Laplace's demon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace's_demon

 

Why do these things have such weird names? lol Demons and cats and

 

should the universe be eternal infinite etc, then maybe we already have !!

of course, this assumes what we sense and think is real. or we could be a mere stimulant used by an unknown force.

 

Okay, so I was thinking more about this. I still think that this can be possible even if QM is true. We have an end point. We can simulate it. We can simulate whatever the current universe is whenever we have the processing power to do this. I mean, they say just to simulate the human brain won't be for another 50+ years, but I'm sure we'll be able to simulate the current universe as we know it at one point as long as the human race stays alive. So that should be possible, but with QM you are saying it won't be possible to simulate the universe all the way back to creation. But if we have an end point maybe we can. What if we had the processing power to go through ALL possible calculations of universes and how they would form UNTIL we find a calculation that matches our current universe exactly? This would mean that this calculation is the way the universe played out in order for us to get to this point. So we'd finally be able to look back in time and solve the greatest unsolved mysterious of our history, etc.

What do you think?