---
generator: contextjamming-llm-context
title: "The Holographic Universe — fifteen physicists in an AdS/CFT diagram"
description: "Fifteen physicists, from Einstein to the founders of Anthropic, placed inside an AdS/CFT diagram. Every connection is a hyperbolic geodesic with a source."
url: https://www.contextjamming.com/holographic-universe
markdown_url: https://www.contextjamming.com/holographic-universe.md
section: "Essays & Guides"
content_type: "Article"
author: "Bret Kerr"
publisher: "Context Jamming (ACRA Insight LLC)"
date_published: 2026-11-12
language: en-US
word_count: 4782
image: https://www.contextjamming.com/holographic-universe/opengraph-image?fc67778fe7a4c0ff
---

> **The Holographic Universe — fifteen physicists in an AdS/CFT diagram** — Essays & Guides, Context Jamming. This is a plain-Markdown copy of https://www.contextjamming.com/holographic-universe, prepared for LLM context windows, agents and retrieval.
>
> Cite as: Bret Kerr, "The Holographic Universe — fifteen physicists in an AdS/CFT diagram," *Context Jamming*, November 12, 2026, https://www.contextjamming.com/holographic-universe

Research · Interactive · 15 physicists

# The Holographic Universe

Holography says a universe with gravity can be described completely by a theory living on its edge. Here are 15 physicists placed inside that picture: the founders deep in the bulk, the people who took the ideas into AI out at the boundary. Select a name to see how it connects to the others, where each claim comes from, and a talk or playlist to watch.

Skip the diagram and read the list of people and connections

Drawing the cylinder…

How to read it

**Up is measured**
: Time. Height is the year of each person’s landmark work, from 1915 to 2021; the ticks on the left are years.
**Depth is a reading**
: How far in or out someone sits is an editorial judgment, not a measurement, and it comes in three bands only. Foundational figures sit deep in the bulk, where gravity lives; holography’s core sits at middle depth; people who crossed from physics into AI sit near the wall, the boundary, where the theory becomes the product.
**The curves**
: Each connection is a hyperbolic geodesic: seen from above, an arc that meets the boundary circle at a right angle.
**Fainter names**
: Bridge figures who are not among the fifteen.

## 15 people, 46 sourced connections

The same people and connections as the diagram, in era order.

