StarTalk
StarTalkNeil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are here (or are they?) to investigate if we’re living in a simulation. We explore the ever-advancing computer power and how that impacts the simulation hypothesis. Chuck wonders if a simulation universe has anything to do with us not being able to travel at the speed of light. You’ll learn about Bayesian statistics. Lastly, Neil tells us how he was ready to embrace the simulation hypothesis until he came across a certain idea that changed his mind.
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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#StarTalk #NeilDeGrasseTyson
0:00 – Introduction
0:23 – The Simulation Hypothesis
3:39 – The argument that undermines the simulation hypothesis
5:49 – Are we interesting enough to be simulated?
7:22 – Does Neil think we’re in a simulation?
7:39 – Outro
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38 Comments
@rayj.5792
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMIt's going to be a big surprise when we find ourselves facing the big white throne…" Sorry, children, it was not a simulation, the time has come to review your lives"
@rollinwiththeflow2174
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI used to value Neil’s logic but he forever lost me because of his thinking that we can’t be in a simulation because we can’t do it today. What???
@pharq11
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMReminds me of the movie, The Thirteenth Floor.
@davidhughes6
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI am a believer 100%
@Tarzaani
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMBut every aimulation would be able to create infinite amount of simulations so that would make it more likely that we are in a simulation
@martnespinoza9357
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMThe imagination given to you by the creator can take you to the edge of the universe and back in a split second. Reality is a place with our time . Time is a creation by humans that lead them to their death and end . When you except that the creator made you perfect you enter eternal life.
@johnrandom
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMWhat if we're living in a simulation, but that simulation is not being generated by a computer in base reality or another simulation, but is instead being generated by pure consciousness, which would then be base reality? In that case, there could be only one simulation; the one that we're in.
@cxwburn
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMthe fact they say "they create a program" just shows they know theirs a higher power. Thankyou Lord Jesus!
@jameslyons4919
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMinteresting but one thing that threw me off was when they talked about making movies before we were able to make movies as compared to making movies when we were able to make movies, and then the they mention the 3 musketeers??…..Neil Tyson is a very smart dude so I apparently was not able to understand that one due to not being so smart.
@earthgypsie1
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMBut what is real Neo?
@delbertfishcakes9280
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMHello Simulation Programmers!
Could you remove my lactose intolerance from the programming please?
@ProbablyAnEarthbender
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMIsn't the statement "We're either the first or the most recent, making our chances a 50/50" assuming the creation of simulations would be linear?
Surely multiple simulations- similar to movies or video games- could be made at once by multiple people, even if we assume each simulation eventually creates a simulation of itself. While the initial statement would still be true, we could have an infinite amount of undeveloped brother and sister simulations, no?
@CitizensDigest
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI have literally solved this theory and we are in fact are in a simulation but not as you think if you are interested get this comment to a 100 likes I’ll drop the explanation unfortunately by the end of my theory your not going to view the world the same
@EpicScale99
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMReal recognize real … I love being a 90s kid
@umbra_24
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMGetting similar mindset before watching this video make me happy.
@SwapneelM2010
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMActually even computers can't go faster than the clock speed . when we have a processor with 2.4GZ that directly indicates upper limit of the computing power. So I think the speed of Light is essentially that kind of limit set in our simulated environment we live in
@Jack0Herrer
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMNeil degrasse. 1 of the smartest i know. But your guest had the right questions all the way. Hé was so smart
@mmmatminnix
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI heard this awhile I go and a thought came to me.
Even if we make a simulation and that simulation makes a simulation, I don’t think the odds change. Because we know exactly what would we are compared to the most recent simulation.
To explain better we can only be the first real world, or the simulation 4 from the most recent simulation. By 4 away from the mostly recent I mean from use there are 4 more worlds down the chain, because we know this we know this we can only be the first, or the world four away from the last.
I might be wrong. I am open to corrections. I’m just a dumb high schooler
@rimaghosh9904
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI love simulation technology ,i worked on agricultural simultations DSsat
@rimaghosh9904
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI also have the same idea ,but the neural work can be programming but the biological structure of the living beings ,biological processes needs some higher ideas
@rimaghosh9904
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMMultidimensional simulation , evolved beings in the universe doing this controling 😮
@notapplikable
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMWhy computers? That's so constraining.
