A doctor, an architect and a programmer talk about their professions. "Mine is the oldest", says the doctor, "as everybody knows God created Eve from the rib of Adam, and that's definitely a medical operation". "Right", says the architect, "but in fact architect is even older - it's definitely an architectural project to create the world from chaos". At this point programmer kicks back in the chair and gives friends a mysterious look. "Who, do you think, created the chaos?"
There are two main possibilities here, either the simulated universe is simpler (a 4d universe simulating a 3d one for example) or you only simulate consciousness and the bare minimum needed to make it believe that it's in a persistent environment.
How would you know if a segfault occurred? The simulation crashing would halt your own consciousness as well. It will probably be fine though, they started with a stress test of extreme conditions back at what we call the big bang.
A doctor, an architect and a programmer talk about their professions. "Mine is the oldest", says the doctor, "as everybody knows God created Eve from the rib of Adam, and that's definitely a medical operation". "Right", says the architect, "but in fact architect is even older - it's definitely an architectural project to create the world from chaos". At this point programmer kicks back in the chair and gives friends a mysterious look. "Who, do you think, created the chaos?"
(copied from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25855674)