1. Albert Einstein1915 · General relativity · deep in the bulk General relativity, and both halves of ER = EPR: the 1935 wormhole paper and the 1935 entanglement paper. [The Relativity of Simultaneity](https://www.contextjamming.com/einstein-relativity-simultaneity)[Gravity from Entropy](https://www.contextjamming.com/gravity-from-entropy)[Watch: Real speech by Albert Einstein: his voice (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdprkUgWTg4)
   - Leo Szilardcoauthor1939 Einstein wrote the August 2, 1939 letter to President Roosevelt with Szilard’s help, and signed it. Source: [U.S. Department of Energy, Manhattan Project history](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm) Also on this site: [/founder-files/szilard](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/szilard)
   - Enrico Fermiidea lineage1939 Connects through the 1939 letter to Roosevelt: the letter Einstein signed opens by citing recent work on uranium by Fermi and Szilard. It is a citation, not joint work. Source: [Einstein to Roosevelt, August 2, 1939 (MIT transcription)](https://web.mit.edu/course/21/21h.102/www/Primary%20source%20collections/World%20War%20II/Einstein,%20Letter%20to%20FDR.html) · [U.S. Department of Energy, the letter](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm) Outside source
   - Richard Feynmanattended talk1940 Einstein, at the Institute, came by special invitation to graduate student Feynman’s first Princeton physics colloquium, probably in late 1940. Source: [T. Sauer, Remarks on the Origin of Path Integration: Einstein and Feynman](https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.1654) Outside source
   - Stephen Hawkingidea lineage1970 Connects through general relativity: Hawking and Penrose’s 1970 theorem shows that, under broad conditions, Einstein’s theory leads to spacetime singularities. Source: [Hawking and Penrose, The singularities of gravitational collapse and cosmology](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1970.0021) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage2013 Connects through ER = EPR: Maldacena and Susskind proposed that Einstein’s two 1935 ideas, the Einstein–Rosen bridge and the EPR pair, describe the same thing. Source: [arXiv:1306.0533, Cool horizons for entangled black holes](https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
2. Enrico Fermi1942 · Chicago Pile-1 · deep in the bulk Nobel laureate (1938) who led the first self-sustaining chain reaction in 1942; the order-of-magnitude Fermi estimate carries his name. [Leo Szilard and the chain reaction](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/szilard)[Jared Kaplan’s Fermi estimate of the brain](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)[Watch: The World of Enrico Fermi (1970) (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3SKBwzTtv0)
   - Albert Einsteinidea lineage1939 Connects through the 1939 letter to Roosevelt: the letter Einstein signed opens by citing recent work on uranium by Fermi and Szilard. It is a citation, not joint work. Source: [Einstein to Roosevelt, August 2, 1939 (MIT transcription)](https://web.mit.edu/course/21/21h.102/www/Primary%20source%20collections/World%20War%20II/Einstein,%20Letter%20to%20FDR.html) · [U.S. Department of Energy, the letter](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm) Outside source
   - Leo Szilardcoauthor1939 Coauthors, with Herbert Anderson, of Neutron Production and Absorption in Uranium, written at Columbia in 1939. Source: [Phys. Rev. 56, 284 (1939)](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.56.284) Outside source
   - Richard Feynmansame place1944 Both worked at wartime Los Alamos: Feynman led a group in the Theoretical Division from 1943, and Fermi moved there in September 1944 to head F Division. Source: [U.S. Department of Energy, Enrico Fermi](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/Scientists/enrico-fermi.html) · [U.S. Department of Energy, Richard Feynman](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/Scientists/richard-feynman.html) Outside source
   - Robert Hofstadteridea lineage1956 Connects through a unit: in his 1956 review of electron scattering, Hofstadter named the femtometre, the length scale of the nucleus, the fermi. Source: [Hofstadter, Rev. Mod. Phys. 28, 214 (naming as reported by Wikipedia)](https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.28.214) · [Wikipedia: Femtometre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtometre) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplanidea lineage2020 Connects through a method: Kaplan’s 2020 lecture compares training compute with the human brain by Fermi estimate, the order-of-magnitude reasoning that carries Fermi’s name. The two never overlapped. Source: [Kaplan FounderFile, § 03 The Biological Benchmark](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
3. Richard Feynman1948 · The path-integral formulation · deep in the bulk Path integrals and the diagrams that carry his name; the calculating style later physicists took into other fields. [Ethan Dyer: Feynman rules for wide networks](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)[Armchair Physics](https://www.contextjamming.com/armchair-physics)[Watch: Messenger Lectures at Cornell, The Character of Physical Law, Part 1: The Law of Gravitation (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFOXP026eE)
   - Albert Einsteinattended talk1940 Einstein, at the Institute, came by special invitation to graduate student Feynman’s first Princeton physics colloquium, probably in late 1940. Source: [T. Sauer, Remarks on the Origin of Path Integration: Einstein and Feynman](https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.1654) Outside source
   - Enrico Fermisame place1944 Both worked at wartime Los Alamos: Feynman led a group in the Theoretical Division from 1943, and Fermi moved there in September 1944 to head F Division. Source: [U.S. Department of Energy, Enrico Fermi](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/Scientists/enrico-fermi.html) · [U.S. Department of Energy, Richard Feynman](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/People/Scientists/richard-feynman.html) Outside source
   - Stephen Hawkingidea lineage1983 Connects through the path integral: Hartle and Hawking’s Wave Function of the Universe gives the ground state of a closed universe as a path integral over geometries, Feynman’s method applied to spacetime. Source: [Hartle and Hawking, Phys. Rev. D 28, 2960](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.28.2960) Outside source
