For decades, philosophers, technologists, and even billionaires like Elon Musk have toyed with the idea that our universe might be a highly sophisticated computer simulation. The idea represents one of modern science’s most haunting and enduring hypotheticals, a kind of digital cosmology.

However, according to a study by an international team of theoretical physicists, the mathematics itself may finally settle the debate. Their conclusion? It’s impossible that we’re living in a simulation.

In a paper published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, researchers argue that the same mathematical principles that limit what computers can calculate also limit what any simulation of the universe could ever reproduce. In short, the universe contains truths that no algorithm—no matter how advanced—can ever compute.

“It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation,” lead author and theoretical physicist at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Mir Faizal, said in a statement. “This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation.”

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