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God, Science & The Secret Doctrine

7.  The Universe as a Hologram


In August of 2003, Scientific American published an issue posing the question  "ARE YOU A HOLOGRAM? (Quantum physics says the entire universe might be)."   In a fascinating article, Information in the Holographic Universe, Dr. Jacob D. Bekenstein discusses some of the unusual features of modern information and holographic theory, and the physics of black holes.  The holographic principle is being proposed as the possible Holy Grail of physics—providing an approach to quantum gravity theory which reconciles quantum field theory and quantum loop theory, as well as string theory and M-theory. (Smolin, 2001) 

7a. Information as Third Force

 

"Ask anybody what the physical world is made of, and you are likely to be told "matter and energy."  Yet if we have learned anything from engineering, biology and physics, information is just as crucial an ingredient.  ... a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes.  Indeed, a current trend, initiated by John A. Wheeler of Princeton University, is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals.  (Bekenstein, 2003, p. 59)

 Professor Bekenstein regards “information” as a third force underlying the manifestations of matter and energy within time and space.  This is similar to Bohm’s ‘pilot waves’ and the ‘quantum potential’ permeating space, as information fields of the implicate order that inform transformations of matter and energy.  

In another Scientific American article, Black Hole Computers, Lloyd and Ng similarly emphasize the importance of ‘information’ as the third force in the new physics, noting:

… to a physicist, all physical systems are computers. Rocks, atomic bombs and galaxies may not run Linux, but they, too, register and process information. Every electron, photon and other elementary particle stores bits of data, and every time two such particles interact, those bits are transformed.  Physical existence and information content are inextricably linked. As physicist John Wheeler of Princeton University says, “It from bit.”  (November 2004)

 The statement “it from bit,” suggests that ‘it,’ meaning a material and energetic system, comes from ‘bit,’ meaning bits of information.  In modern physics, information is now regarded as a primary element in nature.  From this perspective, everything is a computer, as everything processes bits of information—whether an electron, a black hole, a cell or a human heart.  Thus, a trinity of intelligence, energy and matter is basic to the new science—as it is to mystical orientations and The Secret Doctrine.   According to Lloyd and Ng, the universe itself is a giant computer and not only that, but a quantum computer.  They quote physicist Zizzi, “It from qubit,” –or quantum bit, as a variation on Wheeler’s “It from bit.”

 

 

7b.  A Tale of Entropies and Black Holes

 

In “Information in the Holographic Universe,” Dr. Bekenstein explains aspects of information theory as apply to black holes and the emerging holographic theory.  He suggests that: “Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram.” 
        In his analysis, Dr. Bekenstein explains that the law of entropy traditionally applied to material and thermal processes can also be applied to information processes.  In 1877, physicist Ludwig Boltzmann defined thermodynamic entropy as the number of distinct microscopic states that particles in a body of matter could be in:  For example, consider all the possible states of the gas molecules in the room around you and their possible positions and momentum.  It was in 1948, that Claude Shannon defined entropy in terms of information theory.  The Shannon entropy is the number of binary bits needed to decode the information content within a message.   The two measures and concepts of entropy are “conceptually equivalent” (under higher degrees of freedom), although they are expressed in different units—either ‘units of energy divided by temperature’ for thermal entropy, or as ‘bits’ which are “essentially dimensionless” for information entropy.
        According to the Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics, the loss or gain of entropy in a material/energetic system must be compensated for by changes in the entropy of information—as one balances the other in order to maintain an overall GSL   This implies that when the matter and energy of a quantum system are absorbed into a black hole, huge amounts of information should potentially spew out or be available within the deep substrates of being. Scientific America (November 2004) featured an article on Black Hole Computers, and states:  “Stephen Hawking was Wrong.  Matter goes in.  Answers come out.”  The loss of entropy which occurs as matter and energy are absorbed into a black hole is compensated for by an increase of the entropy of the information—thus, answers come out—the 0 and 1 sequences illustrated here.  Bekenstein conjectures:

 

… when matter falls into a black hole, the increase iIn black hole entropy always compensates or overcompensates for the “lost” entropy of the matter. More generally, the sum of black hole entropies and the ordinary entropy outside the black holes cannot decrease.  This is the generalized second law—GSL for short. (p. 62)

 

Paradoxically, this physics of black holes suggests that as a physical system of matter and energy collapses down to the level of Planck units at 10-33 cm and beyond, the amount of information potentially contained within a volume of space becomes huge—if there were such mini-black hole dynamics.  

