The Entire Universe Is May Be A Neural Network, A Professor Of Physics Said

Computers have become increasingly powerful that they can compute extremely large numbers in a smaller amount of time.

And not just that, as with the abundance of data humans generate, researchers were able to train AI with lots to spare.

With that in mind, every observable phenomenon in the entire universe can actually be modeled by a neural network.

What this means, in theory, the universe itself may be a neural network.

That, is according to Vitaly Vanchurin, a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

On his paper (PDF) titled "The World as a Neural Network", he said that:

"We discuss a possibility that the entire universe on its most fundamental level is a neural network."
Vitaly Vanchurin
Vitaly Vanchurin. (Credit: Theoretical Physics and Cosmology/Facebook)

According to the paper:

"We identify two different types of dynamical degrees of freedom: 'trainable' variables (e.g. bias vector or weight matrix) and 'hidden' variables (e.g. state vector of neurons)."

What Vanchurin's is trying to say here is that, there is a gap between quantum and classical physics.

Quantum physics is used to explain what is going in the universe at a small scale. Like for example, when dealing with calculations regarding photons. Classical physics on the other hand, is used to describe what happens on a much larger scale.

There is a transition between quantum physics and classical physics.

Vanchurin argues that the theory of everything is what defines the nature of the universe. And usually, researchers ended up replacing one proxy-for-a-god with something else.

While theorists suggested that something divine must have created the universe, calculations suggested that the universe can be based on the distinct interpretations of quantum mechanics.

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These are called the “many worlds” and “hidden variables” interpretations. And these are the ones Vanchurin is attempting to reconcile with his "world as a neural network" theory.

"In this paper we discussed a possibility that the entire universe on its most fundamental level is a neural network. This is a very bold claim. We are not just saying that the artificial neural networks can be useful for analyzing physical systems or for discovering physical laws, we are saying that this is how the world around us actually works. With this respect it could be considered as a proposal for the theory of everything, and as such it should be easy to prove it wrong. All that is needed is to find a physical phenomenon which cannot be described by neural networks. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is easier said than done."

[...]

" If correct, then what we now call atoms and particles might actually be the outcomes of a long evolution starting from some very low complexity structures and what we now call macroscopic observers and biological cells might be the outcome of an even longer evolution. Of course, at present the claim that natural selection may be relevant on all scales is very speculative, but it seems that neural networks do offer an interesting new perspective on the problem of observers."

Vanchurin isn't the only one who thinks that the universe is may be a computer-generated world, nor isn't he is the first.

Elon Musk for example, once said that humanity is probably living inside a simulation.

"If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality," said Musk, before concluding that "We’re most likely in a simulation."

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson also said something similar, suggesting that in "better than 50-50 odds" that the simulation hypothesis is correct. "I wish I could summon a strong argument against it, but I can find none."

Read: Researchers Working With Microsoft Suggest That The Universe Is A Learning Computer