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Great news: You’re paying for a 1 year experiment to find out if the universe is a hologram
Hotair ^ | 08/28/2014 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 08/28/2014 8:57:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Professor Moriarty tried to escape from the holodeck? Well, the folks at Fermilab probably saw it, since they are currently launching a one year series of tests to find out if our entire universe is a hologram.

Do we live in a 2D hologram? There’s no short answer, but physicists believe it may be possible. The holographic principle — a property of particle physics’ string theory — proposes that information about a region of space can be ascertained by the information on the surface that surrounds it — much like you can determine, say, currents in water by the eddies on the surface.

But does this actually mean that our universe is an optical illusion created by light diffraction? Fermilab has just switched on a machine that may help a team of researchers figure it out: the Holometer, the most sensitive instrument ever built to measure the quantum jitter of space.

Generally I’m a supporter of pure research, even in cases where there may not be an immediate, industrial benefit from the results. You never know what you might learn. And even leaving aside for a moment the impression that this sounds like an idea that was cooked up while smoking pot with that professor from Animal House, Fermilab does a lot of cool sounding research. But a year’s worth of high energy inteferometer experiments to see if we’re all a digital illusion? Let’s recall for a moment who is footing the bill for all of this.

According to their own economic impact studies, when it comes to their cash flow, [t]he overwhelming majority of these funds (94%) were from the federal government, with the lion’s share coming from the Department of Energy. Their total annual budget is nearly half a billion dollars, and they’ve had the leash tightened on them in the past. This includes a cut under President Obama (!) in 2012 which eliminated a proposal to shoot high-intensity neutrons underground from Illinois to a gold mine in South Dakota, carrying a “multibillion-dollar price tag” over a period of years.

But on the plus side, however much this is costing you – there is no breakdown of the price offered – just think of the possibilities.If these guys can prove that the entire universe is essentially a two dimensional illusion, then the federal government in Washington doesn’t really exist either. See? I bet you feel better already.


TOPICS: Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: hologram; hotair; jazzshaw; karlpribram; neildegrassetyson; taxes; univerrse
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To: stremba

Gee, like, thanks for damaging my buzz ...


21 posted on 08/28/2014 9:24:10 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: I want the USA back

I think therefor you are. You and everyone like you, is an extension of my consciousness. Those not like you have their own consciousness of which others are an extension. The hologram is the extension of my consciousness. This means there are two distinct types of consciousness. One is the hologram projector. The other is the hologram.


22 posted on 08/28/2014 9:24:23 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
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To: tanknetter

“Rewrite the last sentence: if they end up showing that the universe is a 2-D illusion it will pretty much confirm the existance of a Supreme Being/Creator who built it.”

That’s what I’m thinking. I will enjoy watching the athiests go banana cakes. :-)


23 posted on 08/28/2014 9:28:48 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: SeekAndFind
A black hole?

I'd hit it.

24 posted on 08/28/2014 9:30:28 AM PDT by Lazamataz (First we beat the Soviet Union. Then we became them.)
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To: SeekAndFind

wait....wouldn’t the test, itself, be a hologram? Can we save $$$ and just say, ‘maybe’?


25 posted on 08/28/2014 9:31:42 AM PDT by ZinGirl (kids in college....can't afford a tagline right now)
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To: SeekAndFind

Larry: Okay. That means that our whole solar system could be, like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being.........This is too much! That means one tiny atom in my fingernail could be--

Jennings: Could be one little tiny universe.

Larry: Could I buy some pot from you?

26 posted on 08/28/2014 9:32:59 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: UCANSEE2
If they quit vibrating, they no longer exist.

Hmmm, sounds familiar.

27 posted on 08/28/2014 9:35:05 AM PDT by dragonblustar ( Psalm 103, Psalm 37:7, Ephesians 6:12)
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To: SeekAndFind

42


28 posted on 08/28/2014 9:35:27 AM PDT by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Wow, counter research to the book I am writing. My book is called Chessboard Earth. It is about how God and Satan have been playing a game called Humanity since the beginning of our recorded time.

