--- title: "The computing in one day · How much computing would one day of a life take? · Simulation Hypothesis" url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/bill description: "An ordinary day, itemised: the computing it takes to simulate one person’s day, rendering only what that person perceives." license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)" --- # The computing in one day · how much computing it takes to simulate one day of one life Describe a day and the receipt lists the computing it takes to simulate it for one observer. We only render what that observer perceives. The constants are the same as in the [Sandbox](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/sandbox). ## Your day Awake 16 h Outside 1 h On screens 5 h Talked to 6 people Looked at the night sky Matter near you is computed as Painted setTissueCellAtomParticleQuark Every atom tracked on its own, using classical physics. Your mind is computed as ScriptedFunctionalBiophysicalMolecularQuantumReal brain, outside SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS computing needed · one observer · one day * Your mind 8.6 × 10^22 Functional model, all day. Sleep counts at the same rate, since the brain stays active. rough * Your body 1.8 × 10^50 At the atom floor, since you perceive the whole body. rough * Everything within reach 1.7 × 10^55 About a building’s worth of matter near the observer, at the atom floor, while awake. wild guess * Everything seen but not touched 5.8 × 10^17 Painted: just a surface, with nothing inside until an observer gets close. rough * 6 conversations 7.2 × 10^16 Faces and voices, twenty minutes each. Their minds aren’t counted here. They’d be counted in their own days. wild guess * Screens 1.8 × 10^17 A render inside the render. Whatever shows on a screen has to be rendered too. rough * Sky and weather 3.6 × 10^18 The air out to the horizon, run as a regional weather model, while you’re outside. rough Not rendered today * While you slept −8.6 × 10^54 None of the matter outside the observer’s head needed rendering. * The inside of the Earth −1.5 × 10^73 The rest of the planet. Nobody observed any of it. * The far side of the Moon −9.5 × 10^70 Nobody observed it, so it isn’t rendered. * Everything past the Moon −3.9 × 10^101 Shown as a painted backdrop. TOTAL 1.7 × 10^55 operations * Biggest line: everything within reach. * Peak: 3.0 × 10^50 FLOPS, about 2,200 × a Sun of Landauer-limit chips. textbook * That’s 2.0 × 10^29 days of every computer on Earth running flat out. rough * At the thermodynamic floor: 5.0 × 10^34 joules, 1.3 × 10^8 seconds of the Sun’s entire output. textbook * On today’s hardware: 2.4 × 10^44 joules, 6.1 × 10^17 seconds of the Sun’s entire output. rough Counts are in operations. All estimates are on a log scale. Copy the link Save the card Start again Link format The whole state of this page lives in its link, so a link can be written by hand, by a script or by an agent. Parameters for `/bill`: * `aw`: hours awake. `0` to `24`, in steps of `0.5` * `ou`: hours outside. `0` to `24`, in steps of `0.5` * `sc`: hours on screens. `0` to `24`, in steps of `0.5` * `pe`: people talked to. integer `0` to `200` * `fl`: matter floor near the observer. `painted`, `tissue`, `cell`, `atom`, `particle`, `quark` * `mm`: how the observer’s mind is computed. `scripted`, `functional`, `biophysical`, `molecular`, `quantum`, `outside` * `sk`: optional: looked at the night sky. `1` Example: [https://simulation-hypothesis.com/bill?aw=16&ou=1&sc=5&pe=6&fl=atom&mm=functional](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/bill?aw=16&ou=1&sc=5&pe=6&fl=atom&mm=functional). The same for every tool, and the site’s open data, at . ## How it’s counted * One observer, one day, and only what that observer perceives. Everything else is rendered as scenery, the cheapest option the Sandbox has. * The mind runs all day at the rate of the model you pick. The rates come from the whole-brain emulation roadmap of Sandberg and Bostrom (2008). * We assume the matter within reach is 10^7 kg (a wild guess), computed at the floor you pick. The body is always computed at that floor. While you sleep, the matter around you isn’t rendered. * Other people’s minds aren’t counted here. If they’re simulated, their computing belongs to their own days. * The savings are the computing we skip for matter nobody perceived, at the same floor. That’s what rendering on demand saves.