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The Universe As Hologram
Several readers sent in news of theoretical work bolstering the proposition that the universe may be a hologram. The story begins at the German experiment GEO600, a laser inteferometer looking for gravity waves. For years, researchers there have been locating and eliminating sources of interference and noise from the experiment (they have not yet seen a gravity wave). For months they have been puzzling over a source of noise they could not explain. Then Craig Hogan, a Fermilab physicist, approached them with a possible answer: that GEO600 may have stumbled upon a fundamental limit where space-time stops behaving like a smooth continuum and instead dissolves into "grains." The "holographic principle" suggests that the universe at small scales would be "blurry," its smallest features far larger than Planck scale, and possibly accessible to current technology such as the GEO600. The holographic principle, if borne out, could help distinguish among competing theories of quantum gravity, but "We think it's at least a year too early to get excited," the lead GEO600 scientist said.
[pulls out 3-D glasses]
That we're all living on a small anti-counterfeiting patch on God's MasterCard?
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
Nope, not a hologram.
Mine is Good
Commander Riker, this is Captain Picard. We seem to be trapped in a holodeck simulation of the Matrix, and Mr. LaForge has broken his leg because the safeties are off. Can you beam us out?
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
There is no spoon?
He showed that the physics inside a hypothetical universe with five dimensions and shaped like a Pringle is the same as the physics taking place on the four-dimensional boundary.
[checks calendar] No, it's not April yet... that settles it then -- we must be living on a giant potato chip! Precisely the type of universe one would expect a Flying Spaghetti Monster to design!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This just in, Red Dwarf's Rimmer and Voyager's doctor upset, complain of "hologram of a hologram" prejudice.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
The small anti-counterfeiting patch on my MasterCard could be...
One tiny little universe.
Screw that! I'm getting drunk NOW!
Woohoo!
What?
So it's not about gravity being discrete, it's about space and time being discrete, which shows up as a jitter-like noise in the gravity-wave measuring experiment.
So the universe isn't actually analog at all...It's digital. It just looks analog to us due to all the anti-aliasing.
people were only seeing a shadow of reality and it was up to politicians to declare war on shadows.
If they prove gravitons exist I want a bowl of them, with a side of graviolis...
To say that certain aspects of the universe can be modeled using elegant mathematics, and that this implies a designer is a non sequitor. If I was God, I would have used 6th order equations, all the way down, just to show how awesome at math I was.
What do you call that field which is practiced by the people we generally call "philosophers?"
I think the current parlance is "food preparation technicians."
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Exactly. The intelligent designer concept is only working if you can't think 'til the next step:
1 Where is that designer?
2 What is he in?
3 Who created the designer?
4 Who created, whatever the designer is in?
5 GOTO 1
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
You're right, He uses Visa, hates paypal and is considering leaving eBay for good and selling His shit elsewhere. Those pesky fees! What's a Guy gonna do...
No one writes jokes in base 13 >>
Physics involving cats is bad enough, but now the all cats are holograms..?
If you look inside Schrödinger's Fridge there may or may not be a beer.
Maybe the cat drank them.
Free Martian Whores!
I said I wanted a refund, I didn't say I was done playing.
Just another ignorant American.
From Me: Universe, please start beach babe program 101.
From Universe: Fatal error in beach babe execution. Dork array value out of range.
*sigh*
Nevermind...
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
If I was God, I would have used 6th order equations, all the way down, just to show how awesome at math I was.
What's wrong with the turtles?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
All is revealed here.
Did that clear things up?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Evolution.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
the philosophical cart
Descartes, yes?
GENERATION 25: If you haven't yet, copy this into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. (Social experiment)