On this channel I tackle a variety of scientific concepts and ideas that bear profound implications
on our existence and our understanding of ourselves and the universe.
And among my travels to find and dig into those ideas one stands out that seems to rise
above all other concepts in just how profound it could be, rising above all other human
ideas whether they be religious, metaphysical, scientific or philosophical.
It is the question of whether the universe is real at all.
I've already made a video scratching the surface of this concept, it's called "Is the Universe
real?
Or is it a computer simulation?"
and can be found on this channel but a recent paper may shed some further light on the concept
and expand on the idea that if the universe isn't as it seems, we may some day know its
true nature because it may turn out that if reality is just an illusion then it may be
scientifically testable and possible to prove.
Physicists and cosmologists have long known that something intuitively doesn't seem quite
right with the universe.
First of all, it doesn't seem to have a point of existing other than perhaps to allow consciousness
to exist which amounts to the universe perceiving itself into existence.
And second, it's perfectly and strangely fine-tuned for exactly that leading eminent cosmologist
Fred Hoyle to once have said that the universe looks like a quote unquote "put up job" and
leading no less than Albert Einstein to speak of reading the mind of God and how the "old
one" does not play dice with the universe.
As it turns out, he sort of does, but that's a subject for a future video.
While those sentiments might have seemed out of place during the times of Hoyle and Einstein
where a focus on evolution, reason and scientific testability were the rule of the day, they
no longer are and what once might have seemed like hogwash physicists uttered under their
breath has now entered the realm of real possibility and it may well be the case that our universe
is in reality a kind of hologram.
Think of it like this.
On your bank card or on a holographic sticker you see an image that seems to be three-dimensional.
It's not, it's flat and two dimensional and amounts to a trick of light that makes it
look 3d.
The universe may be like that as well if new research proves to be solid.
Recent studies of the cosmic background radiation, the afterglow leftover from the Big Bang,
reveal hints of the early phases of the universe when space and time may not have been as well
defined as they are today.
This blurry period could be phrased as a holographic phase of the universe that later gave way
to a sharper geometric phase, which we are in now.
But that may all be an illusion where a two dimensional nature of the universe somehow
leads to the illusion of three dimensions, much like a 3d movie in a theater.
It's a flat picture, but if you're wearing the right glasses it will appear to be more.
That may also be the case for our universe and we just happen to be wearing the right
glasses.
As it turns out, a joint team of UK, Canadian and Italian scientists have released a paper,
link in the description below, that reports that they may have the first observational
evidence of a holographic universe stemming from studies of irregularities contained within
the Cosmic Background radiation.
More, the evidence seems to be substantial.
So much so that it seems to be equally likely to any other theory explaining those irregularities.
And, this research bears a particularly attractive possibility.
To this day, our theories in physics could be termed to be approximations that work really
well.
The physics of Isaac Newton, for example, allows us to send rockets to the moon, predict
the orbits of planets, and build safer cars.
But, Newton made an assumption that, in certain specialized cases, makes his physics fall
apart and become merely "good enough" for most applications.
His assumption was that time ticks at the same rate everywhere in the universe under
all conditions.
This is not the case.
Einstein's theory of General Relativity further refined things to account for the fact that
time ticks at different rates depending on how fast you're moving and, most notably,
how much gravity is present.
But again, there's an issue.
When you get down to the world of the small, the quantum level, General relativity breaks
down and we have to use an entirely separate theory, quantum mechanics, to explain what
we see.
Both of these theories work very successfully for what they do, but no one is quite certain
how they relate to each other.
They are puzzle pieces that don't fit together and we're missing the linking pieces.
Some scientists believe that the concept of a holographic universe could shed light on
the mystery like the picture of a puzzle imprinted on its box and finally reconcile quantum mechanics
and general relativity.
And while a holographic universe doesn't go so far as to imply that Einstein's "old one"
is at work, or the God of Spinoza guides our existence, it does add some weight to Hoyle's
viewpoint that the universe sometimes looks like a big "put up job".
Thanks for listening and as an aside, if you happen to have an old fashioned television
lying around that you can tune to static, you can see the cosmic background radiation
for yourself because it's responsible for a significant percentage of the white noise
visible on the screen.
I think that's cool and be sure to check out my books at your favorite online book retailer
and subscribe to my channel for regular, in-depth explorations into the interesting, weird and
unknown aspects of this amazing universe in which we live.