this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
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This doesn't really address the idea that our simulation is a simplified version of the "real" universe though does it?
They argue that the universe isn’t mathematically computable, and therefore not possible to simulate. It’s not about physical computers.
We know there’s a class of ”uncomputable problems” for which there’s no algorithm (most well known is halting problem). If the universe rely on any of these uncomputable problems, then no computer - no matter how advanced it is - can simulate the universe. Something else other than pure computation is needed.
However, their argument rely on that ”quantum gravity” is what makes the universe uncomputable. I’m not sure how valid this statement is.
Here is the assumption the authors use that brings quantum gravity into the proof:
I interpret their assumption to mean that describing quantum gravity in this way is how it would be defined as a formal computational system. This is the approach that all of the other leading theories (String Theory, Loop Quantum Gravity) have taken, which have failed to provide a fully consistent and complete description of gravity. I think the proof is saying that non-computational components can be incorporated into a fully consistent and complete formal system and so taking a non-computational approach to quantum gravity would then incorporate gravity into the formal system thereby completing the theory of everything.
Does that make sense? I am not a logician by any extent and I have no idea how robust this proof really is. I do think the bold claims the authors are making deserve heavy scrutiny, but I am not the one to provide that scrutiny.
I have no idea either. I feel like I have some surface understanding of what they want to achieve, but I’m completely lost as soon it gets any deeper than that.