Physicists already started to use alternate meanings of the word with the “holographic universe” in the 1990s. The generalized meaning in physics then became, essentially, “something that looks 3D but is actually 2D.” Which is also how the public uses it.
One could quibble and claim that the nature of the 2D encoding in the case of the holographic universe is closer to that of the original concept, but it’s a weak defense at best. After all, the holographic universe isn’t even just about light, it proposes that matter and space itself is only apparently 3D.
One could quibble and claim that the nature of the 2D encoding in the case of the holographic universe is closer to that of the original concept, but it’s a weak defense at best. After all, the holographic universe isn’t even just about light, it proposes that matter and space itself is only apparently 3D.