---
title: "Superposition · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/superposition
description: "Superposition is the principle that a quantum system can be in a blend of different states at once, and only gives a definite result when it’s measured."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Quantum mechanics

# Superposition

Definition

Superposition is the principle that a quantum system can be in a blend of different states at once, and only gives a definite result when it’s measured.

On this site

In the sandbox, it’s the state of unobserved regions under Level of detail.

Role in the model

The unobserved parts of a low-observation world aren’t rendered as matter. They’re stored as a placeholder and filled in when someone looks. The sandbox borrows the word from quantum mechanics because the idea has a similar shape. The mechanism isn’t the same.

Related

[Wave function](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/wave-function)[The measurement problem](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/measurement-problem)[Observer effect](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/observer-effect)

## 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)