Saw this in my Facebook feed (posted on Art's page) and wanted to pass it along. It's an article about Fermilab's ongoing attempt to establish whether or not the spacetime universe is a hologram.
A lot of stuff in here seems (to my layman's eye, anyway) to be possibly consistent with the idea that physical reality is ultimately made of information, a notion I've toyed with in the past. For instance:
Theoretical physicists have long suspected that space-time is pixelated, or grainy …“Being in the [holographic] universe is like being in a 3D movie,” says Craig Hogan of Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. “On a large scale, it looks smooth and three-dimensional, but if you get close to the screen, you can tell that it is flat and pixelated.” …
Quantum theory suggests that it is impossible to know both the exact location and the exact speed of subatomic particles. If space comes in 2-D bits with limited information about the precise location of objects, then space itself would fall under the same theory of uncertainty. The same way that matter continues to jiggle, as quantum waves, even when cooled to absolute zero, this digitized space should have built-in vibrations even in its lowest energy state.
Essentially, the experiment probes the limits of the universe’s ability to store information. If there are a set number of bits that tell you where something is, it eventually becomes impossible to find more specific information about the location–even in principle. The instrument testing these limits is Fermilab’s Holometer, or holographic interferometer, the most sensitive device ever created to measure the quantum jitter of space itself.
I didn't follow the article's explanation of how all the data comprising the universe would be encoded on its event horizon (and projected from there). I also don't see why untestable metaphysical statements (e.g., "We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind") are in the mix. Overall, the article seems to be a mash-up of the Fermilab scientists' cautious claims and the writer's freewheeling speculation.
At any rate, if the Holometer comes up with positive results that can't be explained away as interference from mundane sources, the information-universe theory will look a whole lot stronger.