The universe may be...
 

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[Closed] The universe may be a hologram .. you what?

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 bubs
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I caught the end of a Brian Cox interview and apparently we may all be existing inside a holographic universe. Can somebody please explain this in a way that I can then explain to my nine year old (and that I might actually understand too).


 
Posted : 08/04/2021 9:45 pm
 bubs
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.


 
Posted : 08/04/2021 10:03 pm
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https://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8847863/holographic-principle-universe-theory-physics.

Not sure it will work on a 9yo though as it's a bit mind-bending for an adult with a casual interest in astrophysics.


 
Posted : 08/04/2021 10:13 pm
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Posted : 08/04/2021 10:22 pm
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A hologram like the one on your credit card is flat, but it looks 3d because tiny reflective patterns on it reflect light in such a way as to make it look like it's come from somewhere else i.e. behind the surface, hence 3d.

What these guys are saying is that the universe.migjt be similar - only actually 2d and the third dimension is an illusion based on the properties of the 2d plane.

It's not really possible to understand these ideas properly without the maths, in the same way I imagine it's not possible to explain red to someone who's been blind from birth unless you talk about spectrums and wavelengths. It's not part of our physical world so you cannot visualise it in terms of our physical world.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 8:35 am
 IHN
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And regardless, there's a greater possibility that you're a simulated being in a simulated universe created by someone in the future, than being an actual, well, being, in the actual universe, now.

Although why someone in the future would go to the lengths of simulating TJ and cynic-al is anyone's guess 🙂


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:12 am
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What these guys are saying is that the universe.migjt be similar – only actually 2d and the third dimension is an illusion based on the properties of the 2d plane.

So, the Earth really IS flat !


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:13 am
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It’s not really possible to understand these ideas properly without the maths, in the same way I imagine it’s not possible to explain red to someone who’s been blind from birth unless you talk about spectrums and wavelengths. It’s not part of our physical world so you cannot visualise it in terms of our physical world.

I think the video Klunk linked to does a pretty good job of explaining it, how physicists went from the entropy of a black hole to a holographic universe. It explains the ideas without getting bogged down in the maths. The basic bit you have to get you head around is that dimensions can arise out of invariant scalar fields (the bit with the bananas)

I absolutely don't have the maths to get any deeper than that but I can just about get my head round the concept.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:23 am
 Drac
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Yeah I liked the way they did that, I only caught the end too but thought it was great to drop that in as he walked out the door.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:27 am
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Although why someone in the future would go to the lengths of simulating TJ and cynic-al is anyone’s guess

They don't have to everyone else is just an NPC in my own personal simulation


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:32 am
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Penny and Leonard did this much better than Coxey.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:36 am
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If we're all holograms, then are we all Rimmers?


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:52 am
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I kept getting a Oops 404 not found and a picture of Chipps every time I went to view this thread. What does that tell you?


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 9:58 am
 Kuco
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If we’re all holograms, then are we all Rimmers?

Could be worse we could all be Duane Dibbley


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 10:00 am
 bubs
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Well, I tried to explain the best I could thanks to those videos. She was getting worried that she wasn’t real 🙃 not helped by the fact that I kept getting the Oops 404 error and that we had just watched Back to the Future.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 2:02 pm
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She was getting worried that she wasn’t real

As IHN said, there's a vanishingly small probability that she is.

The philosophical answer is to question whether it matters. Should you act any differently based on your own knowledge and feelings whether the world outside those exists or is a simulation?


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 2:28 pm
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I watched the video Klunk linked to, now I think I'm on drugs.


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 2:38 pm
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Want to really blow your mind? Look at the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. Relatively easy to understand but absolutely mind blowing

CERN even have an app which uses the theory to make totally random decisions for you based on quantum mechanics and particle spin. Basically you create real new universes by hitting a button in your smartphone, I use it to decide stuff from what trail to ride next to much more important things that I can’t make my mind up on


 
Posted : 09/04/2021 2:48 pm
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A hologram like the one on your credit card is flat, but it looks 3d because tiny reflective patterns on it reflect light in such a way as to make it look like it’s come from somewhere else i.e. behind the surface, hence 3d.

Fragments of a hologram rose...

CERN even have an app which uses the theory to make totally random decisions for you based on quantum mechanics and particle spin. Basically you create real new universes by hitting a button in your smartphone, I use it to decide stuff from what trail to ride next to much more important things that I can’t make my mind up on

Ha! Dice Man for a technological age!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man


 
Posted : 10/04/2021 11:05 pm
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If you believe you are real, if your experiences feel real - maybe you are real in every way that matters...

As I get older, there is some comfort in maybe feeling that my existence is not entirely real.


 
Posted : 11/04/2021 9:01 am

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