The question is if we are in a simulation, what sort of
computer is running it? What are the laws that govern how that computer
operates? How do you get simulations to have a conscious experience? Is that
computer a simulation in another computer, and what about that computer…where
does the chain of infinite regression end?
Especially these questions are pertinent if quantum mechanics
means that reality is “pixelated” and thus a computer simulation.
Electronic computers work because of quantum mechanics. Any
computer powerful enough to simulate the universe would likely harness the
power of quantum mechanics as well, even more so. Quantum mechanics explains
how atoms behave, which is the foundation for chemistry, and as well as electromagnetism
and this electricity which is what runs modern computers.
If we are a simulation running on a computer of some sort, then
it might not be a computer in the everyday sense and the laws of physics that govern
that computer’s behavior might be unlike what we observe, which is all based on
the behavior of quantum mechanics. In fact, we might not call such higher
reality a computer in the everyday sense at all. In that sense, reality might
indeed be something akin to a “simulation”, but not in the sense of being in an
electronic machine.
