How to figure out if we’re living in the Matrix

I don’t really understand this, but maybe you will. Here it is.

This is the hard part.

Hi there Credit: Warner Bros.




Could someone explain it to me?

Categories: General
Kyrie O'Connor

18 Responses

  1. Morpheus says:

    Just take the blue pill and go back to sleep.

  2. Rob R says:

    He’s saying is if you want your “Matrix” to include all that is known about physics, that is so much data to crunch that the most powerful computers in the world can only model a world smaller than an atom. And we’re talking about computers that fill a building and suck as much electricity as a good size subdivision on a hot summer afternoon. It will be a long time before supercomputers get powerful enough to model a big enough world to include a person.

    In his last paragraph in the quote, he means that even on a computer big enough to model a good size world, certain limitations of the computer would appear in the simulation as errors or odd behavior. He wisely hedges his statement with the word “likely,” because somebody could invent a solution to those issues by then. These errors could be tested by people in simulation to determine if they are in a real or virtual world.

    An example of a such an error would be important irrational numbers that appear in geometry and physics such as pi or e. These numbers are believed to have an infinite number of digits, but no matter how big your computer is, it will have some limit to how many digits it can carry. So circles won’t be round, radioactive decay will take different time than it should, etc. As JohnD pointed out on your previous post, a clever programmer could work around these. But ultimately the simulation will approximate something somewhere and a determined experimenter with the right instruments could find it. Pi and e would be easy enough for the programmer to get past, but quantum behavior over time would not. That’s exotic stuff that wouldn’t be noticeable to people doing normal things.

    Note that a virtual world good enough to fool people would not necessarily have to model in such detail, just enough detail that the people inside don’t notice.

    • Kyrie says:

      Thank you. You did that in English and it made sense to my little brain.

    • Steve says:

      What I find interesting about your explanation is that you mention glitches made by the computer simulation. If we are talking about how to determine if we are in the matrix or in the real world, it is the glitches that you speak of that make the people aware of just such a matrix i.e. Agent Smith transforming from a plugged in person or computer program, or the Deja Vu… Very interesting indeed.

    • JohnD says:

      Rob R is right, especially in this bit:


      Another good example would be chaotic behavior. If you swing a multi-axis pendulum and get the same path over and over again, then that would be a strong clue that you were in a simulation. (I note in passing that chaos became famous because of its effects on computer simulations; we appear to have come full circle.)

      As with the irrational numbers, there are ways to get around this (e.g., a strong cup of tea, programming the simulation to run slowly so that you can build in real life whatever they are building in the sim). And ultimately, this ends up being a variant of the teleological question which mans that it is effectively unresolvable except via the old stand by of “If I can’t tell, then it doesn’t matter”.

  3. Jack says:

    There is no explaination.
    It is simply the mental wanderings of a physics professor who lives in a dream world all his own.

  4. StanleyS says:

    “Could someone explain it to me?”

    Not me. :-(

  5. Richard Rankin says:

    Given sufficient resources – and not as much as you might think, it would be possible to create our universe, our world in a simulation that would be unrecognizable as such to us. That something cannot be done is simply wrong. That such a theory is unverifiable is obvious, as are a number theories and as Brian Greene has suggested, it is possible that we will find that a great deal is beyond our grasp.

    If it were in fact the case, our goal would most likely be to do things which will keep them from shutting the simulation down. Should we be smart, stupid, crazy, funny, complex, inscrutable or what? I think that behaving as a bunch of deranged murderous lunatics who think they’re smart is a good strategy. That is pretty much the current course of action.

  6. Xavier says:

    Something is even more shocking. The super computer we are using would also be part of the simulation. The power of the Holy machine would be so exceptional that it could simulate at the smallest scale our own supercomputer. Not sure we can trick that kind of simulation… ever…

  7. JohnD says:

    One subtle piece of evidence that we aren’t living in a simulation: Our body images rarely match our bodies. If we were voluntarily living in a simulation, then the internal image that we each have of our bodies would better match the external evidence. For example, in my mind, I’m a little taller, much thinner, and devastatingly handsome whereas in real life, I’m short, fat, and ugly enough to stop a clock.

    • Glenn Beak says:

      I used to think that, then I realized that I actually was taller, thinner, and devastatingly handsome. It’s just that stupid avatar the Matrix gave me that’s short, fat and ugly.

  8. Brian Kilgore says:

    More logically: if we detect errors in our simulation, then our calculations are wrong… leading to the hypothesis that our best calculations are missing something… ergo, we update and upgrade our best theories… from Geocentric to Heliocentric views of the Universe; to Newtonian/Leibniz; to Relativity and Quantum theories; to whatever comes next in an eternal search for eternal laws….

    Thus, it should be blatant that PhDs don’t make bad ideas better, only more convincing.

  9. Scott says:

    The Bible clearly states we are a creation of God (the Simulator). I find it interesting that people have less of a problem believing a race of cockroaches with supreme supercomputers could decide on some Tuesday afternoon to run their HumanSim_1 simulation that created/sustained our universe and us vs. belief in God Himself.

  10. jacob says:

    If our existence is a computer simulation, then climate change must have been programmed into the mix and therefore, human caused global warming/climate change is nothing more than an al-gore-ithm.

  11. Kim says:

    If you think in terms of object oriented programming, we are each a module with certain variables that have characteristics. In programming, some modules output depends on the output of other modules. Add a random number generator, and Shazam, free will, or almost free will. As we all know, random number generators are not in reality random; there is an algorithm involved, however complex. If you notice, many cataclysmic events that appear to have involved free-will, actually turn out to involve results of other people’s actions, or other module’s output. Natural cataclysmic events such as earthquakes and weather events could be programmed in an earth module, related to a solar system module, etc., all with random events programmed according to whatever number the algorithm puts out.

    To truly see if we are in a simulation, we need to see if we can extract an algorithm from events and peoples’ actions.

  12. Ken says:

    OK, here’s my slant, if we somehow are in a ‘matrix’, we are here by choice. Our future selves are void of physical form having evolved into true conscious energy, the perfect being with eternal existence with one exception, we are bored and that little bit of human spirit in us longs for the flesh. In order for the ‘matrix’ to function our avatar conscious are prohibited from ‘knowing this’ as it totally screw up the simulated chaotic randomness we call life.

    This would make the scenario more plausible/possible to me because instead of one huge simulation there are actually quad-zillion(s) of simulations happening side-by-side with simple rules/conditions that allow them to co-exist.

    Things like deja-vu, hind-sight, preminitions and other weird non-human explainable feats also become more plausible.

    Oh, crap and I just realized that any avatar that figures this out is instantly zapped out of the game and erased from the collective memory of all other avatars, I’m done trying to explain this, please don’t show this to anybody :)