science

Holography in fiction

Holography in fiction is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Holography in fiction rather than just read about it. In short: Holography is often used as a plot device in science fiction, appearing in a wide range of books, films, television series, animation and video games. Probably the first reference is by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series starting in 1951.

Key takeaways

Holography in fiction belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Holography in fiction to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Holography in fiction from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Holography is often used as a plot device in science fiction, appearing in a wide range of books, films, television series, animation and video games. Probably the first reference is by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series starting in 1951. Holography has been widely referred to in movies, novels, and TV, usually in science fiction, starting in the late 1970s. Science fiction writers absorbed the urban legends surrounding holography that had been spread by overly-enthusiastic scientists and entrepreneurs trying to market the idea. This gave the public overly high expectations of the capability of holography, due to the unrealistic depictions of it in most fiction, where they are fully three-dimensional computer projections (more like real-life volumetric displays) that are sometimes tactile through the use of force fields. Examples of this type of depiction include the hologram of Princess Leia in Star Wars, Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf, who was later converted to "hard light" to make him solid, and the Holodeck and Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek. Holography served as an inspiration for many video games with the science fiction elements. In many titles, fictional holographic technology has been used to reflect real life misrepresentations of potential military use of holograms, such as the "mirage tanks" in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 that can disguise themselves as trees. Player characters are able to use holographic decoys in games such as Halo: Reach and Crysis 2 to confuse and distract the enemy. Starcraft ghost agent Nova has access to "holo decoy" as one of her three primary abilities in Heroes of the Storm. Fictional depictions of holograms have, however, inspired technological advances in other fields, such as augmented reality, that promise to fulfill the fictional depictions of holograms by other means.

References

Further reading Pizzanelli, David. "The Evolution of the Mythical Hologram". Proceedings of the SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, 1732 (1992). Pages 430 to 437.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Holography in fiction

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Holography in fiction claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Holography in fiction before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Holography in fiction ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Holography in fiction

In research: Holography in fiction appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Holography in fiction in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Holography in fiction is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fiction about holography, Holography, Science fiction themes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Holography in fiction outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Holography in fiction in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Holography in fiction means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Holography in fiction out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Holography in fiction in simple terms?

Why does Holography in fiction matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Holography in fiction?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Holography in fiction.