Einstein, Spooky Action at a Distance, and why the Universe might be a Simulation (or Console Game!)

Image: Captain Wow and Crookshanks at opposite ends of the Milky Way

While the esoteric branch of physics known as String Theory concerns itself with unprovable propositions like the larger 26-dimensional metaverse (apologies to Mark Zuckerberg) that our universe supposedly exists within, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity that describes the 4-dimensional nature of our own universe with profound accuracy. Multiple experiments have proven the predictions made by Relativity. However, Relativity also has its blind spots. According to Relativity, nothing can travel faster than light, and this has generally been observed to be true except in cases like quantum entanglement.

Spooky Action at a Distance One of the strangest phenomena observed in physics, quantum entanglement or Spooky Action at a Distance as Einstein called it, disobeys the speed limit of our universe. Any two sub-atomic particles created by the same event — say the collision of two atoms — remain connected by a common umbilical cord for ever after even as they fly off towards opposite ends of the universe. If you change (or determine, as a physicist would put it) the properties of one of these particles in one place, the other particle — even if light-years away — will instantly change (determine) its properties, as if the two are connected by a mysterious communication channel. For a long time, it was thought that this behavior was limited to sub-atomic particles like atoms and electrons, but researchers now report (see Science.org) seeing entanglement “in much larger objects that are nearly visible to the naked eye”. String Theory proposes a way out, arguing that entangled particles affect each other instantaneously by communicating via an Einstein-Rosen bridge, or more colloquially, a wormhole.

Wormholes, as any Star Trek or Dr. Who fan knows, are tunnels that can connect two far-apart points in our 4D universe through higher dimensions (like the ones proposed by String Theory!), essentially acting as shortcuts. To wrap your head around this, imagine a tunnel through a mountain that cuts your road journey down to 1 mile from the otherwise circuitous 20 miles you’d have to drive around the mountain. So, if String Theory is to be believed, the space around us is full of tiny wormholes that enable instantaneous communication between seemingly distant points.

Why the Universe might be a Computer Simulation We think of our universe as having purely physical origins, but a completely different explanation for the existence of our universe is offered by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and string theorist James Gates (see Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? — Scientific American). Our present-day technology can simulate entire worlds on our PCs and X-Boxes, and it is entirely conceivable a far more advanced civilization than us could simulate our own world on their computers. We would have very little clue that we are computer programs (living inside a larger program!) other than weird anomalies that crop up every now and then. Like spooky entanglement at a distance.

A Different Way to Think about Entanglement All of which gets me thinking that there is a different way to think about entanglement. Instead of atoms or electrons, let’s use cats for illustrative purposes— they are cuter than particles but equally mysterious. In a computer program universe, the Programmer would first create a Cat class as a template for all cats to come. Let’s say the cat class’s properties specify that all new cats come into existence with blue skin, green eyes and pink ears. All actual cats-or Cat instances-that comes into existence in our universe would by default have these characteristics. If at a later time the Programmer changes the Cat class to say that cats have orange eyes, all cats in our universe would immediately switch to having orange eyes. Now, let’s say the Programmer creates a class called Entangled Cat and two Entangled Cat instances-let’s call them Captain Wow and Crookshanks-and sends them in spaceships to opposite ends of the Milky Way. And She allows any change in the properties of either Captain Wow or Crookshanks to alter their common parent class Entangled Cat itself. The moment we change Captain Wow’s eyes from green to orange, Entangled Cat also changes, and as a consequence, Crookshanks’ eyes also change to orange, instantaneously. In a universe built on information, the speed of light is no barrier to certain kinds of change. And distance is no barrier to connection.

Image: Captain Wow’s eyes turn orange, kicking of a series of unfortunate events

If you are inclined to dismiss this as speculation, see Forget Space-Time: Information May Create the Cosmos | Space: Seth Lloyd, an MIT professor specializing in quantum information, likens the universe to a computer, “a physical system that breaks up information into bits, and flips those bits in a systematic fashion.” Lloyd sees the universe not like a computer as an explanatory metaphor; it really is a computer as scientific fact. As such, he claims that all changes in the universe are “computations.” Physicist Paul Davies puts it more directly: “Historically, matter has been at the bottom of the explanatory chain……. but the universe could be about information and information processing, and it is matter that emerges as a secondary concept.”

Many Worlds and Many You’s Quantum physics challenges our imagination in many ways more than entanglement. The Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics postulates an infinite number of universes are created at each instant, each slightly different from the other, and each with a slightly different version of you. In one universe, you voted for Biden; in another, for Trump, in yet another you stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Extending our universe as a simulation thought experiment, in a simulated many worlds universe, there is a Class or template for you that exists somewhere in 26-dimensional space and what you think of as your unique, individual personality is simply one fragment of some infinite, multi-dimensional being. I'll let you decide what this means for your sense of agency, as someone who thinks they are in control of their actions. Even more fun to contemplate is the possibility of beings that exist entirely in higher dimensions, like Q from Star Trek.

Image: Hall of mirrors, Camera Obscura, Edinburgh (Wikimedia Commons)

All of which leads to the very real possibility that the gods, demons and spirits that the priests, shamans and mediums speak of are not just projections of our subconscious but have an objective reality of their own. A universe based on information not only allows for such possibilities but screams out loud for it. And maybe we are all playing the ultimate fantasy role-playing game of all on the Xbox of the Cosmos.