--- title: "Solipsism · a universe that takes 10¹⁸ FLOPS · Simulation Hypothesis" url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/builds/solipsism description: "One real mind. The world is only as detailed as that mind can test. Only one mind is real." license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)" --- [Scenarios](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/builds)3/9 # Solipsism · One real mind. The world is only as detailed as that mind can test. Open in the sandbox ▸ Only one mind is real. The world is drawn in around wherever it’s paying attention, and goes back to stored values everywhere else. The detail only goes as deep as that mind’s instruments can test. Open a drawer and there’s an inside. Use a microscope and there are cells. Every other person is scripted. Required computing power rough 10^18 FLOPS Our computers could run this today. [The countdown ▸](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/countdown) Supercomputer scale. Big, expensive, and already built. Computer sizemeasured the biggest supercomputer Exascale class. It fills a building. Feasibility Possible at national scale Supercomputer territory: large, but it exists. Universe-computerstextbook 1.2 × 10^-86 One universe-computer is every kilogram in the observable universe computing at Lloyd’s bound. Power draw, Landauer floortextbook 0.0029 W The thermodynamic minimum for flipping bits at room temperature. The best real hardware uses about five billion times more energy than that. At the thermodynamic minimum, a wall socket would do. On every computer on Earthrough faster than real time How long it takes, on a clock, to compute one second of simulation on all of humanity’s computers, \~10^21 FLOPS. Real time, on computers we have today. World actually computedwild guess 1.7 × 10^-16% 1.7 × 10^-16% of the mass is watched by one observer. The observation dial sets how much of the remainder is computed at the full floor. ## Questions this scenario asks * Are other people real, or just convincing? * If nobody else is conscious, is anything allowed? * Does looking at something actually bring it into existence? * If you’re the only real mind, are you alone? “Worked out a world that’s only drawn in where one mind looks: 10^18 FLOPS.” ## Report card Instance report ONE MIND, DRAWN-IN SURROUNDINGS Settings Scale Earth Matter floor Painted set Lobby Single player Inner lives 8.2 billion · functional Computed 1.7 × 10^-16% Time Linear, live from 1996 Slot A player Computing needed 10^18 FLOPS Computer size the biggest supercomputer Universe-computers 1.2 × 10^-86 Feasibility Possible at national scale Judged, not measured The author’s reading. None of these changes the computing total. Suffering As found Free will Genuinely free Utilitarian divided Deontological divided Virtue ethics leans for Existentialist leans for “Worked out a world that’s only drawn in where one mind looks: 10^18 FLOPS.” Two of these are rough and three are wild guesses, and each is tagged that way. Change any one dial and you get a different universe. Matter computingrough 10^13 FLOPS Only surfaces are computed, and only where someone is looking. Anything unobserved is just a stored value. Mind computingrough 10^18 FLOPS Sandberg & Bostrom 2008, level 4 One fully computed functional mind and 8.2 billion scripted ones. Inner liveswild guess 8.2 billion 1 real mind, 8.2 billion scripted, 4.5 × 10^20 animals as scenery. Operations so farrough 9.5 × 10^26 30 years on the clock, at 10^18 per second. History that is only storedrough 99.9999998% Computing begins in 1996\. 5.77 billion humans are present at the start, with preinstalled memories. [◂ Brain in a Vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/builds/vat)Open in the sandbox ▸ [The 2050 Server ▸](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/builds/server-2050)