Virtual Reality in the World of Holograms

Abstract

If we assume that the initial conditions for the universe were such that there was no volume-extensive entropy `at the beginning of time' (which is true in Linde's chaotic inflation), we can formulate a covariant holographic bound on the entanglement entropy inside or outside closed space-like surfaces. This bound should hold even for regions where the coarse-grained entropy exceeds the surface area. We find that Bousso's bound gives strong support for this conjecture. We also present a speculative interpretation of the entropy bound, according to which any observer of interest can be surrounded by a holographic screen, providing a non-redundant description of the rest of the universe.