From Bernard Peek, Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK
Some letter writers seem to have missed some of the implications of living in a simulation. It is provably impossible to detect that we are in a simulation. Should anyone discover a “fact” that reveals the simulation, the system admin can stop the run, edit out the rogue fact and restart from a backup (Letters, 17 January).
In a simulation, events can unhappen. We can’t rely on the laws of physics to reveal flaws in the simulation, because we don’t know anything about them. We only have access to a simulation of them. We can’t use the complexity of the calculations needed, either. The simulation isn’t necessarily running in real time. We have only our perception of time passing. We don’t even know with any certainty whether the “real” universe possesses a property analogous to time or what limitations there are on computing capabilities. Neither the real nor simulated realities are in any way constrained by our inability to understand them.
