Reality is not real.

[pjclarke]

We can’t travel beyond the edge of the universe without exceeding the speed of light, which is theoretically impossible. That’s what you would expect in a simulation. You would have some sort of rule of physics to keep the simulated people from traveling beyond the edges. Here I’m assuming the universe is expanding at the same rate as the light that is traveling in all directions, so we can never catch up to it.
The hypothetical creators of our simulation would also try to prevent us from discovering that we are not made of anything real. And sure enough, when science looks at our basic building blocks at the quantum level, all we have is probability and strangeness.*
I have viewed the world as having backwards causation (the present creates the past) since I was a young man. In my worldview, an envelope you receive in the mail doesn’t have definite contents until it is observed. Up until the moment someone sees the contents, the envelope can contain anything that known history has not yet ruled out. This model of the world explains my observations every bit as well as the idea that the past determines my future.*

Scott Adams (Mr Dilbert) taking a break from apologising for Trump and doubting climate change.

How to Know Whether You are a Real Person or a... | Scott Adams' Blog

[sasguru]

Dare I ask how unification theory is going?

String theory, which is the most common accepted attempt at unification, is drawing flak from some practicising physicists since it emerges out of the mathematics rather than being able to be tested empirically.
So it becomes a philosophical argument about the platonicity of mathematics and its constructs with respect to the real world.
The theory of multiple universes similarly emerges form the maths, but cannot be tested empirically.

[BrilloPad]

String theory, which is the most common accepted attempt at unification, is drawing flak from some practicising physicists since it emerges out of the mathematics rather than being able to be tested empirically.
So it becomes a philosophical argument about the platonicity of mathematics and its constructs with respect to the real world.
The theory of multiple universes similarly emerges form the maths, but cannot be tested empirically.

The multiverse thing is really bizarre. JP Morgan executive who jumped from bank's roof 'obsessed with couple's suicide pact' - Telegraph

Some JPM banker believed he would wake up in a parallel universe where he had won the lottery.

That was a bad day. The previous day a colleague died through over work. And I gave blood that morning after 3 hours of exercise - the veins closed up however the nurse was determined to get the blood out. Very painful. My last blood donation since then.

[MarillionFan]

The multiverse thing is really bizarre. JP Morgan executive who jumped from bank's roof 'obsessed with couple's suicide pact' - Telegraph

Some JPM banker believed he would wake up in a parallel universe where he had won the lottery.

That was a bad day. The previous day a colleague died through over work. And I gave blood that morning after 3 hours of exercise - the veins closed up however the nurse was determined to get the blood out. Very painful. My last blood donation since then.

Yes, but it doesn't prove whether he was right or wrong. For all we know he has escaped this false construct and moved to another better one. The only epitaph in this reality was they he topped himself, but from the other he's screaming at us to jump and escape our Matrix life.

[northernladyuk]

Yes, but it doesn't prove whether he was right or wrong. For all we know he has escaped this false construct and moved to another better one. The only epitaph in this reality was they he topped himself, but from the other he's screaming at us to jump and escape our Matrix life.

And humanity must struggle on minus one JP Morgan executive.

[OwlHoot]

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." ~~~ Albert Einstein

Seems like some people are inclined to assume Einstein was implying by this quote that the apparent "naturality" and spontaneity of reality is actually artificial or simulated. But obviously all he meant was that its deeper aspects differ qualitatively from how it appears to us in everyday situations.

Also, those limits on things such as light speed needn't imply lack of simulation resources. They also stop everything happening at once!

Furthermore, the argument about every advanced civilization embarking on a giant simulation making this more
probable than "raw naturality" can be turned against itself: What is to prevent sentient beings within a simulation from starting their own sub-simulation, and so on ad infinitum? That would be the most likely outcome, and the original simulation would grind to a halt in no time.

[sasguru]

And humanity must struggle on minus one JP Morgan executive.

He was an IT worker

[Hobosapien]

Also, those limits on things such as light speed needn't imply lack of simulation resources. They also stop everything happening at once!

Everything does happen at once. The big bang and the life and death of the physical universe was all over in an instant. It's only our perception of time that makes the universe appear to have existed for billions of years so far.

To grasp this, start by thinking how time is perceived by insects, birds, and other living creatures that operate at a much faster pace than we humans do. One of our minutes must feel like a lifetime to some species and indeed is at the microscopic level.

[MarillionFan]

Everything does happen at once. The big bang and the life and death of the physical universe was all over in an instant. It's only our perception of time that makes the universe appear to have existed for billions of years so far.

To grasp this, start by thinking how time is perceived by insects, birds, and other living creatures that operate at a much faster pace than we humans do. One of our minutes must feel like a lifetime to some species and indeed is at the microscopic level.

Judging by some of the permies i'm working with a small weeks worth of week seems to take a lifetime.

[northernladyuk]

Judging by some of the permies i'm working with a small weeks worth of week seems to take a lifetime.

Canteen staff having to work overtime?