Supercomputer used to create the largest ever simulation of the universe

[Shawn Knight]

Some of today’s greatest minds seem to think that it’s entirely plausible that the world as we know it is little more than a giant simulation. Neil deGrasse Tyson in 2016 pegged the probability of such scenario at 50 percent while Elon Musk thinks there’s a one in a billion chance that we’re in base reality.

If true, the amount of processing power that would be needed to pull off a simulation that’s indistinguishable from base reality would be orders of magnitude greater than anything we can even fathom at this point in time. Indeed, we’ve only barely scratched the surface of mapping the visible universe using our own cutting-edge technology.

Researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have spent the last three years creating what is now the largest simulation of the universe. The code they developed, known as PKDGRAV3, was created specifically to take advantage of resources afforded by a supercomputer – in this case, the Piz Daint supercomputer located at the Swiss National Computing Center (CSCS).

Over the course of 80 hours, the machine compiled the code which generated a virtual universe consisting of two trillion macro-particles. That data was used to create a catalog composed of 25 billion virtual galaxies. That's a bunch.

The catalog will be loaded aboard the ESA’s Euclid spacecraft in 2020. Euclid will spend 6.25 years in space in hopes of bettering our understanding of dark matter and dark energy.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/69681-supercomputer-used-create-largest-ever-simulation-universe.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

 

[Igrecman]

Nah, that's a closeup of my hairy back.

 

[Squid Surprise]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

Yeah, clearly that's a relevant comment.... Maybe God made the simulation?

 

[Satish Mallya]

What people seem to miss is that every level down will be many orders of magnitude simpler than the universe that spawned it.
Since there is no limit to complexity, there is no reason to believe we are in the most complex of universes.
For instance, to a sapient being arising from Conway's Game of Life, the universe of the game will look endless and, with the tools it has (consider a computer made in that universe) extremely complicated. To us, though, it would seem very simple.

Of course, it isn't evidence one way or another, but something to think about.

 

[wastedkill]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

I am God, what now.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I am god, what now.

If you were, you would have capitalized your name.

 

[Satish Mallya]

If you were, you would have capitalized your name.

If you were, You would have capitalized Your Name. FTFY

 

[cliffordcooley]

I do.

 

[Squid Surprise]

So I guess I'm God.... I got 2 caps in my name

 

[wiyosaya]

Maybe the secret to God rests in Shermer's Last Law: Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.

 

[Mc128k]

Maybe the secret to God rests in Shermer's Last Law: Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

Without a clear definition, "god" is just a word. Every argument here is valid because they are all nonsense the same way.

 

[Rippleman]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

Yeah, clearly that's a relevant comment.... Maybe God made the simulation?

Who made god (and which god) and is god (which god) a simulation as well? Also, the key thing is we can't measure it YET. With time and understanding and improvements in understanding, we learn more. At one point in time, (humans believed) Helios used to carry the sun across the sky on his chariot. With time and technology, we learned this is not true. Same story for dark energy and dark matter.

 

[wiyosaya]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

Yeah, clearly that's a relevant comment.... Maybe God made the simulation?

Who made god (and which god) and is god (which god) a simulation as well? Also, the key thing is we can't measure it YET. With time and understanding and improvements in understanding, we learn more. At one point in time, (humans believed) Helios used to carry the sun across the sky on his chariot. With time and technology, we learned this is not true. Same story for dark energy and dark matter.

You mean that Helios does not carry the sun across the sky? Honestly, I get up every morning and I swear I can see him and his chariot carrying the sun across the sky! It's an observation, so it must be scientific! Man, you have really shattered my universe.

 

[Adhmuz]

Nah, that's a closeup of my hairy back.

You might want to get those yellow spots looked at, I'm no doctor, but yellow things growing out of you should be enough of a concern to go see a physician.

 

[amstech]

Some of today’s greatest minds seem to think that it’s entirely plausible that the world as we know it is little more than a giant simulation.

Anything and everything seems plausible when we can't find answers for the origins of the universe, even ridiculous theories.

 

[Bruno M. Villar]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

And these same people will argue that God is real and will be selfish, they will think on a small way, utilize the same blind family learnings passed down by generations, and worst, buying iphones every year. Feeding the capitalism on it's mouth. Going to the church every sunday instead going to syria to help put a end on their fellows. These same people keep cheating their wives, and talking in the name of god. These same people fart as putrid as the other ones that don't believe in god. And last, but not least, they conceive kids to this world and neglect proper education as fathers, due their attentions to be entirely on their new iphones. That's what people that believe in god, do, same as people that don't. If god was responsible for some of these events that you refer as universe, he was only responsible to conceive the main particle, that originated everything. All the other events happened due a word called "evolution"

 

[wiyosaya]

Anything and everything seems plausible when we can't find answers for the origins of the universe, even ridiculous theories.

For sure. This brings to mind a quote from the Babylon 5 episode, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars". In the episode, the character Delenn is addressing a panel of talking heads about the nature of humanity and she says, "What you don't know, you invent." It really is about speculative things like this. There is currently no explanation, so humanity likes to bring in the supernatural, in this case, God, or computer simulations, etc. IMHO, prominent scientists would be better off saying "I do not know" rather than some speculation which is not at all supported by even an iota of scientific evidence.

 

[cliffordcooley]

@Bruno M. Villar, A picture is worth a thousand words. Your avatar is all I need to know about you.

 

[lipe123]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

You know when some smart weirdos 100's of years ago said "The earth is not a flat disk" there was also people like you that said "fk yoo talkin bout mahn?, get back in your straight jacket!"

Don't react so defensive to every new idea, it's just the wrong way to go about things.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Don't react so defensive to every new idea, it's just the wrong way to go about things.

Nor is an old idea, but since this is a new idea believing in the concept is so much easier.

 

[BrianMontanye]

And these same people will argue that God is not real. What a bunch of hypocrites!

I am God, what now.

Congratulations! You have as much claim to that title as Spider Man does! Hypocritical claims would require you to have proof of such, since the beginning of time there is 0 proof of a divine being. I'm curious to see your evidence.

 

[wastedkill]

Congratulations! You have as much claim to that title as Spider Man does! Hypocritical claims would require you to have proof of such, since the beginning of time there is 0 proof of a divine being. I'm curious to see your evidence.

I wrote a few books.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Fine... my definition of "God": An omnipotent being who is also all-benevolent.

Unfortunately, the world (and humans) aren't perfect.... so clearly such a being does not exist.

So if some other "godlike" being exists... it isn't all-powerful... or it isn't all-benevolent.... so in that case, why am I praying to it?

Time to give up on God and move on with important stuff like, "Can I get my video game to play at 240FPS on a 32" 4k screen!

 

[Skjorn]

Saying that God is or isn't real is a lie coming from both sides. The real answer is, that you don't know. Nobody knows.
When people ask me if God is real I just say I don't know.
Do I believe in something, yes, what is it? I don't know.
Do I believe we are in an electrified computer's simulation? No, that is ****ing nonsense Mr. Musk.
Maybe God's PC is running a test simulation? LOL

Oh about the actual article, they only ran the 80 hour test once? Then called it good? wtf ever happened to double and triple checking? bringing backups? multiverses? compare and contrast?