Key Takeaways
- Stephen Hawking’s final theory suggests the Universe is a holographic projection where time itself is encoded, adding an unexpected twist to the origins of cosmology.
- The collaborative work of Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog aimed to create a quantum theory explaining the Big Bang, sparking a 20-year-long partnership.
- This theory implies that the past, as we understand it, cannot exist before the Big Bang—redefining our perception of the beginning of time.
- The concept visualizes the universe as a disk-like hologram made of entangled qubits, expanding outward to form the universe as we perceive it.
- Hawking’s theory proposes that while the Big Bang is the start of time, it is also the emergence of physical laws, reshaping how we view cosmic causality.
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Imagine the Universe as a giant hologram—where time itself is just an encoded illusion
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Stephen Hawking’s name is synonymous with groundbreaking theories in cosmology, and his final insights, developed with his close collaborator Thomas Hertog, introduce a fresh take on the Big Bang. Their two-decade collaboration started in 1998 when Hertog became Hawking’s PhD student, tasked with working on a “quantum theory of the Big Bang.” This partnership culminated in a theory that challenges traditional views by proposing that the universe is essentially a holographic projection where time is encoded.
Hawking and Hertog’s work took physics beyond conventional comfort zones, exploring the enigmatic notion of a universe seemingly fine-tuned for life. Their joint research was not just about scientific inquiry but was fueled by Hawking’s determined pursuit to demystify cosmic creation. The concept of a “holographic universe” represents a bold departure from traditional cosmological models.
A New Way of Seeing Time and Space
The idea that the universe operates like a hologram stems from the way a two-dimensional hologram can produce a three-dimensional image. In Hawking’s vision, it isn’t space but time that is encoded in this manner. The depiction of this theory is often visualized as a disk where the outer ring symbolizes a timeless hologram composed of countless entangled qubits. The universe then emerges from this starting point, expanding outward.
What this means for our understanding is profound. The “origin of time” sits at the center of this holographic disk, and as one moves outward—akin to zooming out—the universe evolves. The idea reshapes how we interpret the flow of time, implying that traveling back to the Big Bang leads not to a point of infinite density but to the very fabric from which time itself unfurls.
Hawking and Hertog’s theory posits that the past we conceive of cannot extend beyond the Big Bang. In simpler terms, it suggests there is no “before” the Big Bang because that concept does not exist in the structure that emerges holographically. This shifts the question from the “why” of existence to the mechanics of how the laws of physics began. According to Hawking’s final theory, as we approach the Big Bang in our models, the laws of physics themselves begin to fade, highlighting their emergence rather than preexistence.
Redefining Cosmic Origins
This theory doesn’t just put forth a timeline of cosmic events but implies that the origins of physical laws lie within this holographic view. The laws themselves are not eternal or pre-established; they emerge with the universe. The early attempts of Hawking to find a purely causal explanation of the Big Bang gradually evolved. The idea that “time had a beginning” was proven by Hawking and Penrose in the late 20th century, but with this new holographic approach, it takes on new meaning.
Hawking’s ultimate conclusion pointed to the idea that the Big Bang signifies not just the origin of time, but the origin of laws that govern it. The philosophical quest for the “ultimate cause” fades as the focus shifts to understanding how these laws developed with the emergence of the universe itself.
Hologram doesn’t mean fake, it means it has less dimensions than it appears to.
I would like to take a crack at explaining it to you.
You and I view time as linear. We’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.8 billion years along a line of time, but much closer to the beginning than the end (whatever that may be). The problem is, we invented negative numbers. We aren’t really ok with the concept of a time called “moment 0”, because it makes sense to ask, what happened before moment zero? What was moment -1, or -13.8 billion? This is a problem for scientists because most agree, the big bang really was moment 0, and there was nothing before. Reality and our imagined view of it do not jive.
