New Scientist: "We are all living in a giant cosmic hologram"

[bassrique]

I fudged the title a bit, but this is an interesting read, and is as likely to be true to an agnostic like me as any major religion:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

Originally Posted by selected quote from first page

For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan.

If this doesn't blow your socks off, then Hogan, who has just been appointed director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics, has an even bigger shock in store: "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram."

Hmmmm..... I'm also reminded of this post from the 2012 thread:

December 21, 2012

[Relic]

I'm right smack in the middle of reading "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot - very interesting book. He uses similar "the universe is a hologram" type theme. Awesome stuff!

[bassrique]

Originally Posted by Relic

I'm right smack in the middle of reading "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot - very interesting book. He uses similar "the universe is a hologram" type theme. Awesome stuff!

Does that guy do a science column for the New York Times?

[Relic]

Originally Posted by bassrique

Does that guy do a science column for the New York Times?

Possibly, not sure.

[Benjamin Strange]

"The Holographic Universe" is simply one of my favorite books ever. It's a real melon tweaker, sho.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

"The Holographic Universe" is simply one of my favorite books ever. It's a real melon tweaker, sho.

Oh big time.
I'm enjoying the heck out of it. So far I cant say that I'm 100% in tune with what he's saying but, some of the stuff there has really made me stop and think. Wild book

[Brad Maestas]

I'm gonna have to check out that book. Thanks for the article link too!
The first six comments are a riot.

[jazzy grille]

"My holographic head just exploded."

My boss sent this article to me this morning, I plan on reading it during my lunch break.

[DudeistMonk]

I need to go home, make a phone call, pick something up from somebody and then think about this a lot more.

[hbarcat]

Michael Talbot was a believer in ESP, telepathy, and other paranormal phenomena. He had no formal education in science and I would be more than a little bit skeptical of his ideas on a "holographic universe".

The article on the experiment that may have detected the graininess of the universe at the Planck length is pretty awesome, though.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

Michael Talbot was a believer in ESP, telepathy, and other paranormal phenomena. He had no formal education in science and I would be more than a little bit skeptical of his ideas on a "holographic universe".

Well, maybe so. But the book's based around what David Bohm (quantum physicist) and Karl Pribram (Stanford neurophysiologist) are putting forth. Talbot's just putting it together. Not to say that I think Talbot's a genius and premiere thinker of our time, I'm just saying that he's using Bohm's and Pribram's theories to base the book around. It's actually a thought-provoking book whether you believe it or not. Have you read it yet?

[flipper_gv]

Originally Posted by Relic

I'm right smack in the middle of reading "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot - very interesting book. He uses similar "the universe is a hologram" type theme. Awesome stuff!

You mean Scar Symmetry, right?

[Relic]

Originally Posted by flipper_gv

You mean Scar Symmetry, right?

[The Crusader]

would someone be kind enough to sum it up for me. thanks.

[ksandvik]

And our universe hologram is one grain in an even bigger hologram, which is also a grain in a bigger one.... As well as our universe has grains that are actually universes with their own grains that have universes...

[Scarlet Fire]

Originally Posted by The Crusader

would someone be kind enough to sum it up for me. thanks.

The way I interpreted it:

On the 2D boundary of our 3D universe is a metric butt-load of really tiny particles (the size of the Planck Length). These particles encode for all of the information in the universe, much the same way that a 2D piece of hologram film codes for all of the information of a 3D image.

[Mark Wilson]

My mind is blown.
it actually makes a lot of sense.

[Swerve]

Good read, thanks for sharing. I've always been interested in space and dimensions. Anyone else have these as a child?

[Georynn]

yo dawg, I heard you like universes, so i put a universe in your universe so you can universe while you universe...

[Swerve]

Originally Posted by Georynn

yo dawg, I heard you like universes, so i put a universe in your universe so you can universe while you universe...