Holographic Universe. If atoms are made up primarily of nothing with...

[icymist]

particles that are at a fixed point and everywhere at the same time, then what is all this that Talbot explains in his book, The Holographic Universe? Reading this, I ask 'What is concisousness?' 'What and where is the soul?' In the Buddhist rebirths,just what is rebirthed? how does karma affect a hologram? Why?

I don't expect everybody reading at the DU to answer this....not everybody has even read Michael Talbots book.

[Orrex]

1. Haven't read Talbot, but...

If your summary is accurate, it sounds like he's engaging in a little semantic trickery. The bit about "fixed point and everywhere at the same time" sounds like one of those nominally deep paradoxes so beloved of mysticism. That's not to dismiss it out of turn, but when quantum physics is shoehorned into questions of "one hand clapping," then my eyes glaze over and I get a little suspicious.

Of course, uncertainty allows the potential for any particle to be anywhere at any time, but the likelihood drops off considerably over greater and greater distances. I don't think that this is what Talbot has in mind with his "one place and every place" observation.

As to consciousness and the soul, before we can discuss their nature we must demonstrate that they exist. Consciousness seems to exist all right, I guess, but there's no evidence that it's anything more than a function of neurochemistry. And the soul? Well, there's no evidence that it's anything at all.

These are interesting questions, but it's deceptively easy to lapse into quasi-scientific speculations when we seek to marry ancient mysticism to modern physics.

I'll see what I can find out about Talbot, in case I've sorely misunderstood his gist.

[Orsino]

2. "Fixed point" is a misconception, a relic...

...of classical physics. "Everywhere at once" is bogus, too, since the quantum weirdness alluded to disappears when you talk about more than one particle, or interact with a particle.

[Occulus]

3. Is this the idea you're referring to?

http://twm.co.nz/hologram.html

Fascinating reading. Not sure if I buy it- particularly with the "anonymous" tag- but fascinating nonetheless.

[icymist]

5. This sums up the first half of Talbot's book.

I don't know why this has the 'anonymous tag', this certainly is a summary of what I read. The part that bothers me is when Talbot begins to present phenomena without doubt, being supported by his hologram paradigm. Do you remember Douglas R. Hofstadter's book Metamagical Themas and his word play on self-referential sentences? I came across this neat little passage:

"Only the fool would take the trouble to verify that his sentence was composed of ten a's, three b's, four c's, four d's, forty-six e's, sixteen f's, four g's, thirteen h's, fifteen i's, two k's, nine l's, four m's, twenty-five n's, twenty-four o's, five p's, sixteen r's, forty-one s's, thirty-seven t's, ten u's, eight v's, eight w's, four x's, eleven y's twenty-seven commas, twenty-three apostrophes, seven hyphens, and last but not least, a single !

I (perhaps the fool) did take the trouble to verify the whole thing. First, though, I carried out some spot checks. And I must say that when the first random spot check worked (I think I checked the number of 'g's), this had a strong psychological effect: all of a sudden, the credibility rating of the whole sentence shot way up for me. It strikes me as weird (and wonderful) how, in certain situations, the verification of a tiny percentage of a theory can serve to powerfully strengthen your belief in the full theory. And perhaps that's the whole point of the sentence!" (page, 27)

Hofstadter is warning here of jumping to conclusions by a minimal verification of facts. Is this what Talbot has done? The theory is really making me think and, however, I wish not to lose my objectivity. I wish I could read about why the 'skeptics' mentioned in the article felt Talbot is wrong.

Great web site at twm. Thanks!

[Bruce McAuley]

4. It becomes understandable if time and space are illusions...

If you posit time and space as illusions, rebirth is an illusion and there is no time but the present, which might be changed simply by the knowledge that it CAN be changed. The Great Spirit IS the ALL, and we are just holographic smaller bits. We DO contain it all, we're just ignorant of the fact.
If we were enlightened, we would rise above the time and space illusions, and glorify the NOW we always inhabit.
It ain't easy being holographic!
LOL

Bruce