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Physical realism posits that the world we perceive is genuine and exists independently, isolated in its own right. Many consider this to be an obvious truth, but physical realism has faced persistent challenges from the field of physics for quite some time. The paradoxes that perplexed scientists in the past century continue to defy explanation, and hopes for breakthroughs through string theory and supersymmetry remain unfulfilled.
On the other hand, quantum theory works, yet the quantum waves that entangle, superpose, and collapse into a point are physically implausible—they must be ‘imaginary.’ For the first time in history, a theory about non-existence is effectively predicting what does exist—but how can something that isn’t real predict something that is?
Quantum realism offers an opposing view, suggesting that the quantum world is real and gives rise to the physical world as a virtual reality. Quantum mechanics, therefore, predicts physical mechanics because it directly influences them. It's akin to the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy, “Don’t look at the man behind the curtain.”
Quantum realism differs from the concept in The Matrix, where the alternate world that shapes ours is also physical. It’s also not a brain-in-a-vat theory, since this virtual existence predates humanity. Nor is it the notion of a separate world influencing ours—our physical world is the illusion. In physical realism, the quantum world is deemed impossible, while in quantum realism, it’s the physical world that’s implausible—unless it is, in fact, a virtual reality—as illustrated by these examples.
10. The Beginning of Our Universe
Physical Realism: The concept of the Big Bang is well-known, but if the physical universe encompasses everything, how did it begin? A complete universe shouldn't undergo significant change, as there is no external place for it to expand into or originate from, and nothing that can affect it. However, in 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that all galaxies were moving away from us, implying a Big Bang event that took place at a specific point in space-time over 14 billion years ago. The detection of cosmic background radiation—visible as static on our TV screens—provided further evidence that not only did the universe begin at that moment, but so did space and time itself.
For a universe to come into being, it must have either existed before its creation to bring itself into existence (which is impossible) or been created by something else. The idea that a complete universe could arise from nothing is implausible, yet many physicists today believe this to be true. They suggest the first event was a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum (where pairs of particles and antiparticles appear and vanish in quantum mechanics). But if matter can suddenly materialize from space, what did space itself emerge from? How can a quantum fluctuation in space create space? How can time itself come into being?
Quantum Realism: Every virtual reality begins with an initial event that also creates its space and time. From this perspective, the Big Bang was the moment when our physical universe began, along with its space-time framework. Quantum realism proposes that the Big Bang was, in fact, the big rip.
9. Our Universe Has A Maximum Speed Limit
Physical Realism: Einstein concluded that nothing can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum based on the way our universe operates, and this has since been accepted as a universal constant. However, the reason for this remains unclear. Currently, we say, “the speed of light is a constant because it simply is, and because light is not composed of anything more fundamental.”
Answering the question “Why can’t things go faster and faster?” with “Because they can’t” is hardly a satisfying explanation. Light slows down in mediums like water or glass, and when it moves through water, we attribute this to the water, and when it passes through glass, we say it's the glass. But when light travels through empty space, we remain silent. How can a wave move through nothing? There is no physical explanation for light to travel through empty space at all, let alone define the ultimate speed limit.
Quantum Realism: If the physical universe is a virtual reality, then it must be the result of information processing. Information is understood as a selection from a finite set, so the changes made by this processing must also be finite. In fact, our universe refreshes at a finite rate. A supercomputer processor updates 10 quadrillion times per second, and our universe refreshes a trillion, trillion times faster than that. Yet, the concept remains the same: just as a screen image has pixels and a refresh rate, our universe has Planck Length and Planck Time to define its structure and speed limits.
In this context, the speed of light is the fastest possible speed because the system cannot transmit data faster than one pixel per cycle—that is, Planck Length divided by Planck Time, approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call the speed of light the speed of space.
8. Time Is Flexible
Physical Realism: In Einstein’s twin paradox, one twin, traveling in a rocket at nearly the speed of light, returns a year later to discover his twin brother is now 80 years old. Neither twin perceived time differently, and neither lost a moment, yet one’s life is almost over, while the other’s has just begun. This scenario seems impossible in a reality governed by objective rules, but time truly does slow down for particles in high-speed accelerators. In the 1970s, scientists sent atomic clocks aboard aircraft flying around the world to demonstrate that they ticked slower than synchronized clocks on the ground. But how can time, the ultimate measure of all change, itself be subject to change?
Quantum Realism: A virtual reality would follow virtual time, where each cycle of processing is equivalent to one “tick.” Gamers know that when the computer is overloaded, the screen experiences lag—game time slows down under load. Similarly, time in our universe slows when approaching great speeds or massive objects, hinting that time is virtual. Therefore, the rocket twin aged only one year because that was all the processing cycles the system could allocate while moving him. What changed was his virtual time.
7. Space Is Curved
Physical Realism: According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the Sun keeps the Earth in orbit by curving space around it. But how can space itself curve? Space is defined as the medium in which movement happens, so for space to curve, it must exist within another space, creating an infinite regression. If matter exists within a space of nothingness, how can that nothingness move (or curve) at all?
