Physicist proposes universe operates as ultimate computer, simulated construct

With the Final Frontier still largely undiscovered and a mystery to us, a physicist has proposed that the universe operates as an ultimate computer and that physical reality is a simulated construct, made up of structured information.

Indeed, Dr. Melvin Vopson, a physicist from the University of Portsmouth has presented findings that might support the theory that gravity or gravitational force is the result of a computational process within the universe in his research paper in AIP Advances on April 25.

Specifically, Dr. Vopson has suggested that gravity might actually be the outcome of the way in which information about matter is organized in the universe – making it work like an ultimate computer, with our reality being a simulated construct operated by it.

Why the universe is an ultimate computer

Referring to the second law of information dynamics, which describes the time evolution of the entropy of information states in an isolated system evolving to equilibrium, he has argued that matter and objects in space might be attracting each other because the universe is trying to keep information organized.

In his words:

“My findings in this study fit with the thought that the universe might work like a giant computer, or our reality is a simulated construct. Just like computers try to save space and run more efficiently, the universe might be doing the same. It’s a new way to think about gravity – not just as a pull, but as something that happens when the universe is trying to stay organized.”

As it happens, the physicist has previously published work indicating that information had mass and that all elementary particles, i.e. the smallest known building blocks of the universe – store information about themselves, much like how cells, the building blocks of biological entities, store it in their DNA.

His most recent work demonstrates how space pixelation in elementary cells can function as a storage medium, observing how the role of data stored in these cells is providing the properties and the coordinates of matter in the space-time simulated construct, where each cell can register information in the form of binary data – if it’s empty, it registers a digital ‘0,’ and if there’s matter in a cell, it registers a digital ‘1.’

Running a simulation of reality

Furthermore, Dr. Vopson has likened this process to designing a digital computer game, virtual reality (VR) application, or other advanced simulation, further pointing out that, considering a cell can contain more than one particle, then the system will evolve by itself by moving the particles in space to join them together into a single larger particle inside one cell:

“This triggers the attracting force because of the rule set in the computational system, requiring the minimization of the information content, and by extension, a reduction of the computational power. Put simply, it is far more computationally effective to track and compute the location and momentum of a single object in space than numerous objects. Therefore, it appears that the gravitational attraction is just another optimizing mechanism in a computational process that has the role to compress information.”

Elsewhere, efforts in uncovering the universe’s secrets continue, with astronomers making an exciting and unusual exoplanet that in its planetary setup resembles the Star Wars franchise’s Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, which has twin suns.