Could our three-dimensional reality be a projection of a 2D surface?

Science · Published 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: If you burn a book, the information isn't truly destroyed; it is theoretically recoverable. But what happens when that information falls into a black hole? A radical theory suggests that everything we see might just be a holographic projection from a lower-dimensional reality.

The journey toward the holographic principle began with a crisis in physics known as the information paradox. In 1981, Stephen Hawking proposed that objects falling into a black hole—where space itself falls inward at the speed of light—seem to disappear forever, effectively destroying their quantum information. This contradicted a fundamental rule of physics: the conservation of information. While burning an object preserves its data in the surrounding environment, Hawking's theory suggested that black holes acted as cosmic erasers.

The breakthrough came from looking at the boundaries of these objects. In 1972, Jacob Bekenstein derived an equation showing that the maximum entropy (and thus total quantum information) of a volume of space is proportional to its surface area, rather than its volume. This surprising finding inspired physicists like Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Suskind to propose that if information is tied to surfaces, then the interior of a black hole might be represented by a perfect copy of data on its event horizon—much like a 2D hologram creating a 3D image.

In 1997, Juan Maldacena provided the precise mathematical framework for this via the AdS/CFT duality. He demonstrated that a five-dimensional theory involving gravity (anti-de Sitter space) could describe the exact same physical system as a lower-dimensional quantum field theory without gravity (conformal field theory). This suggests that our 4D spacetime might be a holographic projection of a reality with one fewer dimension, allowing scientists to study complex gravitational systems by analyzing simpler quantum behaviors on their boundaries.

While still a conjecture, the AdS/CFT duality has held up for over 25 years. It provides a powerful tool for physicists because it proves that two seemingly different descriptions—one with gravity and one without—can be mathematically equivalent. This means we can sometimes understand what happens inside a volume of spacetime by studying the quantum-mechanical behavior of particles at its surface.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• Is our three-dimensional universe merely a projection of information stored on a distant surface?
• Is our entire three-dimensional universe merely a projection from a lower-dimensional surface?
• If black holes destroy information, our universe loses its memory
• The cosmic eraser: why black holes might destroy our reality
• Is our three-dimensional universe merely a projection from a distant boundary?
• The design philosophy behind World of Warcraft's greatest rivalry
• When the immune system turns against itself in a hyperinflammatory storm
• The chemical messengers balancing your body's internal tides
• How the study of the mind met the rise of the Nazi regime
• When the body's internal wiring fails to signal the eye
• How sixteenth-century polynomial puzzles evolved into the modern field of complex analysis
• Where physics breaks: the universe's smallest meaningful scale

More in Science · Latest · A–Z · All topics