German physicist conducts an experiment to find out if we live in simulation

German physicist Melvin Vopson, who works at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, is preparing to scientifically test the idea that the universe may actually be a simulation. Vopson began fundraising to cover expenses for the experiment. The scientist, who started the campaign with the aim of obtaining 219 thousand dollars, was able to collect only a thousand dollars for now. Vopson took simulation theory at The Conversation to tell people the purpose of the experiment and how it could be done, and explained the method he thought would prove it.

German physicist conducts an experiment to find out if we live in simulation

Vopson explains in his article: "In 1989, the legendary physicist John Archibald Wheeler said that the universe is fundamentally mathematical and may have arisen from knowledge. So he invented the famous aphorism from 'lice'. The smallest and most basic unit that stores information in computer language is called a bit. Saying, "We know that an overloaded processor slows down computer operations," the scientist explains the theory with an example from Einstein: Similarly, Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity shows that time slows down near the black hole.

How will he do the experiment?

Vopson put forward a theory based on Einstein's general theory of relativity in 2019. According to this theory, every piece of information must have a finite and measurable mass. For example, a hard disk loaded with information must weigh more than a blank version of the same disk. On the other hand, since this mass difference corresponds to a very small change, it has not been possible to measure it with the available possibilities and thus to prove the physicist's theory until now. 

Vopson, on the other hand, thinks it is possible to prove this theory in the near future. Two assumptions stand out in the experiment, which the physicist has designed only on paper for now.