Our universe is a holographic projection

Our universe is a holographic projection
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 11:47



Arcane yet exciting physics, wrapped up in effortless prose. Yes, Brian Greene has done it again. His new book, The Hidden Reality, does for multiverses what his bestseller The Elegant Universe did for string theory: it provides the general reader with a thorough, engaging survey of the subject that manages to make highly abstract ideas sound implausibly comprehensible.

The notion that our universe may be one of perhaps infinitely many universes that compose an unimaginably vast multiverse has become fashionable in physics these days - and for good reason. As Greene explains, no matter where physicists turn, they seem to run into some kind of parallel world. From basic quantum physics to cosmology to string theory, the equations are oozing universes.

At the same time, the subject has tensions flaring between physicists who view the multiverse as a panacea for all of physics's ills and those who deride it as untestable metaphysics. As Greene puts it, the multiverse has become the "battleground for the very soul of science".

So there couldn't be a better time for a book to sort out the many strange passages of the multiverse. To start, there is more than one notion of a multiverse; Greene tackles nine. They range from the bubble universes spawned by a continuous chain of big bangs to the possibility that we may one day create simulated universes on our desktops. You may be reading this in a simulated world right now. Or perhaps infinite versions of you are reading this over and over, scattered throughout relentlessly expansive space. One thing, though, is common to all views: reality is not what it seems.

I found the most intriguing multiverse to be the holographic variety. The idea is that our world, with its three spatial dimensions, is actually a holographic projection of a parallel world residing on its two-dimensional boundary. It is an idea that Greene explores in fascinating depth, and no wonder: it literally had him dancing with joy. "I faced the audience, threw my right hand to my left shoulder and my left hand to my right shoulder, and then with both hands in succession grabbed the seat of my pants, bunny-hopped and made a quarter turn." You may recognise these moves as the Macarena - Greene was dancing it at a 1998 physics conference in excitement over the theoretical holographic universe discovered by physicist Juan Maldacena. Heyyyy, Maldacena!

Most importantly, even while making the subject accessible, Greene doesn't shy away from important nuances or profound philosophical questions. I suspect that this will be a hugely popular book - in this universe and many, many others.

The hidden reality of parallel universes
Tuesday, 08 February 2011 10:32


Our universe might be really, really big — but finite. Or it might be infinitely big.

Both cases, says physicist Brian Greene, are possibilities, but if the latter is true, so is another posit: There are only so many ways matter can arrange itself within that infinite universe. Eventually, matter has to repeat itself and arrange itself in similar ways. So if the universe is infinitely large, it is also home to infinite parallel universes.

Does that sound confusing? Try this:

Think of the universe like a deck of cards.

"Now, if you shuffle that deck, there's just so many orderings that can happen," Greene says. "If you shuffle that deck enough times, the orders will have to repeat. Similarly, with an infinite universe and only a finite number of complexions of matter, the way in which matter arranges itself has to repeat."

Greene, the author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, tackles the existence of multiple universes in his latest book, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos.

Recent discoveries in physics and astronomy, he says, point to the idea that our universe may be one of many universes populating a grander multiverse.

"You almost can't avoid having some version of the multiverse in your studies if you push deeply enough in the mathematical descriptions of the physical universe," he says. "There are many of us thinking of one version of parallel universe theory or another. If it's all a lot of nonsense, then it's a lot of wasted effort going into this far-out idea. But if this idea is correct, it is a fantastic upheaval in our understanding."

How Quantum Mechanics And General Relativity Play A Part

Greene thinks the key to understanding these multiverses comes from string theory, the area of physics he has studied for the past 25 years.

In a nutshell, string theory attempts to reconcile a mathematical conflict between two already accepted ideas in physics: quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.

"Einstein's theory of relativity does a fantastic job for explaining big things," Greene says. "Quantum mechanics is fantastic for the other end of the spectrum — for small things. The big problem is that each theory is great for each realm, but when they confront each other, they are ferocious antagonists, and the mathematics falls apart."

String theory smooths out the mathematical inconsistencies that currently exist between quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. It posits that the entire universe can be explained in terms of really, really small strings that vibrate in 10 or 11 dimensions — meaning dimensions we can't see. If it exists, it could explain literally everything in the universe — from subatomic particles to the laws of speed and gravity.

So what does this have to do with the possibility that a multiverse exists?

"There are a couple of multiverses that come out of our study of string theory," Greene says. "Within string theory, the strings that we're talking about are not the only entities that this theory allows. It also allows objects that look like large flying carpets, or membranes, which are two dimensional surfaces. And what that means, within string theory, is that we may be living on one of those gigantic surfaces, and there can be other surfaces floating out there in space."

That theory, he says, might be testable in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

"If we are living on one of these giant membranes, then the following can happen: When you slam particles together — which is what happens at the LHC — some debris from those collisions can be ejected off of our membrane and be ejected into the greater cosmos in which our membrane floats," he says. "If that happens, that debris will take away some energy. So if we measure the amount of energy just before the protons collide and compare it with the amount of energy just after they collide, if there's a little less after — and it's less in just the right way — it would indicate that some had flown off, indicating that this membrane picture is correct."

Greene explains that when he began studying string theory and parallel universes, it wasn't because he could one day measure energy at CERN or develop new mathematical equations. He simply liked the idea, he says, of studying something on such a large scale.

"We're trying to talk about not just the universe but perhaps other universes — but all within a logical framework that allows us to make some definitive statements," he says. "To me, that's enormously exciting, to step outside the everyday and really look at the universe, within these mathematical terms, on its grandest scales."

Leven we in een hologram?
Thursday, 28 October 2010 11:03



Wat is realiteit? Een wetenschapper bouwt momenteel aan een experiment om aan te tonen dat ons heelal een hologram is.

Door het experiment hoopt men op een wetenschappelijke en vooral mathematische manier aan te tonen dat deze hypothese van het holografische universum realiteit is.

Natuurkundige Craig Hogan van Fermilab blaast dit concept nieuw leven in nadat hij ruis heeft gemeten wat is opgenomen met een detector van gravitatie golven. Het apparaat heet GEO600 en bevindt zich in Duitsland.

Dat de wetenschap dit langzaam begint te ontdekken is een goed teken. De werkelijkheid zoals we die om ons heen ervaren is in feite een illusie. Een gecreëerd hologram wat we ervaren door de perceptie van onze lichamelijke zintuigen. Een zeer geavanceerde leerschool in een computerachtige matrix.



Hoe werkt het? Om jezelf van bovenaf te kunnen observeren in een fysieke vorm moet licht zich opdelen in ‘de observator’ en ‘datgene wat je wilt observeren’. Je bewustzijn, zeer intelligent, moet voorts een blauwdruk creëren voor de vorm die je wilt observeren in de holografische projectie van het leven in de lagere dimensies.

Hierna creëert je bewustzijn een gedachtevorm van een menselijk lichaam, wat de eerste straal wordt van het opgedeelde licht. De tweede lichtstraal wordt ook gereflecteerd door de holografische plaat en vermengt zich met de eerste straal (het object, de menselijke vorm), zodat de puurheid van het oorspronkelijke bovengenoemde licht behouden blijft.

Dit licht wordt geprojecteerd op de holografische plaat van planeet Aarde. Je wilt jezelf observeren, zodat je energiepatronen van puur licht en bewustzijn vorm krijgen. Op deze manier wordt vorm behouden zodat de illusie van een fysieke realiteit kan bestaan. Wanneer dit begrepen wordt gaat men langzaam richting de gebieden waar vorm niet langer nodig is en louter een bezwaring vormt van het bewustzijn.