Ohmigod I am a hologram!

[Clete]

Why have I struggled a lifetime to make a difference only to find out that I am a two-dimensional being projected as a hologram? Huh? Now I have really tried to get my finite uneducated mind to understand all those little Quantum physics theories, if only in a sci-fi way, cause I like to write stories about this kind of stuff.

However this really stumps me. Could any of you scientists out there remotely put this in layman's terms?

<snip>
July 14, 2003

Information in the Holographic Universe

Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram

By Jacob D. Bekenstein

Ask anybody what the physical world is made of, and you are likely to be told "matter and energy." Yet if we have learned anything from engineering, biology and physics, information is just as crucial an ingredient. The robot at the automobile factory is supplied with metal and plastic but can make nothing useful without copious instructions telling it which part to weld to what and so on. A ribosome in a cell in your body is supplied with amino acid building blocks and is powered by energy released by the conversion of ATP to ADP, but it can synthesize no proteins without the information brought to it from the DNA in the cell's nucleus. Likewise, a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. Indeed, a current trend, initiated by John A. Wheeler of Princeton University, is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals.

This viewpoint invites a new look at venerable questions. The information storage capacity of devices such as hard disk drives has been increasing by leaps and bounds. When will such progress halt? What is the ultimate information capacity of a device that weighs, say, less than a gram and can fit inside a cubic centimeter (roughly the size of a computer chip)? How much information does it take to describe a whole universe? Could that description fit in a computer's memory? Could we, as William Blake memorably penned, "see the world in a grain of sand," or is that idea no more than poetic license?

Remarkably, recent developments in theoretical physics answer some of these questions, and the answers might be important clues to the ultimate theory of reality. By studying the mysterious properties of black holes, physicists have deduced absolute limits on how much information a region of space or a quantity of matter and energy can hold. Related results suggest that our universe, which we perceive to have three spatial dimensions, might instead be "written" on a two-dimensional surface, like a hologram. Our everyday perceptions of the world as three-dimensional would then be either a profound illusion or merely one of two alternative ways of viewing reality. A grain of sand may not encompass our world, but a flat screen might. <snip>

More http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=000AF072-4891-1F0A-97AE80A84189EEDF

I wish I had paid attention in science classes now. Sigh...

[Dudley_DUright]

1. I think he is making a little too much of a result

first proved by Steven Hawking that black holes can be assigned a temperature and obey the laws of thermodynamics -> statistical mechanics -> information theory. I don't see the analogy with optical holograms, but black holes are not my specialty (but optical holograms are). Anyway, if it is true, welcome to the holodeck! :-)

[1monster]

2. I've always wondered if, perhaps, just perhaps, that the universe that

we see at night with "a billion stars all around," might not be an elaborate backdrop... like a stage set on a movie.

This makes even more sense. Remember (those of you who are old enough) watching those old reel to reel movies in school (or at home)... When someone turned on the lights, the movie was not nearly as visible because the movie was projected using a lens and LIGHT! When the sun is up or an urban area projects to much light, the picture of the universe that we see fades just like the movie on the screen did when someone flicked on the light.

Shakespear was right! All the world IS a stage. And the universe too! :7

[qandnotq]

3. wake up clete

the Matrix has you

reality is but an illusion