Abstract
What distinguishes reality and illusion? We may be able to convince ourselves that we can distinguish between the two. However, on closer analysis, the entire exercise is futile and the process itself is murky. Are we independent and individual observers of the cosmos or just an inseparable part of the universe incapable of making unbiased observations? Can our models of reality become reality itself?
There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable – unobservable in principle – it is not part of science. If there is no way to falsify or confirm a hypothesis, it belongs to the realm of metaphysical speculation, together with astrology and spiritualism. By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality – it’s just a figment of our imaginations.
– Leonard Susskind (The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics 2008)
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Mathew, S. (2014). Holographic Universe: The Ultimate Illusion. In: Essays on the Frontiers of Modern Astrophysics and Cosmology. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01887-4_8
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