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedidea lineage2013 Connects by contrast: The Amplituhedron starts from the observation that scattering amplitudes have a simplicity that Feynman diagrams hide, and looks for a formulation without them. Source: [arXiv:1312.2007](https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.2007) Outside source
   - Daniel Robertsidea lineage2021 Connects through method: The Principles of Deep Learning Theory treats neural networks with the perturbative field-theory toolkit, and its first and last chapters open with epigraphs about Feynman. The book itself draws no Feynman diagrams. Source: [arXiv:2106.10165](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10165) Outside source
4. Robert Hofstadter1956 · Electron Scattering and Nuclear Structure · deep in the bulk Measured the size and shape of nuclei and of the proton by scattering electrons off them at Stanford; Nobel Prize in Physics, 1961. [Watch: Robert Hofstadter: All That Jazz (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xdFjZzIkfY)
   - Enrico Fermiidea lineage1956 Connects through a unit: in his 1956 review of electron scattering, Hofstadter named the femtometre, the length scale of the nucleus, the fermi. Source: [Hofstadter, Rev. Mod. Phys. 28, 214 (naming as reported by Wikipedia)](https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.28.214) · [Wikipedia: Femtometre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtometre) Outside source
   - Leonard Susskindsame place1979 Both were physics professors at Stanford: Hofstadter taught there from 1950 to 1985, and Susskind joined in 1979. Source: [Nobel Prize biography of Hofstadter](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1961/hofstadter/biographical/) · [Wikipedia: Robert Hofstadter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hofstadter) · [Wikipedia: Leonard Susskind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Susskind) Outside source
5. Stephen Hawking1974 · Black hole explosions? · deep in the bulk Showed that black holes radiate and have a temperature, which set the information problem that holography was later used to answer. [Sabrina Pasterski, whose memory papers he cited](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)[Watch: Stephen Hawking: Quantum Black Holes (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQH5-0c7PRg)
   - Albert Einsteinidea lineage1970 Connects through general relativity: Hawking and Penrose’s 1970 theorem shows that, under broad conditions, Einstein’s theory leads to spacetime singularities. Source: [Hawking and Penrose, The singularities of gravitational collapse and cosmology](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1970.0021) Outside source
   - Richard Feynmanidea lineage1983 Connects through the path integral: Hartle and Hawking’s Wave Function of the Universe gives the ground state of a closed universe as a path integral over geometries, Feynman’s method applied to spacetime. Source: [Hartle and Hawking, Phys. Rev. D 28, 2960](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.28.2960) Outside source
   - Leonard Susskindidea lineage1993 Connects through the black hole information problem: Hawking argued that an evaporating black hole destroys information, and Susskind’s black hole complementarity starts from the postulate that quantum theory stays valid. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9306069, The Stretched Horizon and Black Hole Complementarity](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9306069) · [Hawking, Breakdown of predictability in gravitational collapse (1976)](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.14.2460) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage2005 Connects through Hawking’s 2005 paper Information Loss in Black Holes, which argues information is preserved and finds the question well posed only in asymptotically AdS spacetimes, the setting of Maldacena’s correspondence. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/0507171, Information Loss in Black Holes](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0507171) Outside source
   - Sabrina Pasterskiidea lineage2016 Connects through a citation: Soft Hair on Black Holes, by Hawking, Perry and Strominger, cites Pasterski’s papers on gravitational and electromagnetic memory. Source: [arXiv:1601.00921, Soft Hair on Black Holes (reference list)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00921) · [arXiv:1502.06120, New Gravitational Memories](https://arxiv.org/abs/1502.06120) · [arXiv:1505.00716, Asymptotic Symmetries and Electromagnetic Memory](https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.00716) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
6. Leonard Susskind1994 · The World as a Hologram · middle depth Set out the holographic principle in The World as a Hologram, argued that black holes keep their information, and proposed ER = EPR with Maldacena. [Juan Maldacena, his ER = EPR coauthor](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)[Watch: Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY)
   - Robert Hofstadtersame place1979 Both were physics professors at Stanford: Hofstadter taught there from 1950 to 1985, and Susskind joined in 1979. Source: [Nobel Prize biography of Hofstadter](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1961/hofstadter/biographical/) · [Wikipedia: Robert Hofstadter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hofstadter) · [Wikipedia: Leonard Susskind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Susskind) Outside source
   - Stephen Hawkingidea lineage1993 Connects through the black hole information problem: Hawking argued that an evaporating black hole destroys information, and Susskind’s black hole complementarity starts from the postulate that quantum theory stays valid. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9306069, The Stretched Horizon and Black Hole Complementarity](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9306069) · [Hawking, Breakdown of predictability in gravitational collapse (1976)](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.14.2460) Outside source
   - Edward Wittenidea lineage1998 Connects through the word in the title: Witten’s Anti De Sitter Space and Holography cites Susskind’s The World as a Hologram and gives AdS/CFT a precise holographic dictionary. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9802150, Anti De Sitter Space And Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9802150) · [arXiv:hep-th/9409089, The World as a Hologram](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9409089) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenacoauthor2013 Coauthors of Cool horizons for entangled black holes, the paper that proposed ER = EPR. Source: [arXiv:1306.0533](https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
