> A super complex universe like ours, if it were a simulation, would require a built-in data optimisation and compression in order to reduce the computational power and the data storage requirements to run the simulation.<p>I think it is really hard to speculate about the performance of a super-advanced machine capable of simulating our current universe. But I mean for <i>our</i> simulators we just size the problems appropriately, right? We have no concept of what the scale of this universe hosting machine even is, so why assume we’re a big run? Heck maybe we’re the toy model they run before doing on the supercluster “Yes professor, it doesn’t seem to be buggy, although I only can test four dimensional runs on on my laptop, the ten dimensional stuff will take the full cluster.”<p>Also if this sort of data optimization stuff actually <i>does</i> add new laws of physics, that seems weird, right? I guess maybe we’re just a game. But if the super-alien things are trying to study something, then these extra laws of physics would seem to be defects.