No, cosmology, according to the New York Times.
So, Sir Martin Rees, you be quiet for a bit. You might be right, of course, but please don’t frighten the Forces:
If we’re all living inside a complex computer simulation, we should probably accept our fate — lest our universe get unplugged.
At least, that’s according to Nanyang Technological University philosophy professor Preston Greene, who penned a New York Times op-ed arguing that we should stop looking for evidence of simulation theory — because proving the universe is simulated would probably render the simulation useless for whoever’s running it, meaning we could all get scrapped like a wayward family in “The Sims.”
Dan Robitzski, “Simulation Theory “May Cause the Annihilation of Our Universe.”” at Futurism
Here’s the op-ed:
As far as I am aware, no physicist proposing simulation experiments has considered the potential hazards of this work. This is surprising, not least because Professor Bostrom himself explicitly identified “simulation shutdown” as a possible cause of the extinction of all human life.
This area of academic research is rife with speculation and uncertainty, but one thing is for sure: If scientists do go ahead with these simulation experiments, the results will be either extremely uninteresting or spectacularly dangerous. Is it really worth the risk?
Preston Greene, “Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out” at New York Times
At least the crackpot cosmologist is mostly scaring himself. The rest of us are wondering whether water bears could survive on the moon. That’s all the “space aliens” we can be sure of.
See also: Rob Sheldon on the chances of the tardigrades (water bears) surviving the recent moon crash Sheldon: Well, I do think that dormant tardigrades, which could survive for hundreds if not thousands of years in a “freeze-dried” state, can be revived when placed in water. If the spacecraft, Beresheet, had crashed with dormant tardigrades, then most definitely they are scattered about the surface of the Moon, waiting for their resurrection day in water.
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