I do think its useful to use what we know about simulations to inform whether or not we live in one. As I said in my other comment, I don’t think a finite speed of light, etc., says much either way, but I do want to note a few things that I think would be suggestive.
If time was discrete and the time step appeared to be a function of known time step limits (e.g., the CFL condition), I would consider that to be good evidence in favor of the simulation hypothesis.
The jury is still out whether time is discrete, so we can’t evaluate the second necessary condition. If time were discrete, this would be interesting and could be evidence for the simulation hypothesis, but it’d be pretty weak. You’d need something further that indicates something how the algorithm, like the time step limit, to make a stronger conclusion.
Another possibility is if some conservation principle were violated in a way that would reduce computational complexity. In the water sprinkler simulations I’ve run, droplets are removed from the simulation when their size drops below a certain (arbitrary) limit as these droplets have little impact on the physics, and mostly serve to slow down the computation. Strictly speaking, this violates conservation of mass. I haven’t seen anything like this in physics, but its existence could be evidence for the simulation hypothesis.
I do think its useful to use what we know about simulations to inform whether or not we live in one. As I said in my other comment, I don’t think a finite speed of light, etc., says much either way, but I do want to note a few things that I think would be suggestive.
If time was discrete and the time step appeared to be a function of known time step limits (e.g., the CFL condition), I would consider that to be good evidence in favor of the simulation hypothesis.
The jury is still out whether time is discrete, so we can’t evaluate the second necessary condition. If time were discrete, this would be interesting and could be evidence for the simulation hypothesis, but it’d be pretty weak. You’d need something further that indicates something how the algorithm, like the time step limit, to make a stronger conclusion.
Another possibility is if some conservation principle were violated in a way that would reduce computational complexity. In the water sprinkler simulations I’ve run, droplets are removed from the simulation when their size drops below a certain (arbitrary) limit as these droplets have little impact on the physics, and mostly serve to slow down the computation. Strictly speaking, this violates conservation of mass. I haven’t seen anything like this in physics, but its existence could be evidence for the simulation hypothesis.