Comment by newsbinator
7 years ago
Physicists would love for some observation to end up breaking physics as we know it.
They know that 99,999/100,000 times something strange is observed, it turns out to be no big deal.
The day something breaks the Standard Model, physicists will cheer and begin a beautiful renaissance... and another... and another.
But can intelligent creatures in a simulation ever understand the scope and rules on which their simulation is based? Or can they only get closer and closer to the substrate, with a hard limit on ever modeling the details?
The answer is no. Gödel's incompleteness theorem is interesting here as it states that within a given axiomatic system, there are facts that are true but not provable within that same axiomatic system.
Another way to think about it is that if we are part of a set of fundamental rules that make up a simulation, it's impossible for us to prove everything about that system.
Is there a loophole?
If the creatures within a simulation can make contact with the creatures (or physics) outside it, then perhaps they can look in from the outside, to get all the information necessary for any proof?