Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks there's a 'very high' chance the universe is just a simulation

Business Insider ^ | 04/22/2016 | Kevin Loria

[SeekAndFind]

We trust the scientists around us to have the best grasp on how the world actually works.

So at this year's 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate at the American Museum of Natural History, which addressed the question of whether the universe is a simulation, the answers from some panelists may be more comforting than the responses from others.

Physicist Lisa Randall, for example, said that she thought the odds that the universe isn't "real" are so low as to be "effectively zero."

A satisfying answer for those who don't want to sit there puzzling out what it would mean for the universe not to be real, to be sure.

But on the other hand, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was hosting the debate, said that he thinks the likelihood of the universe being a simulation "may be very high."

Uh-oh?

The question of whether we know that our universe is real has vexed thinkers going far back into history, long before Descartes made his famous "I think, therefore I am" statement. The same question has been explored in modern science-fiction films like "The Matrix" and David Cronenberg's "Existenz."

But most physicists and philosophers agree that it's impossible to prove definitively that we don't live in a simulation and that the universe is real.

Tyson agrees, but says that he wouldn't be surprised if we were to find out somehow that someone else is responsible for our universe.

One of the main arguments that physicists use to talk about what's known as the "simulation hypothesis" is that if we can prove that it's possible to simulate a universe — if we can figure out all the laws that govern how everything works, which physicists are trying to do —

[SeekAndFind]

[Kickass Conservative]

You will never know as much as you don’t know.

[Red Steel]

So we are in the Matrix.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The universe does not exist as we perceive it, I have no doubt about that. We perceive four dimensions counting time, but there are a lot more than that.

[2ndDivisionVet]

What do Bill Nye and Sheldon Cooper think?

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Coincidentally, Scott Adams came to the same conclusion after watching the rise of Donald Trump. He compared it to a three-part story arc with Trump as the heroic figure.

[dsrtsage]

Why not, global warming is fully caused by man made simulations

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Yes, we are all batteries for someone’s TV remote.

[Chode]

a globull change believer too???

[Vendome]

[Olog-hai]

Neil deGrasse Tyson … “very high” …

Or at least he acts like it.

[MHGinTN]

Lisa is much better looking. I take her answer.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

I suggest we print and spend a few billion dollars on a new gummit program, just to be sure.

/s

[heights]

So the Universe may be a computer program, but there is definitely no God. World Class Stupidity.

[gatorhead]

The last words of Steve Jobs......”Oh Wow.”

[jwalsh07]

So God writes code in His spare time?

[ConservativeMind]

So Neil now believes in Intelligent Design, by default?

[Zionist Conspirator]

So . . . I assume this “simulation” is self-created and self-programmed?

[GingisK]

Could someone please adjust the climate change control in order quell the panic?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

And obviously it’s infested with a massive amount of viruses.