Is spacetime fundamental, or does it emerge from something deeper?
October 6, 2026 · 16 min read
Donald Hoffman argues spacetime falls apart at the Planck scale, Annaka Harris explores emergent space-time, and Andrew Strominger and Sean Carroll explain how the holographic principle hints that space is not basic. The convergence from philosophy and physics suggests the stage of reality may itself be a derived thing.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- Many physicists doubt that space and time are fundamental.
- Hoffman: at the Planck scale, probing smaller regions creates a black hole, so spacetime loses meaning.
- A great theory provides the tools to find its own limits.
- Black hole information scales with surface area, not volume.
- Holographic principle: a region's information can be stored on its boundary.
- Strominger: space can emerge like a hologram from a plate; time must ultimately emerge too.
- Holography is precise for some black holes and special spaces, not for our universe.
- Carroll: holography is speculative and has not been confirmed by any test.
- Carroll: calling spacetime an illusion is wrong; its predictions remain true.
- Hoffman: consciousness is the deeper layer; this is his own proposal.
- Harris: perceptions map onto a real structure that does not look like experience.
- The pressure comes from combining quantum theory with gravity.
- Everyday physics is unchanged; emergent does not mean wrong.
- Separate three claims: not fundamental, illusion, and consciousness underneath.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.