For years, the idea that reality might be a sophisticated computer program has drifted from late-night dorm debates into mainstream culture and serious philosophy. Now a new wave of theoretical work ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Researchers say it's impossible to use algorithmic computation to generate everything in our universe. The possibility that our ...

Physicists have spent decades arguing over whether our universe is a fundamental reality or a kind of cosmic software, and the debate has just taken a sharp turn. A group of researchers now say they ...

New research from UBC Okanagan mathematically demonstrates that the universe cannot be simulated. Using Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, scientists found that reality requires “non-algorithmic ...

Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Tamara Turner/Daily I sit hunched over the edge of my bed, eyes focused intently on a friend of ...

Ever since Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed his simulation argument in 2001, the nerdiverse has attempted to assess the possibility that reality is not really real, that what we experience as ...

Just Elon Musk's name is enough to evoke an emotional response in many people, ranging from hope and glee in some to anger and disgust in others. But how about existential dread? It's true that one of ...

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, ...

This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world. For this series' final entry, we're ...