We live in consciousness. Computers may allow us to see higher evolution in manner we can understand 3D, even at the highest level of 'living in a simulation' it's still just one 3D model inside another like Russian Marushka nesting dolls. That's not it, we are in consciousness, and we change intelligence and self aware states when we go from human container to a dark matter container or living as a star. Everything has a mind… so to think that just because humans had to create all this stuff to exist and finally made a computer that the simulation is the answer is naif. It's a fun idea.
But isn't the light universe only 5% of the universe and 95% of the universe is dark and unknown to us. So that other 95% is probably existing in the higher demension utterly unaware of our existence. Meaning life is EVERYWHERE in the dark universe, where dark is prime for life, and not light and stars.
@Geezer_-_js3kg4zg3w
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMWeird. I am watching a gravity race with comments about the Neil Degrass Tyson video I just finished watching. Am I in a simulation?
@sheryln19
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMso how is intelligence is related to this? I mean like not every person is nit good at math but why ? how someone can solve a question v easily but couldn't be good at sports and vice versa?? how could this be a part of simulation?
@michaelarcher1179
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMMath.
Your either / or possibilities are an almost strawman argument at best.
Is he backing off this because it once was “cool” to side with Elon Musk, and now no one of intellect sees Musk as a genius?
Tyson “feels better” and thinks the simulation theory is not possible because he read some books and talked to some collegues? What collegues? Name them. What books? Nome them. Science is not feelings. It has a method. Show your work, please, sir.
@davidkloss2883
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMOk. So they talk about what the possibility is, but they don't answer where or how it started.
This goes back to nothing can create nothing. Everything started somewhere, so where did those who created the simulation?
Everything they say is after that fact. It's the fact of, before, that they have no answers for.
@SamFisherK
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMThe original computer would crash when it starts running these simulations in the simulation 😂
@parkerb9010
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI love the geek out moment haha
@DeesonJame
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI have a few problems with that argument.
@rountraw
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMSims can't smell a fart
@gbaz8
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMSimulation theory is just an another way saying there is a god?
@lynth
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMHow does that become 50/50? This is a fallacy from ignorance: "Because we haven't figured it out, yet, it can't be true!".
There are other things wrong with the argument.
1. Maybe millions of other alien species in our universe have already figured it out and are simulating universes. Universe A simulating universe B doesn't cancel out universe A's existence nor does it stop universe A from evolving further.
2. We are already simulating inferior universes. They are called computer games. The claim that all universes before you have the power "to simulate themselves exactly" is nonsense – a universe doesn't need to simulate itself exactly to simulate some other universe. That is not a valid premise for argument.
3. Maybe we are in a significantly inferior universe compared to the universe simulating us. Which actually makes perfect sense because our "computing speed" (lightspeed) and our "resolution" (Planck length) aren't infinite. The universe simulating us probably has a higher resolution (i.e. a shorter Planck length and faster speed of light – the "original" universe that stands at the beginning likely has infinitely high light speed and infinitely small Planck length).
Sorry Neil, if this argument convinced you, you need to think harder!
@NeonSlime-uu5kt
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI love this channel. Thanks 😊
@opus1656
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMReal recognize Real 😂
@MartyGuerrero-ex4ou
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMMan you don't know what you're talking about, You like to put some big words Behind you're dumb ideas. I see a bunch of loud mouth playing Domino's. How about you? Just shut up and watch Yourself waste away. Oh, yeah.
But do good things.
@user-js3jc7oy1t
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMIf this is a simulation then nothing matters. Here’s why nothing matters, because the free will you possess is controlled.
@RobJa
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMI always find something strange when i am driving. I can go 150mph and see everything in front of me clearly but if i turn my head and look out the passenger window everything is a blur. I thinks its 50/50 chance we are in a simulation. There is just too much we cant explain even with science.
@fredericoescorsin
02/14/2025 - 4:05 PMWe didn't create a simulation that powerful, but maybe another civilization in the universe did. In this case, we are not in a 50/50 situation anymore. Unless we are the only civilization simulated in our universe (and that's why we cant find aliens nowhere).