Perfect late summer weather, and coffee too!
From ScienceDaily:
A unique experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory called the Holometer has started collecting data that will answer some mind-bending questions about our universe — including whether we live in a hologram.
Much like characters on a television show would not know that their seemingly 3-D world exists only on a 2-D screen, we could be clueless that our 3-D space is just an illusion. The information about everything in our universe could actually be encoded in tiny packets in two dimensions.
Oh but wait a minute. The characters (I take the author of this piece to mean “actors”) do live, and play their parts, in a 3-D world. The only thing they don’t “know” (from their perspective as such*) is that it is transmitted (usually) in a 2-D format. To 3-D people. So not sure if analogy works, but anyway …
Essentially, the experiment probes the limits of the universe’s ability to store information. If there is a set number of bits that tell you where something is, it eventually becomes impossible to find more specific information about the location — even in principle. The instrument testing these limits is Fermilab’s Holometer, or holographic interferometer, the most sensitive device ever created to measure the quantum jitter of space itself.
If the general thesis is accepted, would it provide support for the Law of Conservation of Information, which William Dembski uses in his new book Being as Communion? That said, here’s a prediction: Next summer will bring forth a new bright idea. It’s not always clear how seriously people intend these ideas to be taken.
To get some idea what a real 2-D universe would actually be like, see a short 19th century book, online, Flatland (1885). The 1-D universe is addressed there also.
See also: In search of a road to reality
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Note: Of course they know it, but not from their perspective in the studio – until they check the monitor. Even then, they don’t know if the screen in your living room is also 2-D.