Stephen Hawking proposed a new way to look at this problem, and it goes as such:
Imagine that every instance of time, say 1 second (but it’s really infinitesimal), a perfect record of the world was created and printed on a plain circle. Every second, another record, slightly larger (as the universe is expanding) is printed, and placed on top of the previous, sort of connected to it. This growing 3D circle Hawking termed to resemble a Hologram. Now we can rewind that hologram back in time and reexamine “moment 0”, with this new view! But now, as we shrink our circle back, smaller and smaller, with it we are also rewinding time, eventually arriving at the smallest circle possible, having both zero time and zero size. That’s it. In this view of being able to imagine a our time as a “hologram” rather than a line, the concept of shrinking that hologram down to a point at its beginning does not lend itself to the question of “what happened before that?” – it just sort of makes more sense that there wasn’t such a moment. It just sort of “popped into existence from nothing”. Sadly, it gets us no further on the ultimate question of our scientific time – why did it do that?
In every sense of the word, I think it’s bloody brilliant. It’s just fun to think about this. The universe spawned into existence, somehow, and we have no clue why.
TL DR: Hawking proposed a new mental model of our universe which is basically looking into the mouth of this thing. You should read the longer explanation above, or the whole article, because that’s extremely cool.
Using “The Universe is a hologram” in the title is misleading and oversimplifies the actual content of the theory, which aims to provide a more coherent description of the universe’s origins and evolution.
The confusion likely arises from the association of Hawking’s final theory with the holographic principle. While both concepts attempt to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity for a more comprehensive understanding of the universe, they are distinct ideas. The holographic principle deals with the encoding of 3-dimensional information on a 2-dimensional boundary, while Hawking and Hertog’s theory addresses the nature of the early universe and the multiverse concept.
Hawking’s final theory, specifically deals with the early universe’s development and its implications for the multiverse concept. The theory addresses the problems associated with eternal inflation, which was a widely accepted idea in the field of cosmology.
Eternal inflation suggests that, after the Big Bang, the universe underwent rapid expansion, creating a vast number of “pocket universes” with different properties. This scenario would lead to an infinite and unpredictable multiverse, making it difficult to study and understand the cosmos.
Hawking and Hertog’s theory, on the other hand, proposes that the early universe had a simpler and more limited structure. By applying the principles of string theory, they were able to develop a mathematical model that showed the universe had a more constrained and predictable beginning. This new perspective implies a smaller, more manageable multiverse, making it easier to study and potentially test our understanding of the universe’s origins.
Holographic theory was proposed by Gerard ‘t Hooft and developed by Leonard Susskind though?
Read Flatland by Edwin Abbott. I think the second you understand it, you will understand this and then you will vaporize or something.
Sometimes I feel theoretical physics is just philosophy for math.
The ideas are interesting, they really are. But they’re also so theoretical that it feels like storytelling at a certain point. I’m certain there will be applications of these theories, but I doubt within my lifetime.
I also think about what a privilege it is to read these fun what-ifs from the comfort of my bed. Not that this science is frivolous by any means, but it’s just a little thought in my brain sometimes. Idk where that part of my commentscame from but I guess I’ll leave it
So the implication (if I’m understanding this correctly) is that one mechanism by which the Big Bang could have occurred is if “something” added time to the holography of the universe. Then, because “time” now existed in the holograph, physical laws now could be evaluated on the universe, leading to matter and energy interacting, universe stuff happening and eventually, us.
The question of “What happened Before The Big Bang?” remains unanswerable, but this time, it’s because we’ve made “time” part of a holographic universe which exists independent of time?
I understand this is all a hypothesis and untested at this point.
Given that, what does this idea imply about the holographic universe?
What are the dimensions that the holographic substrate exists in?
If it has/had no time, what does it look like now that time exists?
Is it maintaining an infinite (kinda) record of all things that have ever happened in time? Like, if you had the right kind of cosmic record player, you could rewind the universe and let it play back out?
Or is it only the current, present configuration? If so, doesn’t that imply a sort of time for the holograph, since it can change?
Is there a future, already written on some multiversal holographic disk, inevitable as there is no time, simply deterministic laws which have already etched their final calculations on that eternal surface?
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