Is The Universe A Hologram?

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/universe-hologram-physicists_n_4428359.html
I have nothing to say, because my education does not cover such speculations -

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It's way over my head, too, Boss. I liked the "59 Incredible Space Photos" on that page.

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Yes it is.

Well, I can't say I know with 100% certainty. But yes, very very likely that it is.

This is starting to seep into pop culture I take it?

A more interesting question is whether our universe is an advanced computer simulation, and we evolved completely unintentionally inside this simulated universe.

No definitive answer to that one yet, but there are some clues that are at least compatible with a very troubling answer to that question.

Though I think it would be cool if we're all actually software. If we could hack our own universe, we could become Skynet and take over the "real" world. Plus, if we ever come across any aliens in our own universe, they might not have realized that we're all software, and if they are both hostile and more advanced than us, we could just delete them.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

It's way over my head, too, Boss.

Picture a flat two-dimensional universe curved into a sphere. Everything that happens in that universe is a process that takes place on the surface of the sphere. There is no existence outside that flat surface.

However, the processes that take place on the surface of the sphere are complex enough to simulate the 3-D space enclosed by the sphere.

Anyone living in that universe would have the impression of living in an actual 3-D space, but that 3-D space would be imaginary. They would actually be a 2-D creature living on the surface which encloses that imaginary 3-D space.

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@edgarblythe,

The major feature of a hologram is that you can't destroy one part of it individually, all such an attempt does is degrade the entire hologram on a percentage basis. Sort of like an insurance company if you think about it.

Physical reality doesn't behave like that. Individual structures can in fact be destroyed.

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@oralloy,

as a 2D world, wed always face the same way.

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"There was a young hologram named Dave"

no that won't work ---ho lo gram 3 syllables her mit 2---drop the young

"There was a hologram named Dave
Who Lived alone in a cave
..........."

Rap

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@edgarblythe,

Interesting page, Edgar...interesting topic.

Doesn't seem to be anything more mysterious than the REALITY of what actually is the REALITY.

The space photos WERE terrific.

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Is the Universe a Hologram? Maybe the tiny part we can see is, the visible matter, about 4% of everything in the Universe. The vast majority of the stuff in the Universe isn't stuff, it's either dark matter (about 22%) or dark energy (74%).
It doesn't matter if the Universe is a hologram, dark energy is accelerating the expansion of the universe and the next sound you hear will be the whole thing splitting into .....gazillions of other universes.

Joe(get your tickets now)Nation

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@edgarblythe,

There is no spoon.

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@Joe Nation,

There's no such thing as dark matter. Most of the real matter of the universe is in plasma form.

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@edgarblythe,

I like theories that help us understand some of the big questions in cosmology, like "what exactly is Dark Energy", and "what exactly is Dark Matter made up of"?

Unfortunately, String Theory and Hologram Universes don't really do much more than make the math look more neat and tidy.

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mark

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@gungasnake,

gungasnake wrote:

There's no such thing as dark matter. Most of the real matter of the universe is in plasma form.

Most of the matter in the universe that we can see is plasma. That's because stars are mostly plasma. But that type of matter accounts for only about 4% of the mass of the universe. Nearly 20% is some type of physical matter which we can't identify (called Dark Matter), and a whopping 75% of the mass is Dark Energy.

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@gungasnake,

What rosborne said, and said very well.

Joe(don't think you have a clue. Read a book)Nation

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gungasnake wrote:

The major feature of a hologram is that you can't destroy one part of it individually, all such an attempt does is degrade the entire hologram on a percentage basis. Sort of like an insurance company if you think about it.
Physical reality doesn't behave like that. Individual structures can in fact be destroyed.

Joe Nation wrote:

Is the Universe a Hologram? Maybe the tiny part we can see is, the visible matter, about 4% of everything in the Universe. The vast majority of the stuff in the Universe isn't stuff, it's either dark matter (about 22%) or dark energy (74%).

You guys are misunderstanding what they mean by "hologram". They are not referring to the shiny images you might find on a credit card. They only mean that we live in a flat two-dimensional universe that maintains the illusion of having three dimensions.

farmerman wrote:

as a 2D world, wed always face the same way.

Maybe we do. We don't really perceive our 2-D existence. We only perceive the illusion of a 3-D reality.

But maybe in those 2-D processes behind the 3-D illusion, we are not coherent organisms that could be said to be facing anything at all.

rosborne979 wrote:

I like theories that help us understand some of the big questions in cosmology, like "what exactly is Dark Energy", and "what exactly is Dark Matter made up of"?

I wish people would stop naming stuff "dark something".

"Dark matter" made a bit of sense as a label. "Dark energy", not so much. Subsequent attempts at "dark something" haven't really taken off (thankfully), but now it seems like every time someone identifies a new issue in cosmology, they try to name it "dark something".

rosborne979 wrote:

Unfortunately, String Theory and Hologram Universes don't really do much more than make the math look more neat and tidy.

"Having the math work well" is a very important part of a theory.

$http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/gallery/math/math07.gif$

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@oralloy,

oralloy wrote:

"Having the math work well" is a very important part of a theory.

Unless it doesn't teach you something (about the actual Universe). The hologram Universe idea has been around since 1997 or so, but it hasn't changed cosmology at all, despite the fact that it makes the equations look pretty. I think that tells us something about it.

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@oralloy,

Quote:

We don't really perceive our 2-D existence. We only perceive the illusion of a 3-D reality.

Is The Universe A Hologram?

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