Bekenstein considers the amount of information contained within 'a Planck area' which is the square of two Planck lengths of 10-33 cm—or 10-66 cm2.    At Planck’s level, at zero point levels in the quantum vacuum or aether, the information content and capacity is potentially huge.  Bekenstein states: "The entropy of a black hole one centimetre in diameter would be about 1066 bits, roughly equal to the thermodynamic entropy of a cube of water 10 billion kilometres on a side."  (pp. 62-3)  Dr.Bekenstein argues that there seems "to be no limits to how densely information can be packed-and that our universe might be like a giant hologram.

In Bekenstein's model, the more we penetrate into the heart of being, vast amounts of information might be contained within the seeming emptiness and there might be such complex inner worlds.  Black holes can have both mass and spin properties, and they could function as the ultimate mini-computers, processing immense amount of information at Planckian levels. Everything computes, in the new science of information theory, including black holes.

In an article on Black Hole Computers, Lloyd and Ng (November, 2004) explain that in the 1970s, Hawking proposed that when matter fell into a black hole, the radiation produced was simply random.  However, the newer view, now endorsed by Hawking, is that the outgoing radiation is not simply random but “a processed form of the matter that falls in.”  The authors thus declare: “Black holes, too compute.” (p. 54)  Further, the authors note: “… a black hole is nothing more or less than a computer compressed to its smallest possible size.”  The total storage capacity of a black hole is proportional to its surface area.  Thus, when matter falls into a black hole, its matter cannot leave, but its “information content can.” 

New views of black holes suggest also that they are not such simple structures as once conceived.  Now they are regarded as being:

 

“… composite bodies made of multidimensional structures called branes, which arise in string theory.  Information falling into the black hole is stored in waves in the branes and can eventually leak out.  …  Mathur … and his collaborators modelled a black hole as a giant tangle of strings.” This “fuzzyball” acts as a repository of the information carried by things that fall into the black hole.  It emits radiation that reflects this information.”

 

Lloyd and Ng report the work of Horowitz suggesting that this information has an “escape hatch”—that of ‘entanglement,’ whereby the properties of two systems remain correlated across spacetime:  The authors write:


Entanglement enables teleportation, in which information is transferred from one particle to another with such fidelity that the particle has effectively been beamed from one location to another at up to the speed of light. …  The annihilation of the infalling photon acts as a measurement, transferring the information contained in the matter to the outgoing Hawking radiation. (p. 57)

 

Modern theoretical physics certainly considers the most usual of ideas—quite relevant to Blavatsky’s description of seven invisible “holes dug in space,” which might similarly follow such dynamics, spewing out information and radiation.  Scientists are arriving at similarly complex views of reality at zero point levels.  Dr. Bekenstein writes:

 

Many physicists today consider electrons and quarks to be excitations of superstrings, which they hypothesize to be the most fundamental entities.  But the vicissitudes of a century of revelations in physics warn us not to be dogmatic.  There could be more levels of structure in our universe than are dreamt of in today's physics.  ... the deepest level of structure I shall refer to as level X. ... (p.60)         


Given the dizzying progress in miniaturization, one can playfully contemplate a day when quarks will serve to store information, one bit apiece perhaps.  How much information would then fit into our one-centimetre cube?  And how much if we harness superstrings or even deeper, yet undreamt of levels?  Surprisingly, developments in gravitation physics in the past three decades have supplied some clear answers to what seem to be elusive questions.  (p. 61)


To illustrate the complexity of what modern physicists conceive of at the level of Planckian units, consider this image from Lee Smolin’s book Three Roads to Quantum Gravity. (2001) This image is of a “quantum spacetime” on the level of 10-33 centimetres and as existing for 10-43 of a second.   Quantum geometry fluctuates very quickly and strongly because of the uncertainty principle.  So down at Bekenstein’s level X, we find a rather startling inner world of spin

networks and of networks of holograms.   Dr. Smolin describes the world according to the hologram model:

The world must be a network of holograms, each of which contains coded within it information about the relationships between the others.  In short, the holographic principle is the ultimate realization of the notion that the world is a network of relationships.  Those relationships are revealed by this new principle to involve nothing but information.  Any element in this network is nothing but a partial realization of the relationships between the other elements.  In the end, perhaps, the history of a universe is nothing but the flow of information.  (Smolin, 2001, p. 178)

 Smolin describes the

atomic or quantized structure to space in terms of spin networks, information and relationships.  Certainly, this is a profoundly alternative model of the deep reality down at zero point levels!  It is almost as if an Omniscience might thrill throughout every finite point of the universe, as everything is part of such larger holograms!

