---
title: "Tools · small instruments for the simulation hypothesis · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/tools
description: "Work out the computing for a single day, check any system against published criteria for mind, and run interactive models in your browser."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

# Tools · instruments for the simulation question

Each tool answers one question. The calculators keep their state in the link, so you can share a result. They also tag each estimate with how sure we are.

[When could our computers run each simulation? The countdown Humanity’s computing, measured since 1946 and projected in three scenarios that level off at physical ceilings, against the computing every sandbox scenario needs. It includes the hardware, energy, AI, brain-mapping and interest data behind the curve.](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/countdown)[Given a computer, what world can it run? What a computer can run The totals run backwards. Pick a machine, from a phone to every kilogram of the observable universe computing at the physical limit. See the largest world and finest matter floor it can run, or how many minds it can run with no world at all.](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/budget)[How deep can a stack of simulations go? Simulations within simulations Build a stack of worlds, each running the next. A simulated computer can never out-compute the world it runs in, so every layer has less than the one above. See where the stack stops and what the base reality has to supply.](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/nesting)[How much computing would one day of a life take? The computing in one day An ordinary day, itemised: the computing it takes to simulate one person’s day, rendering only what that person perceives.](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/bill)[Check a system against the evidence Mind assessment Mark the properties of an animal or an AI system against the published criteria for sentience (Birch et al. 2021) and consciousness (Butlin et al. 2023).](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/score)[Browser simulations Interactive models Conway’s Game of Life, Monte Carlo estimation of π, flocking, an epidemic, falling sand, traffic flow, ant trails, Turing patterns, a sandpile, residential sorting, the three-body problem, forest fires, an Ising magnet, and predator and prey. Each one is small enough to run in your browser. We compare it with the computing a full-scale run of the same kind would need.](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/simulations/run)