Our world may be a giant hologram

[ButterflyWoman]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... ?full=true (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html?full=true)


The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level.

Extremely interesting article!

[CFTraveler]

Hee he- The other day, (my son is still going through a powerful existential angst- he even listened to one of my meditation CDs) I was trying to explain multidimensionality because he was questioning the logic behind linear reincarnation (from the mouths of babes....) and I resorted to putting it in sketch form, to explain how in terms of eternity the I-Not quite there connects to the various I-Theres creating a three-dimensional 'pancake-looking-thing' and how each one was the same to itself but from the temporal side was perceived as a series of linear experiences- and when (he finally got it) and I looked at the drawing/diagram I had just made I realized I had unwittingly represented the holographic model, complete with edges and everything.
And then I got it.
Weird, huh?

[Fish]

Very! Thanks for posting 8)

[JohnA]

Thanks for the link to the article. Very much appreciated! I haven't heard much after reading "The Holographic Universe"; it's great to hear that this theory is alive and kicking.

This may or may not be related, but I'll throw it out there anyway. There is an interesting revolution going on in signal processing and imaging reconstruction. Typically, data is sampled a constant rate and there are rules for what rates are required depending on the desired resolution of spatial features or frequency of signals. Recent work has demonstrated that if information is instead sampled 'randomly', much less data is required to reconstruct the image or signal of interest. This is being applied to MRI data today, to minimize the time people are stuck inside those machines. Here's an interesting overview article of the research:

http://www.settheory.com/acm.pdf

What I think is interesting is that this concept seems to have connections to how psi works. Still trying to work out the details though. :)

[sleeper]

do you think that the world is a hologram?

if so, what are the implications of that in your opinion?

[ButterflyWoman]

do you think that the world is a hologram?
I don't know. It's a good metaphor, in any case.


if so, what are the implications of that in your opinion?
Not sure how to answer that. I just think of all concepts, ideas, metaphors, etc. that describe consensual reality as concepts, ideas, and metaphors, not as anything concrete or solid. I don't have any idea what implications there would be if the universe was described as being a hologram. I did find the article interesting, but I'm not a physicist, so...

Perhaps we can persuade CFT to post her diagram. ;)

[CFTraveler]

Well, my diagram only describes how it looks conceptually (like an octopus with infinite and melding tentacles covering a pancake) but doesn't tackle the 'originator' mechanism- which IMO is besides the point-for now.

[Palehorse Redivivus]

do you think that the world is a hologram?

if so, what are the implications of that in your opinion?

One property of holograms is that if you cut one apart, you'll get a smaller version of the same, whole image.

Applied to reality this would mean that every part is a microcosm of the whole. I've found a lot of truth in this. Everything is relational, and if you study anything long enough while keeping that in mind, you can start finding connections and analogies to pretty much anything else.

What I find though is that we have to be careful about not throwing out poor Newton completely. Which is to say, sometimes it's still beneficial to look at things in terms of their parts, to learn how those parts might best fit into the whole bigger picture.

[wstein]

If this is a hologram, it has many implications, here are a few:

1) Everything is spread everywhere.
2) Objects only 'appear' when viewed from a special 'angle' otherwise they appear as noise.
3) The so called 'spooky at a distance' is not so mysterious as everything overlaps.
4) All information is available everywhere but not in great detail.
5) You affect everything but only to a tiny degree as everything else also affects everything else.
6) What you consider to be objects are 2D not 3D as they appear.