Quantum Realism: An “idle” computer isn’t really idle; it’s running a null program. Similarly, our space might be the same. In the Casimir effect, the vacuum of space exerts pressure on two plates placed close together. While current physics suggests that virtual particles suddenly appear from nowhere to explain this, quantum realism proposes that empty space is full of underlying processing, which would create the same effect. As a processing network, space could present a three-dimensional surface that has the ability to curve.
6. Randomness Exists
Physical Realism: In quantum theory, quantum collapse is inherently random, meaning a radioactive atom may emit a photon at any moment. A random event is one that cannot be explained by any preceding physical story. Quantum theory also claims that for any physical event to occur, there must be a random “collapse of the wave function,” meaning that every physical occurrence has an element of randomness!
In 1957, Hugh Everett introduced the many-worlds theory to address the challenge against the idea of physical causation. This untestable hypothesis suggests that every quantum decision creates a new universe, meaning each possibility plays out somewhere in a new ‘multiverse.’ For instance, if you decide on toast for breakfast, another universe is created where you had peaches and cream instead. Initially dismissed as far-fetched—and rightly so—many physicists now prefer this physics fairytale over other options because it provides a way to avoid the discomfort of randomness.
If quantum choices indeed generate new universes, it’s easy to imagine that “universes would accumulate at rates beyond all concepts of infinity.” The many-worlds fantasy doesn’t just challenge Occam’s razor; it enrages it. In reality, the multiverse is a modern reincarnation of the old, perfectly predictable clockwork universe, which quantum theory left behind a century ago. False theories never truly disappear—they simply turn into zombie theories.
Quantum Realism: In online gaming, the processor can generate values that seem random to it, and our world could operate the same way. Quantum events seem random to us because they are part of processes beyond our access, like client-server interactions. While quantum randomness may seem insignificant, it plays a crucial role in the evolution of matter, similar to the role of genetic randomness in biological evolution.
5. Antimatter Exists
Physical Realism: Antimatter consists of subatomic particles corresponding to the familiar electrons, protons, and neutrons of regular matter, but with the opposite electric charge and other differing properties. In our universe, negative electrons orbit positive atomic nuclei. In an antimatter universe, positive electrons would orbit negative nuclei, but it would appear identical to its inhabitants, as the laws of physics would still hold the same. Matter and antimatter annihilate one another upon contact.
Paul Dirac’s equations predicted the existence of antimatter before it was ever observed, yet the question of why something capable of annihilating matter even exists remains unresolved. In Feynman’s diagram depicting an electron interacting with an anti-electron, the latter appears to be moving backward in time. As is often the case in modern physics, the mathematics work, but the implications seem nonsensical. Matter doesn’t inherently require an opposite, and time reversal disrupts the causal structure of physics. Antimatter remains one of the most perplexing discoveries in contemporary science.
Quantum Realism: If matter arises from processing and processing dictates a sequence of values, then these values can be reversed—processing inherently suggests the existence of anti-processing. In this view, antimatter is the inevitable by-product of matter generated through processing. If time corresponds to the completion of forward processing cycles for matter, then for antimatter, it represents the conclusion of backward cycles, meaning it would logically operate in reverse time. Matter has an inverse because its creation process is reversible, and anti-time occurs for the same reason. Only virtual time can possess an inverse.
4. The Double-Slit Experiment
Physical Realism: Over 200 years ago, Thomas Young conducted an experiment that continues to puzzle scientists. He directed light through two parallel slits and observed an interference pattern on a screen. This phenomenon, typical of waves, suggests that light, although seemingly a particle (photon), must also behave like a wave. Yet, the light still strikes the screen at a point, something that would only occur if a photon were a particle.
To explore further, physicists began sending one photon at a time through Young’s slits. Each photon initially produces the expected particle dot, but over time, these dots accumulate into an interference pattern, with the most likely impact point appearing behind the slit barrier! This effect is independent of time—so sending one photon per year through the slits results in the same pattern. Each photon cannot know where the previous one struck, so how does this pattern form? Detectors placed at either or both slits to observe the photon’s path only activate half of the time—meaning a photon always passes through one slit or the other, never both. In nature’s silent conspiracy, a photon behaves as a particle when observed but as a wave when not.
Present-day physics refers to this as the mystery of wave-particle duality, a “deeply weird” phenomenon that can only be explained by complex equations involving non-existent waves. Yet, we all understand that point particles cannot spread like waves, and waves that spread cannot be point particles.
Quantum Realism: Quantum theory attempts to explain Young’s experiment by postulating fictional waves that pass through both slits, interfere, and then collapse into a point on the screen. Although the math works, waves that don’t exist cannot explain what we actually observe. In quantum realism, a photon program can spread instances over the network like a wave, then restart at a point when a node is overloaded and reboots, much like a particle. This idea, that our physical reality is the result of these reboots, explains both quantum waves and quantum collapse.
