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It’s a narrative device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe could be a simulation running on the supercomputer of some advanced civilization. But new research proves mathematically that this is not just unlikely — it’s impossible.
For a few years now, we have been sharing here at ZAP another study or theory that suggests that the computer.
For almost as long as that, at least since 2016, we have also reported studies that suggest the opposite: that the Universe in which we live is a simulation.
And come on, there is still at least one theory that says that .
A new one on the subject, recently published in Journal of Holography Applications in Physics seems to bring mathematical proofs that our living in a simulation running on the supercomputer of some advanced civilization is not just improbable — it’s impossible.
In the study, Mir Faizalresearcher at the University of British Columbia/Okanagan, and his colleagues Lawrence M. Krauss, Arshid Shabir and Francesco Marino, demonstrated that the fundamental nature of reality operates in a way that no computer could ever simulate.
The study’s conclusions go beyond simply suggesting that we do not live in a simulated world, like the famous saga The Matrix. They prove something much deeper: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.
“It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to lifea, which in turn could create its own simulation”, explains Faizal, quoted by .
“This recursive possibility would make it highly unlikely that our universe was the original, instead of a nested simulation within another simulation,” says Dr. Faizal. “This idea was once considered to be beyond the scope of scientific investigation. However, our recent research has shown that can, in fact, be approached scientifically“.
The investigation focused on a fascinating property of reality itself. Modern physics has moved far away from Newton’s tangible “matter” ricocheting through space.
In today’s physics, Einstein’s theory of relativity has replaced Newtonian mechanics, and quantum mechanics has transformed our understanding. The current avant-garde theory, the quantum gravitysuggests that not even space and time are fundamental. They emerge from something deeper: pure information.
This information exists in what physicists call a platonic kingdom — a mathematical foundation more real than the physical universe we experience. It is from this kingdom that space and time themselves emerge.
This is where it gets interesting. The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using only computation.
The study authors used powerful mathematical theoremsincluding the Theore to the Gödel’s incomplete theoreto prove that a complete and consistent description of everything requires what they call “non-algorithmic understanding“.
Let’s think about it this way: a computer follows “recipes”step by step, no matter how complex they are. But some truths can only be grasped through non-algorithmic understanding — understanding that does not result from any sequence of logical steps. These “Gödelian truths” are real, but impossible to prove through computation.
Here is a basic example using the statement “This true statement is not demonstrable“. If it were demonstrable, it would be falsemaking the logic inconsistent. If it’s not demonstrable, then it’s truebut this makes any system that tries to prove it incomplete.
Anyway, pure computation fails.
“We demonstrated that It is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity,” says Mir Faizal. “Therefore, no physically complete and consistent theory of everything can be derived only from computation.”
“On the contrary, requires a non-algorithmic understandingwhich is more fundamental than the computational laws of quantum gravity and, therefore, more fundamental than space-time itself”, adds the Canadian physicist and mathematician.
Since the computational rules in this Platonic realm could, in principle, resemble those of a computer simulation, could this not own kingdom be simulated?
No, say researchers. His work reveals something deeper.
“Based on mathematical theorems related to incompleteness and indefinability, we demonstrated that a fully consistent and complete description of reality cannot be achieved through computation alone,” explains Faizal.
“Such a description requires non-algorithmic understanding, which by definition is beyond algorithmic computation and therefore cannot be simulated. As a result, this universe cannot be a simulation”, concludes the researcher.
The hypothesis has been around for a long time considered untestablerelegated to philosophy and even science fictionrather than science. The new study presents the hypothesis firmly into the realm of mathematics and physicsand provides a definitive answer. And the answer is: no.
