Is the Universe a Holographic Illusion?

Some physicists have proposed that the entire universe is not real, but a holographic illusion. Now astrophysicist Craig Hogan is building a machine to test that hypothesis:

Possible evidence for this model appeared last year in the unaccountable “noise” plaguing the GEO600 experiment in Germany, which searches for gravitational waves from black holes. To Hogan, the jitteriness suggested that the experiment had stumbled upon the lower limit of the spacetime pixels’ resolution.

Black hole physics, in which space and time become compressed, provides a basis for math showing that the third dimension may not exist at all. In this two-dimensional cartoon of a universe, what we perceive as a third dimension would actually be a projection of time intertwined with depth. If this is true, the illusion can only be maintained until equipment becomes sensitive enough to find its limits.[...]

“So we want to build a machine which will be the most sensitive measurement ever made of spacetime itself,” says Hogan. “That’s the holometer.”[...]

In the holometer, this loss of sync looks like a shaking or vibrations that represent jitters in spacetime itself, like the fuzziness of radio coming over too little bandwidth.

The holometer’s precision means that it doesn’t have to be large; at 40 meters in length, it is only one hundredth of the size of current interferometers, which measure gravitational waves from black holes and supernovas. Yet because the spacetime frequencies it measures are so rapid, it will be more precise over very short time intervals by seven orders of magnitude than any atomic clock in existence.


Link via The Agitator | Image: Paramount

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this concept, which is frustrating. And kinda freaky.

I mean, isn't 'depth' subjective when looking at an object. You hold a rubix's cube, can you really say which of those three dimensions is it's depth? Thus how can you say which is the one intertwined with time, and which two are the 'real' 2 dimensions that are being projected?

So many more questions!! Gahhh!
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.
Email This Post to a Friend
"Is the Universe a Holographic Illusion?"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More