The first photo of a black hole

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by For The Love of Music

So we see this, but what does it really mean? Is there another side, and if so, what’s really there?

It's a very complicated issue. The short of it is that Black Holes Appear 3D to us but might actually be 2D. This is where the holographic theory comes in. There is a long-standing theory that our universe is merely a hologram — an image of a two-dimensional universe projected across the cosmological horizon. What this means is that our universe may actually be flat and only appear to be three-dimensional. This theory is called the Holographic Principle.

[JemHadar]

Originally Posted by PHC1

It's a very complicated issue. The short of it is that Black Holes Appear 3D to us but might actually be 2D. This is where the holographic theory comes in. There is a long-standing theory that our universe is merely a hologram — an image of a two-dimensional universe projected across the cosmological horizon. What this means is that our universe may actually be flat and only appear to be three-dimensional. This theory is called the Holographic Principle.

I recommend following video

https://youtu.be/klpDHn8viX8

The whole holographic universe story is a good example of how the essence of a story gets lost in translation and an oversimplification (at best) or a misrepresentation (at worst) starts a life of its own.

The above video is preceded by a slew of others that set the stage for the holographic principle. PBS Space Time did a truly outstanding job in telling the story, highly recommended if you are into this stuff.

The short of it : current calculations relate to a volume of 4 spatial dimensions as a projection of a 3D surface (the boundary of an infinite universe). It is a convenient hack for string theorists and points the way for describing gravity as an emergent property of space time. It has very little to do with "reality". Unfortunately the 2D surface to 3D space projection story as published in some articles is just plain wrong in more ways than it is right with regard to the holographic universe. I guess a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that most of us associate dimension with a "spatial" dimension. A dimension is just a degree of freedom encoded in a number and can be anything. The attempts to visualise, what is in essence, a purely abstract construct (the HU that is) do not really help as it is by default pointless.

The essence of the story is that it would seem that "Mathematics" is more than just a language to describe or model physics, but that it actually sets constraints on what can be "reality" and what not; in this case a perceived higher dimension reality emerging from a lesser dimension "something". It also points to the fact that abstract "Information" (by that is meant information of quantum objects) and how that information is processed could be a substrate from which reality emerges. "Information" theorists will have a "field" day (deep pun intended)

All very exiting stuff.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Jem666

I recommend following video

https://youtu.be/klpDHn8viX8

The whole holographic universe story is a good example of how the essence of a story gets lost in translation and an oversimplification (at best) or a misrepresentation (at worst) starts a life of its own.

The above video is preceded by a slew of others that set the stage for the holographic principle. PBS Space Time did a truly outstanding job in telling the story, highly recommended if you are into this stuff.

The short of it : current calculations relate to a volume of 4 spatial dimensions as a projection of a 3D surface (the boundary of an infinite universe). It is a convenient hack for string theorists and points the way for describing gravity as an emergent property of space time. It has very little to do with "reality". Unfortunately the 2D surface to 3D space projection story as published in some articles is just plain wrong in more ways than it is right with regard to the holographic universe. I guess a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that most of us associate dimension with a "spatial" dimension. A dimension is just a degree of freedom encoded in a number and can be anything. The attempts to visualise, what is in essence, a purely abstract construct (the HU that is) do not really help as it is by default pointless.

The essence of the story is that it would seem that "Mathematics" is more than just a language to describe or model physics, but that it actually sets constraints on what can be "reality" and what not; in this case a perceived higher dimension reality emerging from a lesser dimension "something". It also points to the fact that abstract "Information" (by that is meant information of quantum objects) and how that information is processed could be a substrate from which reality emerges. "Information" theorists will have a "field" day (deep pun intended)

All very exiting stuff.

Yes, great video as always. Of course it’s not exactly elementary school grade material for most folks out there, myself included None the less I always watch and listen with awe and many things are starting to make much more sense over the years.

The mathematical clues pointing to a “holographic universe” could very well be just a coincidence yet my own inner intuition tells me it’s not.

As applied to everything we know today, parallels could be drawn to many of the ancient cultural and religious beliefs as well as the modern technology. It won’t be long before the virtual reality characters in our own computer programs will start asking similar question about “their” universe and what it is they are observing from withing the construct or the “matrix” as has become popularized by Hollywood.. The black holes could very well be the equivalent of a USB input.....

[radio times]

Put simply, it's a great big gobbler. Be profoundly glad that it's 55 million light years away. If you can't have the much nicer billions, millions will have to do.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by For The Love of Music

So we see this, but what does it really mean? Is there another side, and if so, what’s really there?

That's always been my question. Inside black holes, at the end of the universe, etc. What's on the other side? Fear of the unknown..... perhaps that's why so many believe in fairy tales.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

That's always been my question. Inside black holes, at the end of the universe, etc. What's on the other side? Fear of the unknown..... perhaps that's why so many believe in fairy tales.

The theory of us and everything that exists in the observable universe coming from a super heated singularity the size of a pea is a fairy tale to top them all...

[Poppyhome]

Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

That's always been my question. Inside black holes, at the end of the universe, etc. What's on the other side? Fear of the unknown..... perhaps that's why so many believe in fairy tales.

It's called FAITH IN GOD.

Ron

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Poppyhome

It's called FAITH IN GOD.

Ron

Or before aiming that high up the totem pole perhaps just a pimpled faced, teenage alien computer enthusiast....

The fact that the universe is expanding and accelerating while doing so should already put to the question the theory of the Big Bang without any other additional external forces. Of course we still have no clue what dark matter and dark energy really is but we are guessing it may be the source of that driving force. We may go on indefinitely trying to solve the problem from “within” the boundaries of our universe itself but it should come as no surprise that others are exploring the alternative theories of higher power outside of it.

Of course religion and belief in higher power is not really all that different in my mind than the theory of this being a simulated reality within the construct of an advanced race and their technology since we are already doing the same thing just on a much more primitive level. Yet no matter how many levels of that totem pole we can imagine, someone or something by logic should be at the very top as the original creator? That perhaps can never be resolved in this realm of our existence.

[PHC1]

The other thing that fascinates me is that while we consider ourselves biological beings, at the very fundamental level our minds are nothing more than an advanced computer. We are just as digital as any other electronic device with electrical impulses traveling through a network of synapses, dendrites and neurons which in turn creates our reality and everything we are or perceive to be... At the very fundamental level of our construct, there are subatomic particles that are virtually neither here nor there but are pulsing in and out of existence in the dimension of our existence... change or control those electric impulses in our brains and you own our reality... just think about that.

How is that different than an advanced virtual reality...

[PHC1]

I can also imagine a scenario of a timeline not existing at all.

Just like John Wheeler’s (participatory universe) theory that the “observer” has created the reality just by observing a distant star whose light has never known time at all (time stops at the speed of light and for the photons from a billion year old star that have shone in your eye happened instantly while we think a billion years have passed) everything that led up to the point of observation is a construct for the observer.

If time is stopped for particles traveling at the speed of light in our universe, then as far as I’m thinking the rest of the timeline is just an illusion.

If our electrical impulses are creating an illusion of time... while time is really a gelatinous entity that really has no past or future but some point of existence like a fly trapped in amber indefinitely.... while our minds are creating an illusion of everything else that has been, is happening or will happen... Well, anything is possible with a brain functioning on a quantum level which it really is....