Astronomer Royal for Scotland

We may never be able to satisfactorily answer this question, but perhaps the best way of investigating its feasibility is by looking how we might go about creating a simulation universe ourselves.

In this episode, we're joined by Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, who investigates this question in her new book, How to Design a Universe: The Science of Real and Virtual Worlds, the royalties of which will be given to the Royal Observatory Trust, which supports astronomy youth projects across Scotland.

She tells us what the current extent of our knowledge tells us about the way the universe operates, explains why we'd need an enormous amount of computing power to generate a simulation universe, and investigates the question of why us, or a more advanced civilization, might attempt to do this in the first place.

So welcome to the podcast.

Catherine Haymans

who is the Astronomer Royal of Scotland and

Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh.

So here's the little video that Andy managed to get talking to everyone about the plans for Parton Kirk.

to heaven.

But what's really important about it is it was made of bronze and it was found in the Great Pyramid in the Queen's in the Queen's Chamber, in the north shaft of the Queen's Chamber, along with a piece of wood, which was reckoned by Piazzi Smyth, who was the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, to be a measuring scale.

So it makes sense.

And the reason why it's in bronze is because they didn't have lights like we have now, or instruments that were easily seen.