Yet another way to deal with the puzzling aspects of quantum physics is to completely redefine objective reality. After all, everything we know about the world must be filtered through our various senses. And we know of many cases where our senses can be fooled, such as optical illusions. Maybe our entire image of the universe—particles, waves, and the whole works—is all a kind of illusion.
People who have seriously considered this as an alternative interpretation have used holography as a metaphor. A hologram is a way to use coherent light to construct fully three-dimensional images of objects. Since the invention of lasers, we have learned how to encode enough information on a two-dimensional film to form such images. In fact, the hologram relies on the wave nature of light to work, essentially using the phenomena of interference and diffraction to manipulate light. The effect is to direct light in exactly the same way as a real object would reflect it, so that from any angle it appears to the observer as if the object is actually present.
DEFINITION
Holography is a method that uses coherent light, interference, and diffraction to produce a fully three-dimensional visual image of an object.
The information required to produce the image is contained on a two-dimensional surface or film called a hologram.
Of course, if you’ve ever seen a hologram in person, you know that it is relatively easy to determine that the image is not from a real object. Reach out and try to touch the object, and you soon find that nothing is there. The hologram is only able to fool one of our senses: sight.
If the whole universe is like a hologram, it produces its “images” on a much deeper level. It doesn’t just produce an image made of light, but it must produce all of the information we use to perceive reality. Reality itself is at the deeper, underlying level of encoded information, and all of our perceptions are illusory. The reality of the universe is constructed in such a way that it produces the measurement results that we actually get.
Our belief that fundamental particles actually exist is just an inference we make based on those measurements; we don’t have any direct experience of particles at the quantum level. As we have seen, many logical inconsistencies result from trying to imagine that the particles are real. This holographic universe interpretation is another possible way to avoid those problems.
The question of whether electrons are objectively real or just an illusion only matters from the point of view of conscious observers. It is we human beings who try to give meaning in the world—not the electrons we’re measuring. In the search for the meaning of quantum physics, we can’t avoid discussing what consciousness is and what its role in nature might be.
Leave a Reply