The Cake is a lie. Or at least your preconceived notion that the cakes exists in three-dimensional space could possibly be a lie. What in the world am I talking about you ask, equal parts intrigued and befuddled. Well, its complicated, and more than a little difficult to wrap your brain around. Which makes it perfect for another edition of Mind Blown.
Right now you think you have a pretty firm handle on what your world looks like. It’s three-dimensional. You can reach out and touch your computer or your desk, or your coffee mug and prove that. But there are some scientists out there who think we’re all being fooled. They support a theory called the Holographic Principle which says that the universe as we know it is actually just a giant hologram.
“Okay, we’re a hologram. What does that mean?” Well, it means that the three-dimensional world in which we find ourselves is actually just one big optical illusion. That in fact, we all exist in two-dimensional space and what we see, touch, feel, experience, understand as reality are actually just projections of events being played out in that two-dimensional space. Like a hologram. It can be hard to fathom (we don’t call this Mind Blown for nothing) and, other than queuing up some existential dread, it doesn’t really affect our day to day lives at all.
But if true it does fundamentally change the way scientists understand the universe. In this understanding of reality there would really be two universes; the universe you and I know with gravity and a whole ten dimensions, and a smaller, flatter universe with only two dimensions and no gravity. This theory resolves a lot of inconsistencies between Einstein’s Theory of Gravity and quantum physics. The Hologram Principle is gaining traction in the scientific community with recent studies showing a surprising match between two-dimensional data mapped over corresponding three-dimensional data. As far-fetched as the idea might have seemed when it was first proposed, the Hologram Principle may just be the key that unlocks our understanding of the universe. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?