---
title: "Matter fidelity · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/matter-fidelity
description: "Matter fidelity is how finely a simulation represents physical matter."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Physics & computation

# Matter fidelity

Definition

Matter fidelity is how finely a simulation represents physical matter. It runs from coarse statistical summaries, to individual particles, to full quantum states.

On this site

The Matter floor ladder, from Painted set to Quantum, fully entangled. It’s the dial that matters most for the total.

Role in the model

The Matter floor is the dial that matters most for the total. Other dials move it by a factor of ten or so. This one moves it by fifty orders of magnitude, from Painted set to Quantum, fully entangled.

Related

[Level of detail (LOD)](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/level-of-detail)[Molecular dynamics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/molecular-dynamics)[Timestep](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/timestep)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)