The Holographic Universe and You: Part One

INTRODUCTION: If the Universe is actually a hologram (a 3-D image residing on a 2-D surface), and we’re part of the Universe, then we too are but part of a holographic 3-D image on a 2-D surface! If you are a 3-D hologram, then your brain too is a hologram. Perhaps some of the properties of holograms might be relevant in explaining some of the neurological mysteries of that wetware brain thingy of yours – like memory.  You might think it intuitive that a volume could contain more bits of information than the area that surrounds that volume. But a 2-D (area) can store all the information of the 3-D (volume) it represents. Think of it this way, the contents of your immediate 3-D surroundings can not fit into your brain. That 3-D image is being viewed instead on a little 2-D TV screen inside your head. That’s a considerable savings – a compression of information from a large volume to a small area. Our human brain can store lots and lots and lots of bits and pieces (like perceptions and memories) in a relatively little space. It has been scientifically guesstimated that the human brain has the capacity to memorize something on the order of 10 billion bits of information all inputted during the average human lifetime – that’s a lot of bits. Similarly, holograms possess an astounding capacity for information storage. It’s been shown that one cubic centimeter of film can hold as many as 10 billion bits of information. So, our amazing ability to rapidly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles.

So if 2-D is reality and 3-D is illusion then that has various implications for life, the Universe and everything. So climb aboard this magical carpet ride; this magical mystery tour into the holographic Universe and the holographic you. Let the game begin.

OPENING REMARKS: For starters, you are not inside the Universe, be it a really 3-D or just a holographic 3-D Universe. The Universe is inside you. The Universe is inside you since the ‘reality’ of everything external to you (i.e. – the Universe), is ultimately transmitted to you (to your mind) via your five senses. The Universe or your Universe is therefore only perceived and interpreted by and within your mind – via your brain’s biochemistry. But that brain thingy of yours isn’t big enough to house anything larger than it is – as noted above. Since your mind doesn’t have the room to incorporate the reality of the entire Universe within it, the apparent and alleged 3-D aspect of it is reduced (compressed) to 2-D by your brain projecting it onto an internal mental screen as it were, a screen that exists solely within your mind. Any 3-D image (that’s what you see) that resides on a 2-D surface (the screen within your mind) is just a hologram by any other name.  

But wait; in addition to the Universe existing within you, you must also exist within the Universe! That’s because the Universe provides you with all those essentials you need to keep that brain thingy alive and ticking and perceiving. These essentials include such things as food and water and oxygen and gravity and a reasonable temperature range, etc. This is no chicken and egg puzzle since in order for you to house the Universe within your mind; the Universe had to exist to give you existence.

So, we have a real duality going here!

Actually one might argue that one doesn’t need a real Universe, 2-D, 3-D or otherwise at all – you in it and/or it in you. You’re mind can by itself provide all the rich, if imaginary, details needed to keep you occupied and amused. You don’t need any input from your five senses, from the outside world, to conjure up some sort of picture(s) on that 2-D silver screen within your brain. It’s what’s known as an active imagination which operates awake or asleep. Trouble is, the odds are good that imaginary food, water, oxygen, room temperatures, etc. won’t sustain your be-all-and-end-all mind for very long. But then again, if your mind is the be-all-and-end-all of all things, maybe it doesn’t need anything else since there isn’t anything else! Let’s assume that’s not a viable option.

So we have to have a real Universe. The question is, is it actually 3-D or an illusionary 3-D?

DIMENSIONALITY: We go through our entire lives absolutely convinced we exist in a 4-D Universe. 4-D is also known collectively as ‘space-time’ after Einstein merged the concepts of 1-D time and 3-D space with his theories of relativity (general and special). You need a total of four space-time dimensions to specify where you are. There’s the 3-D of space (longitude, latitude and altitude), plus the 1-D of what time is it? It makes a great big difference to your plans whether it’s 10 am or 10 pm; the 13^th or the 14^th; March or April; 2010 or 2011. But is it really so? With respect to the 3-D of space, there’s left – right; up – down; and forward – back. Time however is only one way and therefore time is somehow different, but that’s another topic entirely*.

Leaving time out of the picture, it’s relatively easy to imagine less than the 3-D of space. 0-D is a point; 1-D is a line (length); 2-D is a square (area); and our familiar 3-D is a cube (volume).

It’s harder to imagine more than 3-D (again, leaving time out of the matrix) although the maths is straight forward enough. The highly theoretical ‘string theory’ or ‘superstring theory’ or ‘M-Theory’ has to invoke a 9-D to 10-D Universe (plus the extra 1-D for time) in order for it to make any sense. Needless to say, it’s remained theoretical-only for decades now! There’s zip, zero, zilch evidence for a more than a tri-dimensional (3-D) Universe (plus the extra 1-D for time).

Rather than invoke more than 3-D; can we postulate our existence in fewer dimensions? Well 0-D is absolutely ridiculous; 1-D isn’t any better. Can we contemplate a 2-D existence - in a 2-D Universe? We’re of course familiar with many 2-D facets in our world.

To be continued…

*Time is, IMHO, an illusion. Time has no real independent existence – it can’t stand by itself. If you removed all the matter and energy from the Universe, would there be left anything we could address as time? Time is just our way of keeping track of, and measuring rate of change in matter and/or energy. If nothing ever changed it would be nonsense to talk about time. The flow of time; the arrow of time; is just the flow of macro things changing. If everything were somehow ‘frozen in time’ – like a single frame from a film – there is no actual time that can be discussed or measured. So we don’t in any sense measure something that is time, we measure rate of change and call that time.

Actually you measure rate of change by another rate of change. For example, the rate of change from birth to death is usually measured by the rate of change in position of the Earth orbiting the Sun (years and fractions of years) and rate of change of position of the Earth rotating around on its axis (days and fractions of days). Another example: The rate of change between the beginning of your lunch hour and the ending of your lunch hour is usually measured by the rate of change of the hands of a clock (sixty 360 degree sweeps of the minute hand or a 30 degrees clockwise change in the hour hand) or the rate of change in the numbers on your digital watch, say from 1:00 to 2:00. Translated, a variable or uncertain rate of change (lifespan; length of a lunch ‘hour’) is usually measured by a standard, invariable, predictable rate of change.

Now rate of change is affected by gravity or mass – the greater the mass the greater the gravity and the slower things change from A to B, but that slowness is only relative to someone else also measuring A to B but who is in lesser gravitational field. Rate of change is also affected by velocity. The faster you go, the slower things change from A to B, again however it’s relative to someone else also measuring A to B but who is moving at a lower velocity relative to you. That’s why it’s the theory of relativity!