For years, some of the most obnoxious people on the planet have peddled the theory that we actually live in a computer simulation. As evidence, they tend to point out that things are weird and that we don’t know a lot about our universe. Okay, that tracks — but you’re going to need to work a bit harder to show that what you’re saying is true!

The problem with this thinking (apart from it being wholly inconsequential) is that there’s really no way you can prove or disprove it. You can say we live in a computer until you’re blue in the face, but until you get the universe to run Doom, most of us aren’t going to believe you.

Still, that hasn’t stopped researchers from seriously considering the question. Recently, some researchers at UBC Okanagan did just that — and found that our universe couldn’t be simulated, at least not in the way people imagine.

Now, keep in mind that no one apart from the researchers *really* understands their argument, but we’re going to do our best to try to summarize it.

In short, while computers and algorithms follow logical rules, the fundamental nature of the universe requires what the researchers call “non-algorithmic understanding.” Referencing Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and quantum gravity theory, the team argues that, as any simulation must be algorithmic, and the universe’s foundation is non-algorithmic, there is no way that our universe can be simulated in the traditional sense.

The counter argument, of course, is that the simulation has a solution to this issue baked in — but if you find yourself debating this idea for more than a few minutes, I would politely suggest that you get off the couch and get a real job.