Universal Theories

[Griffin NoName]

So the Universe is a Hologram

Can someone explain this to me. I am sure I experience everything as 3D - so how is this possible?

[Opsa]

It seems to be implying that not only are things 3D, but they change depending on from where you view them. I imagine that they are alluding to time as they thing that alters the view?

[Griffin NoName]

String Theory asserts everything is one dimensional or doesn't it?

[Aggie]

Put it this way...

Imagine a 2d picture composed of pixels, with each pixel a different shade of gray along a black-to-white matrix.  That's a 2d picture, but if you assign a 'value' to each shade of gray (with infinite divisions), you can turn that 2d image into a 3d graph by using the third dimension as a height representation. Theoretically, with infinite divisions, you could specify the patterns of particles in the 3rd dimension instead of just a 'height'.

For a good overview of how this theory was developed, check out The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind.

I tend to view the universe as a waveform, as a result of being exposed to these things.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Apparently someone got tired of calculating the 10-11-26... dimensions.

[Griffin NoName]

Is that a date?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The day 26 became 2.6 dimensions.

Next thing they'll say the universe is a stereogram.

[Griffin NoName]

Is the Universe silent? If it fell over, would there be anybody to hear it fall?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

In which direction would it fall?

[Griffin NoName]

Sideways.

[ivor]

Up?

[Opsa]

Inward.

[Aggie]

The '2d' part isn't so much to do with dimensions as the Universe is physically expressed, but with information storage.  The sum total of all the information in a given 3d space is proportional to the area of the surface bounding that space.

The theory is derived from and most often applied to studying black holes, because the event horizon represents a surface beyond which it's impossible to see what is contained within the volume of the space, as photons cannot escape.  However, the radius (and therefore the surface area) of the event horizon is determined by the mass/energy of the black hole.  Theory indicates that adding one bit of information increases the surface area of a black hole's event horizon by exactly one Planck area (a Planck length squared). The 2d surface of the event horizon is tied by this most fundamental unit to the amount of contained area, not the volume of the black hole. Of course, a derived volume increase can be calculated, but it's not equivalent to a Planck volume, which suggests that area is the fundamental unit.

The string theory basis of the assertion is a lot more complicated (and AFAIK based on calculations that apply to universe types permissible under string theory which are very different than our own), but that's the gist of it.