Why Holograms Are Impossible (Mostly)

Holograms are cool, but in media the things we see are really not holograms. That’s not the point of the video. Just a fun fact.

Sources/Credits:

Daniel Foisy
Physics Girl
Techmoan
TriaxesSoftware
2Pac-King
Carey McGleish
Rene Schulte

[THEAmateurSommelier]

I'm disappointed I won't soon be able to summon my Blue Eyes White Dragon to wipe out people's life points

[LinusBoman]

Expectations are bound meet disappointment when the word hologram is thrown around so loosely by the media. "2Pac performing live as a hologram!" sounds way cooler than "2D video of 2Pac projected onto a translucent screen using an effect dating back to the 19th century called pepper's ghost".

[wertbe]

This guy sounds like he could voice a muppet

[raidev_]

Imagine people from the future being like "this aged well"

[theonebman]

My childhood, innocence and dreams of the future have all been ruined and broken in just one simple title

[JimboShogun]

Can totally see holographic food as the next weight loss craze

[RelativelyBest]

"Some of you might be asking, then: Why not just shoot a laser?"

I ask myself that on a daily basis.

[carpedm]

I mean, a lot of technology is impossible until its not. Like how sending data needed to have wires and the prospect of "connecting devices in nearly zero delay across the world" would be laughably impossible in the past when we had the bulky room sized computers. Or even the idea of "yeah this building sized computer network but a billion times faster and make it palm sized, with full color display."

[dissonanceparadiddle]

The plasma based holograms(the butterfly one) have a lot of promise But they are currently big loud and unsafe

[pocketheart]

In my sci-fi novel that takes place in the 55th century, everyone has a biochip in their heads and shares a vast, networked AR space. They have practical use of holographic type displays and such, but it's being projected into their brains instead of the environment.

[kosherre]

Why does he sound like he's about to burp at any point?

[cowerdnerddespacito]

Now cortana makes sense because nearly everyone in halo is wearing a helmet or has a chip in their head like captain Keyes that has augmented reality that helps them aim and stuff

[saintlusso]

I personally believe that one day AR will be as incorporated into our lives as smartphones have become. Seamlessly bridging the gap between the physical and non-physical worlds we’ve created.

[JuanTonSoupXP]

“What if we lived in Harrison Bergeron’s dystopia”

[the_furry_inside_your_walls]

I think the "holograms" of Metal Gear Rising are one of my favorite forms, as they utilize AR displays and/or ferromagnetic technology via "lithium niobate crystals" to achieve the effect of a projected image/object in a 3D space while still having a some-what grainy, crude appearance due to the technology still being relatively new during the game's setting(keep in mind that Metal Gear Rising: takes place during 2018, which was the future at the time of the game's release, but is now the not-so distant past for us) and really only accessible to those who have a lot of money to afford it, such as governments, corporations, PMC's, etc. A lot of the stuff in Metal Gear Rising is really cool and interesting as it can be described within a science-fiction setting and still be logically sound, barring the absurdity of nanomachines of course.

[nivolord]

I kind of feel like it is a good safety precaution to keep holograms encased in glass anyway. Otherwise it could be weaponized, blurring the line between reality and fantasy, or simply obscuring peoples view. Besides, you can already do a lot of interesting things with augmented reality anyways, which ethically gates volumetric imagery: you can't be exposed to them without giving consent in the form of putting on glasses, lenses (or cybernetic eyes).

[NYLEVEN]

Another way to make something like a hologram is by using drones with lights on them and programming them to fly around(this is already a thing). However, the drones we have right now are way too big and way too loud to use as a good replacement for ordinary screens to put inside any room.

[Isometrix]

All the ways I see free floating volumetric displays working mostly revolves around things like ferromagnets, where you are using massive particles rather than massless particles forming your display. Functionally, this can be identical. If you want the cool translucent look, that isn’t too hard. It’s even cooler because you can actually touch it!

[gwynjustice]

“Human Flight is impossible!” The New Yorker

[Zeekblitz]

I really like the idea used in the 2002 movie "The Time Machine" where Orlando Jones' character was a hologram that was projected onto a series of glass panels in the middle of the room. I noticed you never mentioned it in this video, but I was really wandering if that sort of technology might be possible someday.