Physics: A Theory Of Everything (String Theory, Holographic Principle)

[edwardwj]

think of the universe as having 4 real spacial dimensions. ut,x,y,z. and forget proper time. The universe must obey its first law which is to achieve equilbrium. It does this without any regard to proper time - our temporal time. The primary spatial dimension is Ut which is the very expansion itself. Creating New Space second for second - an permitting a usual void into which you can locate your x,y,z. And the fact that the universe is constantly expanding determines that atoms exist in our area of it - due to the fact that it is being created at the rate of 300,000kms.

[esme]

I don't understand how there can be an external observer? Surely, when we look at the universe, and see what it's made up of, it's most basic components, we are looking at ourselves?

The holographic principle doesn't have or need an external observer.

 

In the thought experiment, we are an external observer, but we aren't required for the lifeforms encoded in the interference patterns in the hologram to exist, if in the thought experiment we stop watching and come back later the lifeforms will have continued to evolve in our absence.

 

Sufficiently complex and interacting interference patterns on the surface of a volume would give the illusion of life existing within the volume, and a sufficiently large surface would give the illusion of the entire universe.

 

Beings encoded on such a surface would only be aware of things within the bounding surface of the hologram, which is what we see when we look around us.

 

There is no external observer.

 

There is a way to tell whether we are living in such a universe though

 

Say we keep the universe as a cube, it makes the maths a little easier, apologies to the OP but some is required.

 

If we divide the length of each side of this cube by the planck length, which is the smallest length physics reckons anything happens at, we get a huge number which I'm going to call N.

 

Now if we regard one planck length unit as a single bit of information for the universe then the universe is comprised of N*N*N bits of this information

 

However if the universe is holographic in nature then the surface is the only place any information can be carried

 

Now the surface of this cube has 6*N*N bits of information available and somehow this has to encode for N*N*N bits of the volume so there are N/6 bits of information missing from the volume if the universe is holographic

 

Even if the universe is spherical this ratio of volume to surface area gives N/3 missing bits and that's the best you'll ever get

 

This missing information would manifest itself as noise when you try to make extremely fine measurements, and it's possible to work out roughly what spectrum this noise would have.

 

And someone reckons they may have found such noise already http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203130708.htm, the GEO600 results might be an experimental error but as far as I know they haven't managed to explain the noise they have found that way.

 

Now the problem is that as the universe expands this noise will get bigger and bigger as the ratio of the information needing to be encoded to what can be encoded gets worse, and eventually it will be so big that fundamental particles could be affected, which means one day the universe may simply disappear like a bursting soap bubble.

 

So enjoy your existence while it lasts, it may have no more reality than the shimmer on a soap bubble and be just as ephemeral.

 

-- EDIT --

 

Actually I think my maths is up the chute I think the difference should have been N^3 - 6N^2 as the difference in information requirements ( N^3 - 3N^2 for a sphere )

 

Whatever shape the universe is there's still a huge difference between the information carrying capacity of the volume of the universe and the surface of the universe.

 

Basically if we're holographic then there isn't enough information available to encode the entire volume of the universe so there will be errors which will be detectable as a fuzziness or noise in very fine measurements which will get worse as the universe expands.