Forthcoming in The Philosophical Forum 1 A Unified Explanation of Quantum Phenomena? The Case for the Peer-to-Peer Simulation Hypothesis as an Interdisciplinary Research Program

hypotheses in philosophy and modern physics jointly entail that our reality is structurally identical to a peer-to-peer (P2P) networked computer simulation. The present paper outlines how quantum phenomena emerge naturally from the computational structure of a P2P simulation. §1 explains the P2P Hypothesis. §2 then sketches how the structure of any P2P simulation realizes quantum superposition and wave-function collapse (§2.1.), quantum indeterminacy (§2.2.), wave-particle duality (§2.3.), and quantum entanglement (§2.4.). Finally, §3 argues that although this is by no means a philosophical proof that our reality is a P2P simulation, it provides ample reasons to investigate the hypothesis further using the methods of computer science, physics, philosophy, and mathematics. Quantum mechanics is an exquisitely well-verified theory of how our physical world operates at a microscopic level. However, it presents us with two very deep puzzles: one of interpretation and one of explanation. First, there is the question of how to interpret its equations. Although there are dozens of different interpretations of the equations of quantum mechanics, every mainstream interpretation appears problematic.1 Second, there is the much deeper—and less well-understood—question of not just interpreting its equations, but of explaining why the world is quantum mechanical, that is, why the world operates according to such bizarre laws of nature. For, make no mistake about it, quantum mechanics is bizarre. According to quantum mechanics, microscopic objects such as electrons: A. Appear2 to have properties of particles and of waves (wave-particle duality), B. Can affect one another instantaneously across arbitrarily large distances (quantum entanglement)