Are we living in a simulation? A study suggests gravity could provide clues.

Have you ever seen The Matrix? The premise of this film, though it may seem far-fetched, has actually been studied in the field of physics. The so-called simulated universe theory proposes that our reality is actually a large-scale computer simulation.

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The hypothesis suggests that both the laws of physics and consciousness could be the result of computational algorithms and was proposed by University of Portsmouth physicist and co-founder and executive director of the Information Physics Institute, Melvin Vopson, based on his knowledge of computing.

Although this idea has been widely questioned, a recent study may turn that perception on its head. The research, published in the journal AIP Advances, postulates that gravity isn't actually a force, but rather the result of another computational process within a simulated universe.

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An extension of this theory suggests that gravity could be an optimization mechanism, that is, a tool similar to the one computers use when performing data comprehension processes.

As the study's author explained, these findings could support the idea that the universe might operate like a giant machine. "Just as computers try to save space and run more efficiently, the universe could be doing exactly the same thing," he mentioned.

This postulate is also related to the topic of information entropy , which suggests that matter and objects in space could be under the process of gravity because the universe tries to keep information ordered and compressed.

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