The universe may very well just be a hologram...

Says a physicist at Fermilab.

Our existence could be coded in a finite bandwidth, like a live ultra-high-definition 3-D video. And the third dimension we know and love could be no more than a holographic projection of a 2-D surface.

A scientist's $1 million experiment, now under construction in Illinois, will attempt to test these ideas by the end of next year using what will be two of the world's most precise clocks.

Skeptics of a positive result abound, but their caution comes with good reason: The smallest pieces of space, time, mass and other properties of the universe, called Planck units, are so tiny that verifying them by experiment may be impossible. The Planck unit of length, for example, is 10 billion billion times smaller than the width of a proton.

no the universe is just a dream,you guys don't exist,just a part of my dream

It wouldn't much if it was a hologram. We still physically exist and everything.

That's just silly, were does the fourth dimension (time) fit into all of this?

I think I grasp the concept. There are "Unifiying" theories that present many more dimensions than just 4. Think about how we see the world ... it's an illusion of the brain that we percieve spatial differences. If we all had one eye, we would percive the world as only 2, much like the description of the hologram theory. So then is the third dimension is still "there"?

Think about it from a zen point of view: if nobody can percieve it, does it exist? How do we "see" a 4th, 5th or 11th dimension? Math assumes more, however maybe it's only possible if we somehow create another way to see it through illusion or conceptual trick.

Couldn't they use that million dollars to feed starving kids or something?Head_of_games

But if the experiment proves we are just a part of the holographic principle, then those starving kids don't exist and we've solved the problem.

[QUOTE="Head_of_games"]Couldn't they use that million dollars to feed starving kids or something?pengo93

But if the experiment proves we are just a part of the holographic principle, then those starving kids don't exist and we've solved the problem.

Y'know, it's an interesting idea, but people have theorized a wide spectrum of things to justify our existence. When people were first studying the uniform radiowave intereference in space, it led to a theory that we actually don't exist. I believe we were create, but not in a hologram.

[QUOTE="pengo93"]

[QUOTE="Head_of_games"]Couldn't they use that million dollars to feed starving kids or something?Head_of_games

But if the experiment proves we are just a part of the holographic principle, then those starving kids don't exist and we've solved the problem.

That's just insensitive. How are they supposed to eat food on little holographic cards? That's just teasing them.

[QUOTE="Head_of_games"][QUOTE="pengo93"]

But if the experiment proves we are just a part of the holographic principle, then those starving kids don't exist and we've solved the problem.

pengo93

That's just insensitive. How are they supposed to eat food on little holographic cards? That's just teasing them.

They would just use those red and blue 3d glasses. DUH!

i call bs. the sun is very real and you can feel it. the physicist has been watching too much of the matrixNintendoNite

I don't think the physicist is out to prove we aren't real, just that if you go up a dimension, it "flattens" the one before it, so you can think of the 2nd (a line) flattening the 1st (a point with "no" dimension) and the 3rd flattening out the 2nd, and the 4th flattening out the 3rd ... and so on.

EDIT: actually maybe I don't get the point of the experiment. Isn't this physics/geometry 101? We KNOW that space bends, and that those bends may have bends ... and so forth, so what't the point?

I hope they create a black hole and destroy the universe in the process of this experiment.PernicioEnigma

The are plenty of black holes in the universe, yet it's still around. One cannot "destroy" the universe, there will always be something left behind. Like time, space or energy. The latter is indestructible.

A billion billion times smaller than a PROTON?! How the hell is that even POSSIBLE?! That's really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY SMALL!:shock:

Anyway, even if the universe is a hologram, my life won't be any different.

Excellent. Gonna wait for this experiment.

[QUOTE="NintendoNite"]i call bs. the sun is very real and you can feel it. the physicist has been watching too much of the matrixmy_mortal_coil

I don't think the physicist is out to prove we aren't real, just that if you go up a dimension, it "flattens" the one before it, so you can think of the 2nd (a line) flattening the 1st (a point with "no" dimension) and the 3rd flattening out the 2nd, and the 4th flattening out the 3rd ... and so on.

So we are being squished by time?

This stuff always reminds me of Descartes. "I think therefore I am"

so if we make an actual hologram, would it actually mean that we made a hologram in a hologram?funsohng

Had to be done!

[QUOTE="my_mortal_coil"]

[QUOTE="NintendoNite"]i call bs. the sun is very real and you can feel it. the physicist has been watching too much of the matrixpengo93

I don't think the physicist is out to prove we aren't real, just that if you go up a dimension, it "flattens" the one before it, so you can think of the 2nd (a line) flattening the 1st (a point with "no" dimension) and the 3rd flattening out the 2nd, and the 4th flattening out the 3rd ... and so on.

So we are being squished by time?

In a way yes. If we think of ourselves as being only in three dimensions (think of time stopping) then we exist infinitely in space, however adding the 4th "flattens" our existence to include a beginning and an end.

[QUOTE="PernicioEnigma"]I hope they create a black hole and destroy the universe in the process of this experiment.pengo93

The are plenty of black holes in the universe, yet it's still around. One cannot "destroy" the universe, there will always be something left behind. Like time, space or energy. The latter is indestructible.

