James Gates is a theoretical physicist who studied physics at MIT. There he gained two BS degrees and his PhD where his thesis was on supersymmetry. Gates has become quite famous in his research on supersymmetry, the universe, and string theory. He claimed to have found computer code in string theory.
What he found is strings of binary code in the equations that researchers attempt to use to define string theory. These strings of binary code are related, if not the same, as what’s known as Shannon codes. These codes are in fact used all around us today. They’re a kind of error-correcting code.
Claude Shannon discovered this code is now used for lossless data compression. In the most general way to describe it, these codes are a kind of prefix/starter code that points to something large. These prefix codes use symbols and probabilities to represent larger things, like data. Therefore, we get image compression, audio compression, zip files, and more.
What James Gates found was a set of binary codes that act as Shannon codes. These codes are also what drive our search engines.
Many people have taken this information and began to form theories based on the findings. James Gates will be the first one to say that he and his fellow researchers do not know what these codes mean or what they have to do with string theory.
Today, no researchers have been able to effectively prove string theory to be true with experimentation. String theory is thus a theory, but that does not change that it has been the most popular theory for almost half a century.
String theory has given rise to many debates such as the one of our reality actually being a simulation. You may be wondering what this has to do with James Gates and the computer codes he found.
Computer Codes, String Theory, False Reality?
Finding what we described as an error-correcting or error-handling code in the equations for string theory has had a dramatic effect on society. Many people believe that these codes help prove that we are living in a simulation.
Back in 2003, Nick Bostrom, a philosopher, gave rise to the idea of the simulation hypothesis. He does not directly state that we are living in a simulation. Rather he gives us a set of three options where one of which is very likely true.
1. The human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage;
2. Any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof);
3. We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. d in his paper “Are You Living In A Computer Simulation?”, the three options are as follows:
Arguments for Living in a Simulation
Right now, we have very limited computing power. We do not have even close to what it would take to create a simulation on the level of what we’re living. However, the argument is with time technology will grow so quickly just as it has throughout our history. Eventually, there will be some post-human life that will have incomprehensible levels of technology.
It hypothesized that these alternate life forms may themselves not even be organic in nature. They may be computer-based themselves. The general idea is there will be some “life form” way down the line, maybe in millions of years, that has the computing power and capability to run simulations on the scale of what we experience.
Since these “aliens” have incredibly powerful computers, they are more than likely running thousands, millions, or even billions of simulations. With the chance that this is occurring, there are more simulations running than organic life forms in the universe.
Now consider there are life forms way above our intelligence level somewhere in the universe. These life forms have conquered the galaxies and are inter-galaxy beings. They can travel through the universe at will because of their advanced technology.
These advanced beings are more than likely running billions of simulations. And if that is true, what are the chances we are one of the few organic life forms in the universe compared to the billions of simulations running?
What Does This Mean for Us?
Depending on your philosophical and life views, this could mean absolutely nothing. Many philosophers throughout history have pointed out the absurdity in life. Some philosophers go so far as saying life is meaningless and not created for us to be happy. Take that as you wish, but, this argument of simulated reality doesn’t need to mean anything to you.
Likely, Bostrom’s arguments are simply incorrect or backed up poorly.
For example, if we were living in a simulation, wouldn’t the life forms want to make it impossible for us to even question that? If we believed or knew we were living in a simulation, it would completely alter the status quo of the simulation.
We can all take this idea an expand upon it further ourselves. What would it mean to you if you were living in a simulation?
Would you change the way you lived? If everyone believed this, would humanity finally find peace? Would wars, endless fighting, and suffering stop? Or would things get worse?
There are endless questions we can ask.
This idea of simulation is just one potential answer to James Gate’s findings. There are computer codes in string theory, and we do not know why. Nick Bostrom simply hypothesized something that happened to correlate to this.
If there are error-handling codes in string theory equations, does that mean some other life form is using those codes? Maybe we only discovered these equations and codes because someone or something wanted us to.
This paper intends to spread the findings of James Gates and the ideas of Nick Bostrom. Take the information here and expand upon it yourself.
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