Continued from yesterday’s blog…
EXAMPLES: I don’t know what, academically at least, is so odd, or hard to understand about, the idea of ‘Universe as hologram’. Holograms are now a familiar part of our society and our technology.
As an aside, regardless whether or not our apparent 3-D Universe is hologram, is there anything, any phenomena here on Planet Earth that can be interpreted as a hologram? Well I suppose a rainbow might qualify except it doesn’t appear very 3-D like. Mirages come to mind. The one other thing that immediately springs to mind, are ghosts (and all manner of associated ghostly images). I’ve often wondered how it could be that ghosts can apparently walk through walls, but never seem to sink through the floor! Of course if they were some sort of mirage-like hologram that might explain that. But that’s getting off topic.
Anyway, that aside, many ancient civilizations often viewed the sky as 2-D, a sky composed of celestial crystalline spheres that surrounded their world and on the 2-D surfaces of those spheres were embedded the various celestial orbs that rotated around the Earth because the spheres rotated around the Earth.
Some what similar, albeit more current, most people have attended planetarium sessions (themselves an example of simulated reality and pseudo time travel) which project celestial objects onto a 2-D hemisphere above the audience’s heads – now just add holographic technology for a greater illusion of depth.
Artistic paintings are normally 2-D, but good artists provide the illusion of perspective, of depth, to give the impression that you’re looking at 3-D.
Our TV and computer monitors give a 2-D image, as does the big version – the silver screen. Yet you have no trouble interpreting the images as 3-D.
You can see your reflection, and things in the background, in a pane of glass, while at the same time seeing things that are outside that window pane. The window pane, a 2-D surface, is sort of like a hologram – you’re seeing a 3-D picture while looking at a 2-D surface.
If you could ask the characters in an interactive video game or those in your dreams if they are 3-D or 2-D and interact within a 3-D or 2-D (simulated) environment, they’d say ‘3-D’ – but you know better! The characters in your dream don’t walk the 3-D landscape from say the front of your brain to the rear of your brain for the duration. No, the dream drama is played out on the 2-D screen within your mind. They’d also no doubt tell you that they were acting on their own accord (they would insist they had free will) – but again, you’d know better. Your mind is controlling them and their actions. Now you however would also insist that you exist as a 3-D individual within a 3-D Universe and that you have free will. But does that make it so? Go back again and talk to your video or dream characters!
Or, thinking a farther into the future, there’s those “Star Trek” holodecks or holosuites. It isn’t too difficult that idea coming to fruition in the not all that distant future. Maybe not in your lifetime, but not many millennium away either.
Speaking of holograms in the cinema, take a ride back in time to that hologram of Princess Leia and her plea for help, all witnessed by Luke Skywalker, and started the plot ball rolling for that very first “Star Wars” film. Holograms are now taken for granted in many sci-fi features. They were fairly common for example in the “Stargate: SG-1” TV series.
But back to the here and now and in reality, on most credit cards, sometimes as an part of monetary banknotes (as an anti-counterfeiting security measure), sometimes used as a DVD cover, and a lot of other things (greeting cards, etc.) as well, you have the hologram, which again is basically an illusionary appearing 3-D image arising from a special technologically adapted or treated 2-D surface. Various manipulations using lasers also are used to generate illusionary 3-D holographic images. Now apply these now well known holographic technologies – those principles – to the Universe as a whole. If you wish to think of a hologram Universe this way, just imagine super-sizing your “Star Trek” holodeck up to the scale of an entire Universe. But you first have to start with Black Holes.
THE PHYSICS OF IT ALL: It’s suggested that information going into a Black Hole is actually ‘stored’ in the Event Horizon, that two dimensional (2-D) ‘surface’ marking the point of no return that surrounds the Black Hole’s Singularity – whatever that actually is. The Event Horizon concept isn’t difficult to envision – Earth’s crust/oceans is a 2-D surface surrounding the spherical 3-D planet.
Now as more and more stuff enters a Black Hole, the Event Horizon expands accordingly – obviously - just like our crust (area) would get bigger if Earth’s volume increased. The Event Horizon is also the area where Hawking radiation is emitted from. The interesting bit is that information ‘stored’ in 2-D form that is a representation of 3-D information, has a name – we call that form a hologram!
Now say you are inside a Black Hole’s Event Horizon – that’s the wrong side to be on, but this is just a thought experiment. There’s lots of trapped radiation (photons) in there with you. Those photons can struggle up, losing energy with each unit of distance gained, to reach the Event Horizon, but no farther. Their energy has exhausted itself. I gather they can just barely touch and ‘reflect’ off the underside of the Event Horizon and come back down again (in a direction towards the Singularity), picking up the energy again that they expended in their futile gesture of escape. So, you, being also beneath the Event Horizon can see the Event Horizon from the inside via these trapped photons. You can also see beyond the Event Horizon via new photons entering the Black Hole from outside the Event Horizon – photons that will join their trapped or prisoner kin. This is a situation akin – as noted in the ‘examples’ section - to seeing your reflection, and things in the background, in a pane of glass, while at the same time seeing things that are outside that window pane. The window pane, a 2-D surface, is sort of like a hologram – you’re seeing a 3-D picture by looking at a 2-D surface.
Now one could (and people have) suggested that one could consider the entire Universe as being the inside of a Black Hole – after all, nothing can escape from the Universe. You’re as trapped inside our Universe as you would be living on the inside of a traditionally thought of Black Hole. Like a Black Hole, or our Earth, our Universe has a crust or a surface or boundary or an horizon – a rose by any other name…
You can see where this is going! The upshot is that our apparent information rich 3-D environment is actually information somehow stored on the Universe’s 2-D boundary or horizon. In short, the Universe is a hologram.
Anyway, our Universe doesn’t exactly mirror a real Black Hole unless there is an outside to our Universe – a beyond the boundary or horizon that allows stuff to get into our Universe, ultimately trapping it. That actually would be a Universe more akin to the window pane analogy. But even if there is no beyond the boundary of our Universe, our Universe can still be thought of as a hologram – it applies in either case, just like an Event Horizon is a hologram to mythical inhabitants inside a Black Hole.
So, Black Holes residing inside a Black Hole Universe, which maybe residing inside…
Russian dolls within Russian dolls within Russian dolls within Russian dolls.
As an aside, the Universe as hologram scenario doesn’t invalidate the expanding Universe scenario, as one can have an expanding area as opposed to an expanding volume.
To be continued...
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