A billion billion times smaller than a PROTON?! How the hell is that even POSSIBLE?! That's really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY SMALL!:shock:

Anyway, even if the universe is a hologram, my life won't be any different.

gamerguru100

[QUOTE="pengo93"]

[QUOTE="my_mortal_coil"]

I don't think the physicist is out to prove we aren't real, just that if you go up a dimension, it "flattens" the one before it, so you can think of the 2nd (a line) flattening the 1st (a point with "no" dimension) and the 3rd flattening out the 2nd, and the 4th flattening out the 3rd ... and so on.

my_mortal_coil

So we are being squished by time?

In a way yes. If we think of ourselves as being only in three dimensions (think of time stopping) then we exist infinitely in space, however adding the 4th "flattens" our existence to include a beginning and an end.

0__o

I actually understand now. Seeing as you're smart and all, can humans perceive the 4th dimension? I don't think so, because if we did wouldn't we be able to see through time rather than just observe it at a given point (the present)?

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

A billion billion times smaller than a PROTON?! How the hell is that even POSSIBLE?! That's really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY SMALL!:shock:

Anyway, even if the universe is a hologram, my life won't be any different.

Darthkaiser

[QUOTE="pengo93"]

[QUOTE="PernicioEnigma"]I hope they create a black hole and destroy the universe in the process of this experiment.PernicioEnigma

The are plenty of black holes in the universe, yet it's still around. One cannot "destroy" the universe, there will always be something left behind. Like time, space or energy. The latter is indestructible.

One must never joke about science.

Anyway, even if the universe is a hologram, my life won't be any different.

gamerguru100

Seconded. But I don't know why the hell would I want to discover the REAL reason why the universe was created.

[QUOTE="gamerguru100"]

A billion billion times smaller than a PROTON?! How the hell is that even POSSIBLE?! That's really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY SMALL!:shock:

Anyway, even if the universe is a hologram, my life won't be any different.

Darthkaiser

At that level, it's all abstract math. It can only be proven with a mathmatical proof.

[QUOTE="my_mortal_coil"]

[QUOTE="pengo93"]

So we are being squished by time?

pengo93

In a way yes. If we think of ourselves as being only in three dimensions (think of time stopping) then we exist infinitely in space, however adding the 4th "flattens" our existence to include a beginning and an end.

0__o

I actually understand now. Seeing as you're smart and all, can humans perceive the 4th dimension? I don't think so, because if we did wouldn't we be able to see through time rather than just observe it at a given point (the present)?

That can certainly be argued. Is it illusion to percieve time, or do we really percieve it? Actually I was astounded when I started reading up on Buddhism. Buddhism makes a clear distiction between the concept of attachment to time and the disattachment of it. What that means is that we only exist in the present moment, and that moment last an infinitely long and short amount of time, at the same time because it's constantly flowing. We only percieve the past and future by projecting our awareness on longing of the past (remembering, essentially) and expectation of the future (thinking "ahead"). Only when we become fully aware do we understand the true concept of time as being universally infinite.

Enstein, however, would have argued that. According to relativistic time, if twins exist in two different places going different speeds, they will age differently. Think of one twin staying home on Earth while the other leaves in a rocket ship going close to the speed of light. After 50 years, the one in the rocket ship will come back younger than the twin because time bent and slowed (like pulling taffy) and so events occured to the twin in the rocket ship more slowly. If they could somehow observe one another one would appear to stand still while the other would be a blur ....

So fat people won't have to go on diets anymore?

[QUOTE="funsohng"]so if we make an actual hologram, would it actually mean that we made a hologram in a hologram?Dystopian-X

Had to be done!

[QUOTE="pengo93"]

[QUOTE="my_mortal_coil"]

In a way yes. If we think of ourselves as being only in three dimensions (think of time stopping) then we exist infinitely in space, however adding the 4th "flattens" our existence to include a beginning and an end.

my_mortal_coil

0__o

I actually understand now. Seeing as you're smart and all, can humans perceive the 4th dimension? I don't think so, because if we did wouldn't we be able to see through time rather than just observe it at a given point (the present)?

That can certainly be argued. Is it illusion to percieve time, or do we really percieve it? Actually I was astounded when I started reading up on Buddhism. Buddhism makes a clear distiction between the concept of attachment to time and the disattachment of it. What that means is that we only exist in the present moment, and that moment last an infinitely long and short amount of time, at the same time because it's constantly flowing. We only percieve the past and future by projecting our awareness on longing of the past (remembering, essentially) and expectation of the future (thinking "ahead"). Only when we become fully aware do we understand the true concept of time as being universally infinite.

Enstein, however, would have argued that. According to relativistic time, if twins exist in two different places going different speeds, they will age differently. Think of one twin staying home on Earth while the other leaves in a rocket ship going close to the speed of light. After 50 years, the one in the rocket ship will come back younger than the twin because time bent and slowed (like pulling taffy) and so events occured to the twin in the rocket ship more slowly. If they could somehow observe one another one would appear to stand still while the other would be a blur ....

The way I see it, the present is a fixed point, therefore is universal. Therefore if two people on different planeTS AH! I broke my brain..