c. On Black Holes & Alternate Space Dimensions

          




 This image depicts another of the unusual ideas of the holographic model in physics.  The interior of the sphere represents a “5 dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime” and the circumference of the sphere represents the “four dimensional flat spacetime (hologram).” Bekenstein explains that if the physics of the universe is holographic, then the different sets of physical laws that apply in the de-Sitter and the anti-de Sitter spacetimes are rendered equivalent.  Thus, the “conformal field theory of point particles” might apply within a four-dimensional realm on the surface of the sphere (the holographic boundary), and be equivalent to a physics of superstrings elements within “a 5 dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime” (within the interior of the sphere).  Thus, what manifests in the physical realm is rendered equivalent to metaphysical processes in an alternative higher Space dimension (in this case the interior 5 dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime).  

            The black hole in the interior of the anti-de Sitter space is rendered equivalent to swarms of particles on the boundary surface of the spacetime sphere.  This is illustrated in the following image on “understanding black holes” (Scientific American, November, 2005).  The black hole at the centre is ‘equivalent to’ a swarm as interacting particles on the boundary surface of spacetime.

 Thus, quantum field theories and ideas about point particles might apply on the outer shell, but inside, superstrings, spin network and black hole physics apply.  The holographic principle renders these two theories equivalent.  The outer shell or surface of the sphere is compared to a holographic plate which records or embodies processes occurring within the interior space.  The interior 5 dimensional anti de-Sitter space is like an inner implicate order, whose effects might be manifested within the explicate order of point particles and fields.


 

Bekenstein writes:

 

Creatures living in one of these universes would be incapable of determining if they inhabited a 5-D universe described by string theory or a 4-D one described by a quantum field theory of point particles.

 

Bekenstein suggests that in this case, the three dimensional world is projected from a flat boundary or screen, like a holographic image is projected out into space from a flat two dimensional holographic plate.  He notes:

  “… our universe, which we perceive to have three spatial dimensions, might instead be “written” on a two-dimensional surface, like a hologram. Our everyday perception of the world as three-dimensional would then be either a profound illusion or merely one of two alternative ways of viewing reality.” (2003, p.60)

This interpretation suggests that the material world is projected out of a holographic boundary and could be equivalent to metaphysical processes occurring within a higher dimensional space.  In the higher dimensional space, branes and strings, matrices and spin networks link all things together, and at the centre of the holographic system there could be a black hole information processor, even seven of them. This is perfectly analogous to how Blavatsky depicts material/energetic processes as  based upon zero point foundations—‘holes  dug in Space’—that are established within an alternative higher dimensional space, the seven skinned Eternal Parent Space.

Of course, Bekenstein does not consider that such a model might be applicable to human beings—as his focus is on the black holes, information theory and the holographic principle within physics.  It is not immediately evident how one might jump from the levels of Planckian units and elementary quanta in physics to the dimensions of human existence.  However, the mystical idea—that the microcosm embodies the nature of the macrocosm—suggests the rationale for applying these concepts to the inner cosmos of consciousness.  These concepts are particularly significant in light of Blavatsky’s description of seven such ‘holes dug in space’ as the means by which the Gods and other invisible powers ‘clothe themselves in bodies.

7d.  The Illusion of Gravity

A  holographic view of physics also offers an alternative perspective on ‘gravity.’ In a Scientific American article on The Illusion of Gravity, J. Maldacena (November, 2005) explains:

… the theories predict that the number of dimensions in reality could be a matter of perspective: physicists could choose to describe reality as obeying one set of laws (including gravity) in three dimensions or, equivalently, as obeying a different set of laws that operates in two dimensions (in the absence of gravity).  …    A hologram is a two-dimensional object, but when viewed under the correct lighting conditions it produces a fully three-dimensional image.

                Gravity … would be part of the illusion: a force that is not present in the two-dimensional world but that materializes along with the emergence of the illusory third dimension.  (p. 57)

 Maldacena describes a quantum theory of gravity as the “holy grail for a certain breed of physicist,” and explains that string theorists have developed such a “complete, logically consistent, quantum description of gravity in what are called negatively curved spacetimes—the first such description ever developed.  For these spacetimes, holographic theories appear to be true.” (p.59) 

The anti-de Sitter space is the simplest of such negatively curved spaces.  They are neither expanding nor contracting, but look the same at all times.  Maldacena explains the equivalency of the physics of these alternative dimensions—in the interior of the sphere and upon its boundary:

 

… the boundary of four-dimensional anti-de Sitter space at any moment in time is a sphere.  This boundary is where the hologram of the holographic theory lies.  Simply stated, the idea is as follows: a quantum gravity theory in the interior of an anti-de Sitter spacetime is completely equivalent to an ordinary quantum particle theory living on the boundary.  If true, this equivalence means that we can use a quantum particle theory (which is relatively well understood) to define a quantum gravity theory (which is not).  (2005, p. 61)
 

Thus, gravity, which can be accommodated within string/M- theory in the interior of the sphere, can be unified with the particle theories as apply on the holographic boundary on the circumference of the sphere.   Although this diagram does not illustrate any black hole dynamics underlying this arrangement, they are a necessarily part of this holographic physics.


