Chapter 9 takes us yet further into quantum reality, leading to what I consider the strangest version of all parallel universe proposals. It’s a proposal that emerged gradually over thirty years of theoretical studies on the quantum properties of black holes. The work culminated in the last decade, with a stunning result from string theory, and it suggests, remarkably, that all we experience is nothing but a holographic projection of processes taking place on some distant surface that surrounds us. You can pinch yourself, and what you feel will be real, but it mirrors a parallel process taking
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