A new study explores the simulated universe hypothesis and its implications for science and technology. A physicist from the University of Portsmouth has explored whether a new law of physics could support the controversial theory that we are just characters in an advanced virtual world.
The simulated universe hypothesis holds that what humans experience is actually an artificial reality, like a computer simulation, of which humans are themselves a construct.
The theory is popular among some big names, including Elon Musk, and in a branch of science called information physics, which holds that physical reality is fundamentally made of bits of information.
Dr. Wopson's groundbreaking discovery
Dr. Vopson has a history of groundbreaking research. He previously published research showing that information has mass, and that all elementary particles - the smallest known building blocks of the universe - store information about themselves, similar to how humans have DNA.
In 2022, he discovered a new physical law that can predict genetic mutations in organisms, including viruses, and help judge their potential consequences.
It is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy - a measure of disorder in an isolated system - can only increase or remain constant.
Dr. Wopson had expected that entropy in information systems would also increase over time, but in studying the evolution of these systems, he found that entropy would remain the same or decrease. It was then that he established the second law of information dynamics, or information dynamics, which would have a major impact on genetic research and evolutionary theory.
Applications and Impact
On October 6, the journal AIPAdvances published a new paper exploring the scientific implications of the new laws for a number of other physical systems and environments, including biology, atomic physics, and cosmology.
Dr. Vopson, from the University's School of Mathematics and Physics, said: "I knew at the time that this discovery would have profound implications for various scientific disciplines. What I wanted to do next was to test this law to see if it could further support the simulation hypothesis and push it from the field of philosophy into mainstream science."
Its key findings include:
Biological Systems: The second law of information dynamics challenges the traditional understanding of genetic mutations, showing that genetic mutations follow a pattern governed by information entropy. This discovery has profound implications for fields such as genetic research, evolutionary biology, gene therapy, pharmacology, virology and pandemic surveillance.
Atomic Physics: Papers explain the behavior of electrons in multielectron atoms, providing insights into phenomena such as Hund's law, which states that the term with the greatest ploidy has the lowest energy. Electrons are arranged in a way that minimizes the entropy of their information, providing implications for atomic physics and chemical stability.
Cosmology: The paper proves the cosmological inevitability of the "Second Law of Information Entropy" and applies thermodynamic factors to the adiabatic expansion of the universe, thereby supporting the validity of this law.
The paper also provides an explanation for the ubiquitous symmetries in the universe:
"The principle of symmetry plays an important role in the laws of nature, but so far there has been little explanation of why this is the case. My results show that high symmetry corresponds to the lowest information entropy state, which may explain why nature tends to have high symmetry. This method of removing excess information is similar to the process by which computers delete or compress obsolete code to save storage space and optimize power consumption. Therefore, this supports the idea that we live in a simulation."
Connect information to the structure of the universe
Dr. Wopson's previous research has shown that information is a fundamental building block of the universe and has physical quality. He even claimed that information might be the elusive dark matter that makes up almost a third of the universe, which he called the mass-energy-information equivalence principle.
The paper believes that the second law of information dynamics provides support for this principle, and it is possible to verify the idea that information is a physical entity equivalent to mass and energy.
Dr Vopson added: "To complete these studies, the next step is to conduct empirical tests. One possible avenue is the experiment I designed last year, which uses particle-antiparticle collisions to confirm a fifth state of matter in the universe - and change physics as we know it."