Posted on 08/28/2014 8:57:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Professor Moriarty tried to escape from the holodeck? Well, the folks at Fermilab probably saw it, since they are currently launching a one year series of tests to find out if our entire universe is a hologram.
Do we live in a 2D hologram? There’s no short answer, but physicists believe it may be possible. The holographic principle — a property of particle physics’ string theory — proposes that information about a region of space can be ascertained by the information on the surface that surrounds it — much like you can determine, say, currents in water by the eddies on the surface.
But does this actually mean that our universe is an optical illusion created by light diffraction? Fermilab has just switched on a machine that may help a team of researchers figure it out: the Holometer, the most sensitive instrument ever built to measure the quantum jitter of space.
Generally I’m a supporter of pure research, even in cases where there may not be an immediate, industrial benefit from the results. You never know what you might learn. And even leaving aside for a moment the impression that this sounds like an idea that was cooked up while smoking pot with that professor from Animal House, Fermilab does a lot of cool sounding research. But a year’s worth of high energy inteferometer experiments to see if we’re all a digital illusion? Let’s recall for a moment who is footing the bill for all of this.
According to their own economic impact studies, when it comes to their cash flow, [t]he overwhelming majority of these funds (94%) were from the federal government, with the lion’s share coming from the Department of Energy. Their total annual budget is nearly half a billion dollars, and they’ve had the leash tightened on them in the past. This includes a cut under President Obama (!) in 2012 which eliminated a proposal to shoot high-intensity neutrons underground from Illinois to a gold mine in South Dakota, carrying a “multibillion-dollar price tag” over a period of years.
But on the plus side, however much this is costing you – there is no breakdown of the price offered – just think of the possibilities.If these guys can prove that the entire universe is essentially a two dimensional illusion, then the federal government in Washington doesn’t really exist either. See? I bet you feel better already.
I would love to find out the universe is on a “holodeck”...
“Computer, Arch”
[presses several buttons] (beep beep beep)
Computer: “Liberals and Islamists deleted”
All physical reality is just vibration like sound.
Sounds oddly familiar.
I was going to say that. BTT
There is reason to believe the Universe could have properties similar to a hologram. This money is well spent, especially compared to other government expenditures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdS/CFT_correspondence
It should.
We are made of particles. All particles vibrate. If they quit vibrating, they no longer exist.
Something is amiss. We’re part of the universe, so presumably we ourselves would be an illusion. An illusion for whom, or what?
Rewrite the last sentence: if they end up showing that the universe is a 2-D illusion it will pretty much confirm the existance of a Supreme Being/Creator who built it.
Getting to watch the reaction by Libs and Atheists to the existance of God being proven on a government grant will be worth EVERY penny of taxpayer’s dollars spent.
At least IMHO.
so off-topic - but every time I see his name, I think of the line in Big Bang about Hawking's supposed whiney attitude, "Everyone knows Stephen Hawking is such a baby; he should be in a stroller, not a wheelchair".
The answer is in the movie, “The 13th floor”.
4D yes
Money well spent ;-) (compared to lots of other crap)
Scientific American had a feature article on that.
That is not science. By publishing that article, SA has left the field of science and joined the world of pop fluff.
The thesis of the article is based on NOTHING at all. It doesn’t even rise to the level of conjecture.
Like asking if we are really just part of some other-worldly creatures dream, and when it wakes up we will disappear.
Great science-fiction, but not science.
BTW, the “big bang” is not a sufficient explanation for the origin of the universe. Go to work on that, scientists.
This article is quite a bit misleading. (That tends to be common when journalists write articles about science). The point of the holographic universe idea is that it may be possible to make a mathematical model of our 4D (including the time dimension) universe that is 3 dimensional. In no way does this imply that our universe is illusory or that it is any way a hologram in the sense that we normally think of holograms, namely as an unreal image of some object. It merely means that we can simplify models of the universe by eliminating one dimension. This has very little practical impact for just about everyone alive on earth today. It is very exciting for theoretical physicists, however, because it may allow them to simplify the formulation and solution of various theories, and possibly to use those theories to make new testable predictions.
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