Is the universe a simulation? If so, is there someone twisting the dials or is the universe a big computer running itself, a program that includes things like the coati and those sneakers with wheels in them? It's a big question (the biggest, really), and in this episode we dig into it with Dr. Melvin Vopson. Melvin is an Associate Professor of Physics at the UK's University of Portsmouth, and he's made news for his work studying the nature of information and entropy. His conclusion? The way things work — from electrons on up to stars — looks suspiciously like how a computer might run things.  It's a fascinating and controversial idea. Is information the base layer of the universe? And does this mean there's a planet full of popular, well-known fantasy characters out there somewhere? We expel a little heat energy into the void to figure out how real Melvin Vopson's theories might be. (And how real we ourselves might be.) NOTES More on the simulation idea // Melvin's Second Law of Infodynamics // The implications for genetics // The Information Physics Institute