Vitaly Vanchurin is a physics professor that recently proposed a theory that, if proven to be true, could change everything we think we know about our universe. While even, he openly admits that his idea seems a bit ‘crazy,’ he says he believes that it is true.
Vanchurin recently published a paper and in his paper, he asserts that the entire universe is just one big massive neural network.
A neural network, in case you didn’t know, is a data structure. And all neural networks are “Modeled loosely on the human brain, a neural net consists of thousands or even millions of simple processing nodes that are densely interconnected,” according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the paper, Vanchurin says that artificial neural networks can exhibit approximate behaviors of both universal theories. Additionally, his assertion could help to reconcile the two biggest models we have of the physical universe, which are general relativity and quantum mechanics.
“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 works,” his paper explains. “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.”
In another interview with Futurism, he is asked if this would prove we are living in a simulation. In response, he tells them, “No, we live in a neural network, but we might never know the difference.”
Of course, this theory is still in the beginning process and would need to be peer-reviewed before further publication. However, if it is true, it could propose some very interesting ideas.