Is Our Universe Holographic?

It is hard to understand why so many people think we are living in a holographic universe. First let me explain the theory so you all know what I am talking about. It is believed we are living a sort of dream which we believe is consciousness. It is said the universe does bear a striking resemblance to a computer program. These are not my words, but those of an engineer Jim Elvidge who received his engineering degree from Cornell University and is the holder of multiple patents in digital signaling. I am telling you this so you don’t think I am talking about some crazy guy. He says what we believe is matter, is really empty space and our senses are tricked into thinking it is solid. One British philosopher put his theory forward years ago and it stated we might be living in a computer simulation run by our descendants. Wow when we talk about a holographic universe things seems to get so far out that the non-scientific person would probably laugh at the notion and I can understand why.

Science does come up with some weird things now and again and this is certainly one of them. If we believed this theory then most likely we would not be alive either, but only think we are alive and we could be used over and over in the simulation. To play devil’s advocate this might account for the belief in reincarnation. Could it be we just don’t have enough data about the universe and if we did we would find out the idea of a holographic universe is absurd? Today scientists are suggesting they might know how to create a simulation of the universe which would be hard to tell from the real thing. They talk about building a lattice to account for distances between virtual object and simulating the progression of time. Remember the holodeck in the show Star Trek and how it seemed like you were on other worlds and could travel for hours, but were really in a small room? This would be something like the simulation they are talking about which would seem to be infinite.

A scientific team performed an experiment in 1982 in Paris. It was led by a physicist named Alain Aspect. His team discovered subatomic particles which can communicate with each other under certain circumstances and do it instantly regardless of distance. This shook up the scientific world. How can a particle which might be billions of light years away and one which is only a couple of feet away both receive data at the same time? Einstein said nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so what is going on. One of the ways some have explained this is that in truth nothing is far away we just think it is. This has led some scientists to say there really isn’t any physical universe and thus it must be a hologram. Could it be there is something we do not understand about a real universe which allows this to happen? I remember when scientists and engineers swore we could never break the speed of sound and they were adamant about it. The same was true when astronomers placed the earth at the center of the universe. We have been down this road many times before. When some scientists are having problems measuring distances and signals in the universe they blame it on the fact the universe is not real and therefore their algorithms are right, but nature is wrong.

An American theoretical physicist named David Bohm described his work as understanding nature. After Aspect’s experiment Bohm believed that separateness is just an illusion much like the holodeck I discussed above. He thought our senses believed there was distance between things, but it was just an illusion. If Bohm was here now he would tell you there is no “real.” He didn’t believe matter existed, only empty space we thought was matter. Many scientists are now accepting some of Bohm’s conclusions and experiments are being conducted to test if reality exists.

When we talk about some futuristic computer creating a simulation which includes simulated beings (us), we are really talking about things we have no knowledge of. First of all how would we know what a computer might be like hundreds or thousands of years from now? If some sort of simulation could be made there might even be the ability to put real people into it by then. How do we know we would be simulations? One theory states we could be in some futuristic prison. If we buy this theory than we have to believe everyone we know or who we have ever known never existed. If you get into an argument about the existence of a holographic universe you could just tell the person you are arguing with they don’t exist, therefore the argument doesn’t exist.

Another thing it might mean is time doesn’t exist, at least not as we know it. A simulation is a construct, it isn’t real so how can the time it generates be real? Maybe we could be living in a simulation constructed by intelligent computers to observe simulated humans, because they have all been wiped out in the future and the machines want to know more about us. One could take this theory about a holographic universe to all sorts of extremes. One of the things I have a problem with is the fact a holograph usually is just a sort of picture and yet our universe puts out heat, cold and waves of all sorts. Again I am comparing it to our current holograph technology and have no idea of what a future holograph might be like.

Scientists believe they can conduct an experiment which will prove one way or the other if the universe is a hologram. It is called the Holometer Project and is being conducted at the Fermilab in Illinois. Craig Hogan is the director of Fermilab’s Center for Particle Astrophysics and he has said, "If we see something, it will completely change ideas about space we've used for thousands of years." Two laser beams are split and sent down perpendicular tunnels. Mirrors then bounce the light back to the beam splitter and recombines it. If the returned light jiggles it will be from holographic noise. A physicist at Fermilab named Aaron Chou said, "It's an exciting moment for physics. A positive result will open a whole new avenue of questioning about how space works."

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have a hunch people would not be happy finding out they were simulations and the unhappiest might be those running organized religions, but somehow I just can’t believe the results will be positive. If they do come out positive it might be for some other reason even if the scientists don’t think so.