How the metaverse (and quantum physics) could prove our universe is a fake – The Next Web

Our universe is a ridiculous place. Its where all the silliest things were aware of happen. And chief among the silliness is the wacky idea of time.

Dont get me wrong, the metaverse is a strong second. Especially Facebooks Metas agonizingly dysfunctional approach to building it.

But times even stranger than changing the name of the worlds most widely-known technology company to something that literally means self-referential.

Time is the opposite of self-referential. If it exists in a tangible, physical form, then we might be living in a simulated universe our own bespoke layer in the metaverse. This might sound weird, but its actually pretty intuitive.

In this scenario, for whatever reason, someone or something created a simulated reality and put us in it. This reality is made of discrete chunks of spacetime. From our point of view, this spacetime is the bedrock of our universe. From the creators, its the bits that make up our data.

This all begs the question: what if time doesnt exist? What if time is just a measurement and were living in base reality? If that were true, wed have to figure out what reality is actually made of.

And thats where physics concepts such as string theory, parallel universes, and dark matter come in. Theyre all theoretical ways of explaining away the need to describe the universe in the kinds of terms we can intuit and recreate.

Its a much more interesting article, however, if we take a leap and assume that time does exist.

Weve covered the concept of timespace as discrete chunks extensively here at Neural.

Heres some recent articles touching on the subject:

However, lets suffice in saying that theres no empirical definition of time that would satisfy our desire to determine its place in our universe.

Well have to view the concept of time from a more measurable frame of reference.

Lets imagine a one-second video of a dandelion swaying in the breeze.

Even though one second is a very short duration, its still plenty of time for our eyes and brains to pick up on any motion and figure out exactly whats going on.

Go ahead, try it: close your eyes and try to picture a swaying dandelion as you count a full one-one thousand in your head. See? Its doable.

If your imagination were a standard, typical HD TV, it would be displaying that video at a refresh rate of 60hz. And if the video were recorded under the most common settings it would either display at 24 frames-per-second (FPS) or 30.

Lets add two more facts to the mix before we bring it all together and explain what these numbers mean.

If we assume the universe is made up of discrete chunks of spacetime, we can theorize a maximum frame-rate.

Unfortunately we dont currently have any way of estimating how many FPS the universe or base reality runs at. We can talk in terms of measurements, such as the speed of light or the size of a Planck unit, but we cant be sure either of those perceived extremes represent true limits in the universe.

No matter what, were stuck dealing with assumptions because of our limited perspective.

Were fish in an aquarium trying to understand our relative position to the outside world. From our point of view, the universe follows at least two different sets of rules Newtonian physics and quantum physics. But what if were only seeing a tiny fraction of the whole picture?

Spyridon Michalakis, the physicist who consulted on Marvels Ant-Man films, recently discussed the concept with Voxs Alex Abad-Santos:

Lets say we only perceive 100 frames per second, something like that. We can be aware of our lives and choices we make, but then the frame rate of the universe where you could be flickering between different timelines is 40 orders of magnitude above that. Its one with 40 zeros.

Then we make the best approximation.

Were all trying to figure out the plot of the universe by just watching the beginning and the end of the movie, the first and last frame. Were just reconstructing the in-between the best we can. Thats where the multiverse hides; it hides there in between frames. Honestly, I think that the frame rate of the universe truly is infinite, not even finite, very, very large. And were so far away from that.

Its the last line that piqued my interest: And were so far away from that. How far away is so far?

Because I remember when video games looked like this:

Now they look nearly photo-realistic. Have you seen some of the early Unreal Engine 5 demos? Theyre breathtaking.

In another 30 years, it could be impossible to differentiate between VR and reality without some form of buffer to indicate which one youre perceiving.

Right now, millions of gamers pay premium prices for displays and graphics cards capable of running games at frame-rates in excess of 120FPS and at refresh rates in excess of 120hz, despite the fact that theres no indication the human eye or brain can perceive motion at these rates.

Why? Because we can. Someone probably demonstrated some sort of secondary benefit to increasing frame-rates that made it easy enough to market these gonzo systems to overeager gamers.

At some point, if we keep pushing the limits of FPS and refresh rates, well be developing systems capable of displaying graphics at resolutions and frame-rates no human could ever perceive which seems a lot like recording an entire music album in tones and frequencies we cant hear.

But these systems could be useful in teaching AI to detect nuances at the quantum level (or in the quantum realm as Ant-Man would say) that humans couldnt even if they shrunk themselves down.

Heres the payoff: one day, maybe 30 years from now maybe 300 its possible our endeavor to build the most robust metaverse possible an immersive experience that goes far beyond merely fooling the human visual cortex will provide us with the ground truth about base reality.

If time is indeed discrete chunks, the architects of the metaverse could eventually train an AI to dial in the universes frame-rate and literally see the individual chunks.

And, by then re-building the metaverse out of digital chunks that emulate the universes timespace chunks in size, speed, and mass, we would be creating a one-for-one model of our universe, inside our universe.

This would almost certainly indicate that our universe is either part of a physical multiverse, or that its a simulation. And the multiverse we created? It would be a simulation inside of a simulation. You can see where this is going.

Then again, maybe time isnt discrete. If thats the case, then all this talk of FPS and resolution is moot. If there are no chunks, there cant be gaps between them. And that means there cant be any frames.

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How the metaverse (and quantum physics) could prove our universe is a fake - The Next Web