Holographic Theory of Learning
25th May 2024
It’s often said about holograms that each piece of the hologram contains the entire holographic image. Even a tiny fragment will still contain the whole picture. This is not entirely true – while indeed each fragment of the hologram will contain data about the entire holographic image, some data is still lost, and the tinier the fragment the less detailed the final image. But if we ignore these technicalities we can still appreciate the general principle, that each small part contains the information about the whole.
So, I think something similar might be true for studying as well. Pick any non-trivial and not extremely technical subject, and study it thoroughly enough and you’ll learn a lot about everything else as well. There are alternative ways to state it, some more truthful than others. Perhaps we can say: each part (or aspect) of reality reveals information about reality as a whole. Or alternatively, in order to understand one part of reality well enough, you will have to learn a lot about the reality as a whole.
I don’t actually believe this to be a universally applicable principle, as there are lots of exceptions, but I feel that there is “something” about it that deserves our attention.