The emergence of the physical world from information processing

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the physical universe functions as a virtual reality generated by information processing, offering a scientific framework to evaluate this hypothesis through physics and computation principles.

Contribution

It introduces a scientific theory linking the virtual reality conjecture with empirical physics, suggesting the universe's physical laws emerge from information processing.

Findings

Photon as a pixel on a multi-dimensional grid

Conservation laws as laws of information conservation

Big bang as system boot-up of the universe

Abstract

This paper links the conjecture that the physical world is a virtual reality to the findings of modern physics. What is usually the subject of science fiction is here proposed as a scientific theory open to empirical evaluation. We know from physics how the world behaves, and from computing how information behaves, so whether the physical world arises from ongoing information processing is a question science can evaluate. A prima facie case for the virtual reality conjecture is presented. If a photon is a pixel on a multi-dimensional grid that gives rise to space, the speed of light could reflect its refresh rate. If mass, charge and energy all arise from processing, the many conservation laws of physics could reduce to a single law of dynamic information conservation. If the universe is a virtual reality, then its big bang creation could be simply when the system was booted up. Deriving core physics from information processing could reconcile relativity and quantum theory, with the former how processing creates the space-time operating system and the latter how it creates energy and matter applications.