The belief that we are living in a Matrix-like simulation has has grown traction in recent years, but boffins believe they have proven its not true. Which is a relief.
The world is not a Matrix-style simulation and humans are not just pawns being controlled by a supercomputer, boffins have confirmed. Russian philosopher Igor Shnurenko said human nature is based on a form of reasoning that no computer can reproduce.
And it is our understanding of algorithms and artificial intelligence that prove Earth is not a computer simulation, he believes. He said: “There is not and cannot be some kind of supercomputer that contains the algorithms by which the entire world operates.
“We can see that this isn’t true in the example of artificial intelligence created by mathematicians and computer scientists. It constantly makes mistakes and is woven from internal contradictions and errors. And the human mind is incapable of either creating or using it without errors.”
Theories that the world is an artificial illusion have been around for decades and have spawned sci-fi books and films such as the 1964 novel Simulacron-3 and and film series The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves.
Austrian scientist Kurt Friedrich Gödel proved in 1930 that it is impossible to construct a system that is self-sufficient and consistent, prof Shnurenko said. He told Moscow news outlet MK this meant there is no way Earth could be part of a bigger, subconscious world.
Shnurenko dismissed the theory that randomness in the form of free will and human actions was deliberately introduced into a single algorithm.
He added: “From a mathematical perspective, it would no longer be an algorithm. Science, in principle, has always been convinced that everything is predetermined and predictable.
“Therefore, scientists sought the laws that govern the world, from climate to the behaviour of human societies, as Marxism did, for example.
“But as Gödel demonstrated, if we take the mathematics of natural numbers, it is impossible to create a digital world that is consistent. In a hypothetical, completely predictable universe created by a computer, there would always be some fundamental contradiction that would lead to a breakthrough beyond this world. This means breaking beyond algorithms.”
Shnurenko’s comments come after a recent paper in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, experts argue that reality operates on principles that cannot be calculated.
Researcher Dr Mir Faizal wrote: “Drawing on mathematical theorems related to incompleteness and indefinability, we demonstrate that a fully consistent and complete description of reality cannot be achieved through computation alone.
“It requires non-algorithmic understanding, which by definition is beyond algorithmic computation and therefore cannot be simulated. Hence, this universe cannot be a simulation.”
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