Introduction: From Star Trek to the Living Room
If you’re a sci-fi fan, you might recall the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation–a space where virtual reality felt indistinguishable from the real world. Recently, as I walked past my 55” flat screen TV during a football game, I was struck by how lifelike the close-up of the player was. For a moment, it felt as if I was standing right next to them. This experience made me wonder: How close are we to making the Holodeck a reality? And more importantly, what does “real” even mean when it comes to what we see?
What Is Real? The Science of Seeing
The image of the football player on my screen raised a host of questions. How often do we remember that the person we see—say, Tom Brady—is not actually present, but a broadcast signal? Even if it’s live, the image itself isn’t “alive.” How does that signal become a picture on our TV? Could holograms be the next evolution of broadcast technology?
Let’s just concentrate on the tv Tom Brady. It looks like Tom Brady, sounds like Tom Brady but is not the real Tom Brady. It begs the question what is real? What is reality? If you think about the basic science behind sight, we find:
- Seeing is the physical act of the eyes detecting light.
- Objects are visible because they reflect light.
- Light enters the eye through the cornea, which bends (refracts) it, and is then focused onto the retina.
- The retina contains light-sensitive cells that convert the light into signals, which are sent to the brain via the optic nerve to be processed into the image we see.
- The retina sees the world upside down; our brain turns it right side up.
- The visual cortex receives the image and provides the perception to see it right side up.
- Perception is the mental process of interpreting and making sense of that visual information.
Perception vs. Reality
All that we see is, in fact, an interpretation of our brain. According to Merriam-Webster, to perceive is “to become aware of through the senses.” If we lack the right senses, we can’t see at all. This idea echoes the biblical phrase, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV). So, what can we truly believe from what we see?
Perception is subjective—a personal way of viewing the world, shaped by our experiences. For me, stories, whether real or imagined, are captivating. I would welcome a Holodeck for many reasons, but above all, because a hologram is an authentic image that maintains all the details of what it originally depicts. This means that this picture has just as much truthfulness to it as any other physical item would have. (“Hologram Technology: Understanding How it Works in 2024”) This expresses my sense of something more genuine than reality itself.
Reflection: Technology and Truth
As technology advances—from flat screens to holograms and beyond—we’re continually challenged to reconsider what is real. Whether through a TV broadcast or a future Holodeck, our experience of reality is shaped as much by our minds as by the technology around us.
Works Cited
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Perceive. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved [date], from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perceive
The Holy Bible, New International Version. (2011). 1 Corinthians 13:12.
Hologram Technology: Understanding How it Works in 2024. (2024). from https://www.holoconnects.com/news/exploring-hologram-technology/
