Saturday, January 31, 2009

Reality as a Holographic Projection

The Holographic Principle states that the everyday reality that we experience (including you and me) is a projection from somewhere else, i.e. the boundary of the universe. The 'projector' (similar to "R2D2's projector in the picture above) is a two dimensional surface where everything exists. The projections (like Princess Leia's hologram above) is in three-dimensions. In a sense, we are really two-dimensional pixels living on that distant surface who are projected in three-dimensions.

Strange as this may seem, physicists may have found an opportunity to confirm this via a device that was built for another purpose. They take advantage of the fact that something with three dimensions (an object with length, width and height like a box) can hold more stuff than something that has only two dimensions (an object with just length and width like a sheet of paper). A two-dimensional pixel when projected in three-dimensions will appear more blurred than the original and if such blurring is detected, then this would support the view that we are holograms.

[Personal speculation: It would take a longer explanation but it occurs to me that if we are holographic projections from a two-dimensional surface, by analogy, one possible way from the Universe to end is to evaporate, or collapse into an infinitely dense point, i.e. a space-time singularity sort of like the fate described in the Big Crunch but in a different way...]

8 comments:

Jego said...

Wait, what? We're someone's Hi-Definition TV?

cvj said...

Jeg, if the Holographic Principle is correct, we're not even high definition.

Anonymous said...

the big rip is the antithesis to the big bang.

Anonymous said...

if my linear algebra memory serves me right, the collapse of dimensions naturally comes from higher to lower, and that any expansion from lower to higher naturally presumes a pre-defined existence of a higher dimensiona function.

inodoro ni emilie

cvj said...

I.N.E., maybe space-time is higher dimensional but matter is two dimensional.

Conyo said...

Manolo para sa Senado!

It is time to "come out" and "get behind him", if you know what I mean :)

See you at Starbucks :)

cvj said...

Hey Conyo, thanks for dropping by!

Unknown said...

Dear CVJ,

My name is Jasmine Ferrer, a research assistant for the study, "Filipino blogging and political participation," an independent research funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada through its Strengthening ICT Research Capacity in Asia (SIRCA) grant program. A component of this study aims to: (1) look into the motivation of Filipinos for reading political blogs; (2) determine if and how Filipino political blog readers participate in politics, offline or online; and (3) examine whether reading political blogs have affected the nature and level of their political participation.

We'd like to request your participation as one of the survey respondents for this study. If you're interested to participate, please provide us your email address so we can send you the survey form in Word file. Feel free to send questions/clarifications to the principal researcher, Ms. Mary Grace P. Mirandilla at mg.mirandilla@gmail.com or at mpmirandilla1@up.edu.ph. To learn more about her work, visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/gracemirandilla. Info about the SIRCA grant program can be found at http://www.sirca.org.sg/.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Jasmine Ferrer