Each period in history is a chess move. My opinion is that the destruction of the dinosaurs was simply God and Satan agreeing that the game was going nowhere, so they called it a draw and wiped the board to set up for the next game.

In the current game going on now, it is Satan’s move and what we are seeing in todays world is his doing. Question is, what is God’s next move?


29 posted on 08/28/2014 9:37:19 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Manchuria Called. They want their Candidate Back!)
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To: UCANSEE2

More like God speaking the the universe coming into existence.


30 posted on 08/28/2014 9:37:22 AM PDT by dangerdoc ((this space for rent))
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To: SeekAndFind
All this multi-dimensional mumbo-jumbo gives me a headache ....
31 posted on 08/28/2014 9:43:14 AM PDT by mikrofon (Cosmic BUMP)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Well, God tried a flood and He tried a Savior. I think His next step is to quit on the whole thing, stop the hologram and start a new universe, or, at least, the human portion of same.


32 posted on 08/28/2014 9:45:05 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What is the nature of the universe? Why does it exist? When matter and energy are shown to be nothing more than different examples of Universe Information, and black holes have negative entropy such that a mixture of hot gasses with maximum entropy will still have a lessened entropy when projected against holographic 5-dimensional strings.
No, because a 4-dimensional black hole will have surface event-horizon fluctuations that represent the lost information of the incoming particle. This preserves the unitary preservation of information, but seems to indicate a quantum gravity at higher dimensions, and a gravity collapse at lower dimensions.


33 posted on 08/28/2014 9:48:26 AM PDT by Lazamataz (First we beat the Soviet Union. Then we became them.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is precisely the kind of basic physics research that the federal government should fund in that it aims at fundamental scientific knowledge with no apparent commercial application that might otherwise provide funding. And, it must be noted, whether the universe is holographic in nature is distinct from holograms, the two things being no more closely related than are lightning and lightning bug.


34 posted on 08/28/2014 9:50:30 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: SeekAndFind

How and where does one apply for public research funding? I have a thesis that what we call “the universe” is actually the insides of a zit on the ass of a big ....oh, wait....I’m not sharing my thesis before I get funding. Never mind.


35 posted on 08/28/2014 9:54:48 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: dangerdoc

Exactly what I thought. ‘and God SAID’, ‘In the beginning was THE WORD’

Knowing God, those words have far more subtle and complex meaning behind the simple one, cuz that’s usually the way He rolls.


36 posted on 08/28/2014 9:58:47 AM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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To: SeekAndFind

So, the “illusion,” or hologram is potentially about to discover for itself that it does not really exist?

Think about that.

We can come to some conclusions about the universe that surrounds us, and some of the local, and perhaps a few of the universal laws that govern it. But on the whole, we have an extremely fallible and minute understanding of what has gone into the creation of what we see around us.

As time goes on, and through advancing technologies, we continually discover how immense what surrounds us truly is...and that just punctuates how much we truly do not know.

But the Creator, our Father in Heaven does know, and the more we discover, and the incredible order and sophistication of it, the more it also punctuates that point.


37 posted on 08/28/2014 10:11:32 AM PDT by Jeff Head (Semper Fidelis - Molon Labe - Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: Rockingham
This is precisely the kind of basic physics research that the federal government should fund in that it aims at fundamental scientific knowledge with no apparent commercial application that might otherwise provide funding.

I agree. And no apparent political application that can be used to control and conquer.

38 posted on 08/28/2014 10:13:13 AM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: Ouchthatonehurt
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

39 posted on 08/28/2014 10:32:00 AM PDT by CrazyIvan (I lost my phased plasma rifle in a tragic hovercraft accident.)
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To: Jeff Head
But on the whole

Space Preparation H, or the Alan Parsons Project?

tip of the hat to Dr. Evil

40 posted on 08/28/2014 10:33:24 AM PDT by Revelation 911
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