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[–] 8985629? ago 

Well, if you know it's a simulation, you know the rules don't have to make sense. Presumably the "real world" has to make sense. I think the most relevant place this matters is: A simulation can be set (in order to save resources) to only properly simulate a certain area, everything else is just assumed until it needs to be rendered. Presumably, reality doesn't have this constraint.

So whether things happening in distant places are real until that information is called upon or not (a tree falling in a forest where nobody's around to hear it, so to speak) is pretty relevant. How big that area of rendering is (bigger than our planet? our solar system? our galaxy?) is also relevant.

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[–] The_Cat [S] ago 

Does reality have to make sense? All of science is founded upon the postulate that the universe is logical and bound to rules. So far, that frame seems to work pretty well for figuring stuff out. But the universe does not owe it to us to make sense. Both in "human brains could not grasp it" and "no brain could ever grasp it" way. Still, the universe seems pretty understandable, and that alone is absolutely remarkable. Or an illusion caused by a painfully narrow perspective. Lovecraft has some things to say about that.

To get back on topic, the universe does seem to have these "information doesn't exist unless called upon" features. It's called quantum uncertainty. Certain information does not exist until it is measured. And in most cases, you will destroy other information by doing so. Why this is we still don't know.

We also don't know whether the universe is finite or infinite, or if it maybe loops back onto itself. What we do know is that there is a horizon to what we can see. The observable is finite. Does this mean the universe is a simulation? Inconclusive, and I still say irrelevant. This paper might interest you.