Holographic Theory

In the very last words, a transcript of which are just below, of the January 2019 PBS Nova Program entitled Einstein’s Quantum Riddle, the narrator has this conversation with Dr. Robbert Dijkgraaf from the Institute of Advanced Study and another physicist named Sean Carroll. In a convoluted way, they conclude “time and space are not real.” In everyday language this is stated as “the assumption of separate parts is not real.” They refer to this as the “Holographic Theory.” Today, 2022, it is the most popular theory in fundamental physics. Here is a transcript of the last words of the video where this is stated and where some of it is cut off on the YouTube link above.

This video tells the entire story of the search to unravel the riddle of Einstein’s assumption cause and effect happen in time (operating on the assumption time and space are real) and quantum mechanics that operates on the assumption that, at the microscopic level, they are not real. We now know they are a mutually agreed upon illusion tool we invented that allow us to invent words that, in turn, allow us to be self-conscious parts of the indivisible universe. It is fun to watch the entire show and then see how they finally come to the above conclusion with great intellectual labor and wild unconscious projects of the assumption separate parts exist and even still get to it:

NARRATOR: It was first seen as an unwelcome but unavoidable consequence of quantum mechanics. Now, after nearly a century of disputes and discoveries, “spooky action at a distance” is finally at the heart of modern physics.

At the Institute for Advanced Study, where the concept of entanglement was first described, researchers are now using it in the search for a single, unified theory of the universe, the holy grail of physics. Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity perfectly describe space, time and gravity at the largest scales of the universe, while quantum mechanics perfectly describes the tiniest scales. Yet these two theories have never been brought together.

SEAN CARROLL: So far, we have not yet had a single complete theory that is both quantum mechanical and reproduces the predictions of Einstein’s wonderful theory of general relativity. Maybe the secret is entanglement.

NARRATOR: What if space itself is actually created by the tiny quantum world? Just like temperature, warm and cold, consists simply of the movement of atoms inside an object, perhaps space as we know it emerges from networks of entangled quantum particles. It’s a mind-blowing idea.

ROBBERT DIJKGRAAF: What we are learning these days is that we might have to give up that what Einstein holds sacred, namely space and time. So, he was always thinking, “Well, we have little pieces of space and time, and out of this, we build the whole universe.”

NARRATOR: In a radical theory known as the “holographic universe,” space and time are created by entangled quantum particles on a sphere that’s infinitely far away.

ROBBERT DIJKGRAAF: What’s happening in space is, in some sense, all described in terms of a screen outside here. The ultimate description of reality resides on this screen. Think of it as, kind of, quantum bits living on that screen. And this, like a movie projector, creates an illusion of the three-dimensional reality that I’m now experiencing.

NARRATOR: It may be impossible to intuitively understand this wild mathematical idea, but it suggests that entanglement could be what forms the true fabric of the universe.

ROBBERT DIJKGRAAF: The most puzzling element of entanglement, that, you know, somehow, two points in space can communicate, becomes less of a problem, because space itself has disappeared. In the end we just have this quantum mechanical world, there is no space anymore. And so, in some sense, the paradoxes of entanglement, the E.P.R. Paradox, disappears into thin air.

SEAN CARROLL: Truly understanding quantum mechanics will only happen when we put ourselves on the entanglement side and we stop privileging the world that we see and start thinking about the world as it actually is.

DAVID KAISER: Science has made enormous progress for centuries by, sort of, breaking complicated systems down into parts. When we come to a phenomenon like quantum entanglement, that scheme breaks. When it comes to the bedrock of quantum mechanics, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

ANTON ZEILINGER: The basic motivation is just to learn how nature works. What’s really going on? Einstein said it very nicely; he’s not interested in this detailed question or that detailed question, he just wanted to know: what were God’s thoughts when He created the world?

The entire PBS video Einstein’s Quantum Riddle can be viewed HERE:

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash