I understand that, and understand this likely falls into the unfalsifiable category, but when everyone, even physicists, are grasping at straws, laypeople don't have many options other than to throw around random "what if" ideas. It's fun.
I doubt that hypothesis is actually true, and it may never be testable, but it's also true that a lot of things believed to be untestable eventually do become testable.
It can be a bit exhausting when online physics forums get crowded by people who clearly have no understanding of physics asking for an explanation of whether their "pet theory" makes sense.
I don't know why, but physics seems to be a much more popular target for these type of people than any other field.
I can definitely understand that. I wouldn't post such ignorant armchair speculation on a physics forum. But on HN? Why not?
Meta-physics is inscrutable (unless something leaves the realm of meta-physics). What's the harm in speculating about it? Like the simulation hypothesis, for example.
I understand it touches on real things here, like dark energy, but it's just dumb fun to try to conceive of if anything could lie beyond the universe and what it could possibly be if there is anything. It's likely forever unfalsifiable, but in some sense that's what makes it a fair subject for laymen. If it were testable, then you have to leave it to the professionals.
I know I have zero understanding of physics. I don't have any attachment to this or any other speculation. I'm not a crank or something. But it's impossible to not wonder about the nature of reality and the formation of the universe, you know? The fact that it's unknowable within our lifetimes, and probably forever, is the driving factor.
I like seeing how real physicists answer this question, too, in interviews and podcasts. They always hedge it with "of course this is wild speculation", like everyone should. I see I didn't really hedge my initial post, which was a mistake. This was a random thought triggered by that other post, not something I actually believe whatsoever.
I doubt that hypothesis is actually true, and it may never be testable, but it's also true that a lot of things believed to be untestable eventually do become testable.