The Holographic Universe
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I read another book about physics because I guess I’m a full-on scientist now? Beaker central. But actually, I did want to take advantage of the recency effect (again, literal scientist) to try and retain some of what I just read in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book. I received The Holographic Universe as part of a mystery book package from Book People. I’ve talked about this before– I love it so much and I think they do such a good job with it. Great gift idea for the holidays!
Anyway, that’s all to say that this is not a book I would have bought for myself. It’s interesting in the sense that it does ground you and remind you that there’s a lot that science doesn’t know yet. Reality check- we still don’t know a lot about our reality. This guy, Michael Talbot, argues that a lot of what’s unaccounted for could be explained by a holographic theory of the universe. This theory holds that the universe itself is a giant hologram. In this theory, objective vs. subjective is an illusion and everything– our consciousness, our bodies, the street we live on, a dinosaur, a person in the future, etc.-- are all the same thing. The part is the whole and the whole is the part. This theory has all sorts of implications, including the idea that our thoughts can will things into being if we are tapped into our holographic capabilities and the possibility that there are parallel universes at our disposal.
I get that everything I just said sounds like mumbo jumbo. Don’t attack me– I didn’t write the book. Even I, a lowly English-leaning queen, can note flaws in his “scientific approach”. He overstates his evidence (ex: a study done hundreds of years ago with a very small sample size suddenly becomes the crux of an argument) and relies much too heavily on anecdotal evidence. He does this so consistently that I simply can’t trust his reasoning at all. I was burned too many times by his emphasis on “miraculous” accounts.
Aside from that, he had a tendency to deviate for so long that I have no clue how several chapters connect back to his thesis about the holographic model. So, realizing that I wasn’t going to see how it contributed to his claim, I decided hey, f*** it, let’s see where this road takes us.
And that approach made it way more fun to read! It turned into a philosophical experiment for me. What would free will look like in a holographic universe? How could exploring our interconnectedness reduce our insistence on fragmentation on a physical and psychological level? How do UFOs come into play here?
Michael Talbot is the first to admit that he meshes science with spiritual, and while I don’t recommend this particular book, I do recommend the general philosophical yearning behind it. I like that he reminded me to not take things at face value and not be so rigid/confident in pervasive beliefs. I also learned things! Did you know that electrons behave both as waves and particles and that makes them really difficult to understand? Unless you’re a scientist, you don’t think about an electron. In 7th grade, you learned about its negative charge and you moved on to flirt with people on your flip phone. This book got me mildly excited about an electron again.
I still give it 1 out of 5 stars because it made very little cohesive sense. I’m glad it got me titillated about electrons, but I probably could have gotten that elsewhere.