(Scientific American, November 2005,)

 In regards to the ‘illusion of gravity,’ Maldacena explains:

 … gravity in four dimensions is an emergent phenomena arising from particle interactions in a gravityless, three dimensional world.  … physicists have known since 1974 that string theory always gives rise to quantum gravity.  The strings formed by gluons are no exception, but the gravity operates in the higher-dimensional space.  (p. 62)

 Again, Dr. Maldacena does not talk of such ideas as being applicable to human beings as quantum systems, as his focus is on physics and science. 

            In physics, the holographic principle is a primary contender for the ultimate theory of everything—incorporating gravity with quantum theory.  Gravity is incorporated within the alternate spacetime within superstring/M-theory (and black holes physics), while quantum theory (involving the triune electro-weak and strong forces) applies on the flat holographic boundary.  Although there are many unresolved issues and problems to be faced in understanding this paradigm, it is a rich alternative model of how lower dimensional physics are an outward form or manifestation of a higher dimensional physics in an alternative Space dimension.  This is the basic premise of The Secret Doctrine: with its zero point foundations and ‘holes dug in space’ being the foundations for the laws of nature. 

The conjunction of an anti-de Sitter spacetime to accommodate string theory and black holes and produce the phenomena of gravity, and the de Sitter spacetime to accommodate the three other quantum forces of nature—produces a profound new model of higher dimensional physics.  The fool existing within the spacetime bubble in this illustration exists within a four dimensional spacetime, while the surrounding surface of the sphere is three dimensional.

It certainly seems that it is a strange universe we live in, wherein such vast amounts of information might be available at sub-atomic or zero point levels, which might surround a black hole or a spinning black hole, or ‘holes dug in space,’ and that there might exist other-dimensional Space, whether or a 5-dimensional anti-de Sitter space—or some other formulation, such as a 7 dimensional Parent Space.

The holographic paradigm thus combines string theory and M-theory which can incorporate gravity with quantum theory depicting particle interactions.   Of course, there are many enigmas and uncertainties about these issues, but scientists are certainly arriving at complex worlds underlying familiar reality.  The authors of these articles do not really elaborate upon the implications and applications of their theories as they might apply to understanding our familiar reality—but illustrations giving human examples are often used to depict the themes.


The physics within the interior of this realm of the anti-de Sitter space has other ‘strange properties.’  According to Maldacena.

        Physics in anti-de Sitter space has some strange properties.  If you were freely floating any where in anti-de Sitter space, you would feel as though you were at the bottom of a gravitational well.  Any object that you threw out would come back like a boomerang.  Surprisingly, the time required for an object to come back would be independent of how hard you threw it.  The difference would just be that the harder you threw it, the farther away it would get on its round-trip back to you.  If you sent a flash of light, which consists of photons moving at the maximum possible speed (the speed of light), it would actually reach infinity and come back to you, all in a finite amount of time.  This can happen because an object experiences a kind of time contraction of ever greater magnitude as it gets farther from you. (Scientific American, Nov. 2005, pp. 60-61)

Within the anti-de Sitter space, the person is at the centre of a gravitational well, and anything thrown out eventually returns to the source within a finite period of time. Certainly, if the outward physics on the holographic boundary, reflects that of the hidden inner metaphysics, then we predict that any effects produced in the physical world, would similarly return to their source, just as must occur within the interior space.  As above, so below:  This might indeed lead us to hypothesize that the universe similarly will follow this boomerang principle, and return to its source or gravitational well.  This same logic might actually support another fundamental teaching of the The Secret Doctrine, that of Karma.  Karma is just such an inevitable cosmic law, whereby the results of actions and inactions come back upon us.  It is only a matter of time. 

All of these concepts from modern holographic theory are helpful in trying to understand Blavatsky’s archaic teachings about invisible zero point centres, circumgyrating holes dug in a Eternal Parent Space, and the principle of Karma as an intrinsic cosmic law.

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