As we're waiting for the launch to hurry up and get here, here's a fun video about how simulations are getting more and more complex and realistic.


No Man’s Sky is ... gigantic. Players traverse an entire, simulated universe exploring procedurally generated planets; there is practically no limit to what you can see. No Man Sky’s creator Sean Murray estimates that players will see maybe 1% of what the game is capable of generating. On top of that, much of the appearance and behavior of things in that universe–planets, plants, creatures, light itself–is emergent. The creators didn’t decide how stuff looks or behaves on a planet by planet basis. They made systems and rules that generate stuff and decide what happens when various stuffs mingle. Appearances and outcomes aren’t designed; they emerge. No Man’s Sky is lush and naturalistic. It’s detailed and even occasionally… life like. So this begs the question: if we’re able to simulate a universes of massive, life-like complexity–like that of No Man’s Sky–within our universe… should we wonder, or worry, that our own massive… life-like universe is itself… simulated? Today on Idea Channel we discuss No Man Sky and the Simulation Argument!