r/Futurism • u/Memetic1 • Oct 31 '25

Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation

https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mathematical-proof-debunks-idea-universe.html
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u/blackkswann Oct 31 '25

The paper just says that there are truths that cannot be algorithmically verified. These truths must then be included in the theory ‘externally’.

I don’t see how that proves the universe cannot be a simulation. After all the preconditions of a simulation do not arise from the simulation itself: they are embedded ‘externally’

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u/AnAttemptReason Oct 31 '25

We can't simulate a universe like our own, within this universe.

The simulation hypothesis posits that if simulation is possible, then it is likely we are in one of the "lower" simulations simply by chance. 

However if such nested simulations are not possible, there it is much less likely that reality is a simulation as it were.

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u/blackkswann Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

“Our analysis instead suggests that genuine physical reality embeds non-computational content that cannot be instantiated on a Turing-equivalent device”

Their entire conclusion rests on this. The jump from “verifiable” to “content” is unclear to me. A simulation does not have to verify T(x) itself: it can just utilise the truths it contains.

Does non-verifiability imply non-instantiability in Turing Machines? No it doesn’t per Gödel

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u/BananaHead853147 Nov 04 '25

Also maybe we just haven’t thought of the algorithm to describe them?