Would it be possible to write a program that simulates the Universe?

Question

This program could have certain constant values, e.g. speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s and the formula for gravity etc.

Then the models would be defined, e.g. atomic model, the four forces etc.

After setting the initial "rules" of the Universe and starting the simulation at the Big Bang wouldn't the simulation run just like the real version Big Bang? And if we forward the simulation way ahead, would we see planets with what appears to be small lifeforms etc?

Would it be actually possible to do this?

Answer 1

No, it would not be possible.  The amount of information needed to model each particle requires *at least* a particle to hold the information.  The only thing big enough to model the universe is ... the universe itself.

As long as the program is *in* the universe, it can not model the universe.  And even if the computer was the size of 1/2 the universe, it could not model the other half.  

But if you allow a tiny bit of error for each particle, and model only part of the universe, then you could do it.  You could have 98% of the universe be the  computer that runs the program for the  other 2%, with about  2% error.  But 2% error in position is ... 280 million light years!

And for those people who  say the  quantum mechanical uncertainly would stop you, I say that QM does not  change the *general* shape of the result.  You would still get practically the same stars, galaxies, etc.

Answer 2

How do you not know that you may already be in a type of Spiritual Matrix?

Answer 3

It's possible to write one that simulates our perception of the universie to our own individual minds, hearts, bodies, and souls but otherwise no.

Answer 4

hello how r u

Answer 5

Unfortunatley, without a known startpoint, you wouldn't be able to pull it off.  Quantum physics has trouble defining what happen under the intense gravity of ultra-dense material, like just before the big bang, and black holes. forces like electromagnetic and the nuclear forces are not properly defined... and that is just the start

you would have to put in information on "dark matter" and its gravity, but we still do not know how it works, or even exisits at all.

In short, the main problem would be defining gravity, and the amount of matter actually in your virtual universe.

Answer 6

No, it would not be possible like that. Only because of one fact - A computer can only work with the data, which fits into it's memory.

The whole universe is a lot of data and the detail level you want, would not even fit into the largest currently available computer. But more abstract simulations, like the matter distribution, are possible.

Also, the amount of interactions alone in one multi-cell organism would mean that the calculations will take years for only one second of the simulation.

Answer 7

I guess it could be possible, but it would have to be a very beastly computer.

But what will really mess with your head is the questions of whether or not this universe is a simulation in a computer, you would never know.

If so, the admin has some sense of humor.......

Answer 8

Cool idea but the answer is NO we can never know everything about the universe.

Answer 9

Its been done (sort of) already.

Astronomers took 25 terabytes of data and simulated cosmic evolution.  Its called the Millennium Run, and this simulation was created and executed for the first time in 2005 by the Virgo consortium, an international group of astrophysicists from Germany, the UK, Canada, Japan and the USA.

There is a good (though short and rather technical) article in the May 2007 issue of Astronomy magazine (or at astronomy.com)