3. Quantum Entanglement
Physical Realism: When a cesium atom releases two photons in opposite directions, quantum theory predicts they become entangled, so that if one spins upward, the other must spin downward. But how can one photon know instantly that the other must spin downward, no matter how far apart they are? To Einstein, the discovery that measuring one photon’s spin immediately determines the spin of another, regardless of distance, was a “spooky action at a distance.” This strange phenomenon was confirmed in one of the most meticulous experiments ever conducted, and once again, quantum theory proved to be correct. Observing one entangled photon caused the other to adopt the opposite spin—even if the second photon was too far away for any signal to travel between them at light speed. Nature could have made the two photons spin oppositely from the start, but that would have been too complicated. Instead, it lets them spin randomly, and when we measure one, the other instantly takes the opposite spin, which seems physically impossible.
Quantum Realism: From this perspective, two photons entangle when their programs merge to simultaneously control two points. If one program is set to spin-up and the other spin-down, their merger causes both to control pixels wherever they are. A physical event at either pixel causes a random restart of one program, leaving the opposite spin code to manage the other pixel. This code reassignment happens without regard to distance, just as a processor doesn’t need to physically “travel” to a pixel to alter it—even for a screen as vast as our universe.
The standard model of physics consists of 61 fundamental particles, each with mass and charge values that fit into specific equations. If it were a machine, you’d need to adjust at least two dozen settings just to get it to work. It also relies on five invisible fields that generate 14 virtual particles with 16 different types of “charges” to function. While this may sound comprehensive, the standard model falls short in explaining gravity, proton stability, anti-matter, quark charges, neutrino mass or spin, cosmic inflation, family generations, or quantum randomness—all of which are key unresolved questions. There are no particles that account for dark energy and dark matter, which make up most of the universe, and there never will be.
Quantum realism reinterprets quantum theory’s equations as one unified network running one program. It suggests that the physical world is the output of a process, but this doesn’t make it illusory; the real world still exists—it’s just not the one we perceive. Quantum realism proposes that matter evolved from light as a standing wave, meaning that light alone in a vacuum can collide and create matter. In contrast, the standard model denies that photons can collide. This difference provides a testable hypothesis for the virtual reality theory. If light can create matter through collisions in a vacuum, the particle model will be replaced by one based on information processing. See this FAQ for answers to common questions, here for more details, or listen to the Chronicle of Higher Education podcast: Imagining Our World As A Virtual Reality.
2. Electrons Tunnel
Physical Realism: In our universe, an electron can suddenly appear outside a Gaussian field it couldn’t normally pass through, much like a coin popping out of a sealed glass bottle. In a strictly physical world, this would be impossible, but it happens in ours.
Quantum Realism: Quantum theory dictates that an electron sometimes appears outside the area it should be able to enter because a quantum wave can spread beyond physical barriers, and the electron can collapse to any point within it. Each collapse is like a frame in the movie that is our physical reality, where the next frame is not predetermined but instead depends on probabilities. Thus, an electron “tunneling” through an otherwise impenetrable field is comparable to a scene cut from a view of an actor inside a house to one of the actor standing outside.
It may seem strange, but teleportation between states is the way all quantum matter moves. We perceive a physical world that appears to exist independent of our observation, but quantum theory’s observer effect suggests it works much like a video game view—when you look left, a left view materializes, and when you look right, the right view appears. In Bohm’s Theory, a spectral quantum wave directs the electron, but in this framework, the electron is that very wave. Quantum realism resolves the quantum paradox by asserting that the quantum world is the real one, and the physical world is simply a manifestation of it.
1. Dark Energy And Dark Matter
Physical Realism: Modern physics explains the matter we can observe, but the universe also contains five times as much of an unseen substance called dark matter. It is detectable by its gravitational effects, such as the halo surrounding the black hole at the center of our galaxy, which holds the stars together more tightly than gravity alone would permit. Unlike visible matter, dark matter is invisible to light, doesn’t emit gamma rays like anti-matter, and isn’t a black hole because there’s no gravitational lensing. Without dark matter, the stars in our galaxy would be torn apart by chaos.
There are no known particles that account for dark matter—proposed candidates such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) have yet to be discovered, despite discussions of super-WIMPs. Additionally, 70 percent of the universe is made up of dark energy, which is also beyond physics’ current understanding. Dark energy is like a form of negative gravity, a weak force that permeates space and pushes objects apart, thus accelerating the universe’s expansion. While it hasn’t significantly changed over time, one might expect such a force in expanding space to gradually weaken. If it were inherent to space itself, it should increase as space itself expands. At this point, no one has any clear answers regarding its nature.
Quantum Realism: If empty space represents null processing, it is not truly empty. If it is expanding, new space is constantly being added. These new processing points, by their very nature, take in input but do not produce output in their first cycle. This results in absorption without emission, mirroring the negative phenomenon we term dark energy. When new space is added at a consistent pace, the effect of dark energy remains relatively unchanged over time. Consequently, dark energy arises from the continuous creation of space. The model further associates dark matter with light orbiting a black hole. This light forms a halo, as light that gets too close to the black hole is drawn in, while light farther away can escape. Quantum realism predicts that no particles will ever be discovered to explain dark energy and dark matter.
