反德西特／共形场论（AdS/CFT）对应关系的发现，为全像原理提供了无可辩驳的精确数学基石。此对应关系证明，在具有特殊负曲率的「反德西特」玩具宇宙内部，其复杂的重力物理运作与其平坦刚性边界表面上运行的无重力量子场论在数学上完全等价。虽然批评者指出我们真实身处的宇宙是加速膨胀且向外弯曲的「德西特空间」，并不存在明显的投影边界边缘，但许多理论物理学家仍认为，重力与量子力学在微观尺度上展现的深度纠缠，暗示全像原理极可能是理解所有空间本质的通用法则。
全像原理对现实本质的本体论诠释引发了多元探讨，主要可归纳为三种可能：其一是表面量子资讯（量子位元）为真实本质，而三维空间仅为如电玩画面般浮现的幻象；其二为三维重力体积才是真实本体，全像对应仅为数学上的巧合；其三则是两者皆非本质，而是源自某种更深层且未知的底层物理机制。为将此概念拓展至我们所处的德西特宇宙，部分学者更提出了激进的模型，大胆推测所有的空间维度甚至时间本身，可能最终都压缩并源自于一个无维度、永恒存在的单一量子点。
The holographic principle represents one of the most profound breakthroughs in theoretical physics over the past three decades, asserting that the entire physical contents of a region of space can be fully deciphered by measuring its surrounding surface, thereby blurring the distinction between volume and area. This radical proposal originates from gravity's unique property of having exclusively positive mass, and gained strong mathematical momentum from Bekenstein and Hawking's calculations showing black hole entropy scales with surface area rather than volume, leading Leonard Susskind and contemporaries to propose that black holes—and perhaps all regions of space—are fundamentally holographic.
The formulation of the AdS/CFT correspondence established rigorous mathematical evidence for holography by demonstrating that the interior of an anti-de Sitter space governed by gravity is mathematically equivalent to a boundary surface governed purely by quantum conformal field theory. Although skeptics emphasize that our actual expanding cosmos resembles an outward-curving de Sitter space devoid of a distinct boundary screen, many theorists contend that the profound reconciliation between gravity and quantum mechanics in AdS models suggests holography is a universal property of nature rather than a mere geometric accident.
The ontological implications of living in a holographic reality generally point toward three possibilities: the quantum boundary data is fundamental while space is emergent, the higher-dimensional gravitational interior is the true reality, or both are dual reflections of a deeper unknown theory. Extending holography to our own de Sitter universe has spurred increasingly radical hypotheses, such as Susskind's recent models suggesting that all spatial dimensions—and potentially time itself—might fundamentally originate from a single, timeless, zero-dimensional quantum point.