I

received an email inquiry last week concerning the possibility that our universe is simply a computer program run by advanced beings (ala Matrix - the best movie I've seen in the past year). To which I replied that pursuing such an idea would be fruitless since we could not access the "hyper-programmers" nor conduct an experiment to verify the conjecture. And if we could, we should then be presented with the problem of how these other guys came to be ... back to square one, one step removed.

There are many possibilities. However, we cannot follow up on anything which is "untouchable" in principle. We must confine ourselves to a finite logic. If we encounter an infinite regression or that hall of mirrors, we must look away or get brain-locked like Bertrand Russell contemplating his own class paradox. What good would it do to sit in a chair and stare at the wall? We must move on.

Another good answer has occurred to me.

One which has global consequences. Namely, such a hyper-program probably wouldn't work. It would crash due to internal inconsistencies.

"Fatal exception"

The blue screen of death ...............

In the movie "The Thirteenth Floor", the people in the program can leave Los Angeles but if they go too far they run into that "blue screen", i.e. there's nothing there. Therefore, they realize that they are avatars only and the program crashes ... logically.

I believe that there is only one type of universe which is internally consistent and you are living in it. It is the display of logic itself in geometric form.

Herein lies the difference between my viewpoint and all others. They believe that the universe is the subject of logic rather than the thing itself ... and that therefore, clearly there are any number of universes which might be internally consistent and we live in just one of them.

On the other hand, my position is "locked down" ...