   - Adam Browncoauthor2015 Coauthors of Complexity Equals Action, with Daniel Roberts, Brian Swingle and Ying Zhao. Source: [arXiv:1509.07876](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
   - Daniel Robertscoauthor2015 Coauthors of Complexity Equals Action, which conjectures that the quantum complexity of a holographic state is dual to the action of a region of spacetime. Source: [arXiv:1509.07876](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
7. Juan Maldacena1997 · The AdS/CFT paper · middle depth Proposed the AdS/CFT correspondence in 1997; at the Institute for Advanced Study since 2001. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[The Network Is Not the Space (kinematic space)](https://www.contextjamming.com/kinematic)[Watch: Public Lecture: The Meaning of Spacetime (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DODp-ajPuU8)
   - Edward Wittenidea lineage1998 Connects through the dictionary: Witten’s Anti de Sitter Space and Holography took Maldacena’s conjecture and stated precisely how boundary correlation functions are computed from the bulk. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9802150](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9802150) Outside source
   - Stephen Hawkingidea lineage2005 Connects through Hawking’s 2005 paper Information Loss in Black Holes, which argues information is preserved and finds the question well posed only in asymptotically AdS spacetimes, the setting of Maldacena’s correspondence. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/0507171, Information Loss in Black Holes](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0507171) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplanidea lineage2009 Connects through Kaplan’s thesis topic: Aspects of Holography works inside the AdS/CFT correspondence Maldacena proposed in 1997. No joint paper is claimed. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1243499) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
   - Edward Wittensame place2012 Faculty colleagues in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study; the Institute announced their Fundamental Physics Prizes together in 2012. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) Outside source
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedsame place2012 Faculty colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study; both were among its four 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize winners. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) Outside source
   - Albert Einsteinidea lineage2013 Connects through ER = EPR: Maldacena and Susskind proposed that Einstein’s two 1935 ideas, the Einstein–Rosen bridge and the EPR pair, describe the same thing. Source: [arXiv:1306.0533, Cool horizons for entangled black holes](https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
   - Leonard Susskindcoauthor2013 Coauthors of Cool horizons for entangled black holes, the paper that proposed ER = EPR. Source: [arXiv:1306.0533](https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedcoauthor2015 Coauthors of Cosmological Collider Physics, on reading heavy particles off the pattern of primordial fluctuations. Source: [arXiv:1503.08043](https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.08043) Outside source
   - Sam McCandlishidea lineage2017 Connects through McCandlish’s Stanford thesis, Depth Perception in Holography, which studies how boundary data reconstructs the bulk in AdS/CFT. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1782526) · [arXiv:1604.03110, A Stereoscopic Look into the Bulk](https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03110) Also on this site: [/founder-files/sam-mccandlish](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish)
   - Sabrina Pasterskiidea lineage2021 Connects through the holographic principle: Pasterski’s Snowmass review cites Maldacena’s 1997 paper as a concrete realization and sets out to find the counterpart for asymptotically flat space. Source: [arXiv:2111.11392, Celestial Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11392) Outside source
8. Edward Witten1998 · Anti de Sitter Space and Holography · middle depth String theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study; wrote the precise dictionary for AdS/CFT in 1998. [Jared Kaplan, who names Witten as the bar for AI](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: Introduction to Information Theory (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYugyhoohhY)
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage1998 Connects through the dictionary: Witten’s Anti de Sitter Space and Holography took Maldacena’s conjecture and stated precisely how boundary correlation functions are computed from the bulk. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9802150](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9802150) Outside source
   - Leonard Susskindidea lineage1998 Connects through the word in the title: Witten’s Anti De Sitter Space and Holography cites Susskind’s The World as a Hologram and gives AdS/CFT a precise holographic dictionary. Source: [arXiv:hep-th/9802150, Anti De Sitter Space And Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9802150) · [arXiv:hep-th/9409089, The World as a Hologram](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9409089) Outside source
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedidea lineage2009 Connects through twistor space: Arkani-Hamed’s 2009 paper The S-Matrix in Twistor Space (with Cachazo, Cheung and Kaplan) says its construction was inspired by Witten’s 2003 twistor string theory. Source: [arXiv:0903.2110](https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.2110) · [arXiv:hep-th/0312171, Witten’s twistor string paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0312171) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenasame place2012 Faculty colleagues in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study; the Institute announced their Fundamental Physics Prizes together in 2012. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) Outside source
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedsame place2012 Faculty colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study, where Arkani-Hamed’s appointment began in 2008; both were among its four 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize winners. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) · [IAS School of Natural Sciences faculty](https://www.ias.edu/sns/people/faculty) Outside source
   - Daniel Robertsendorsed the book2022 Connects through an endorsement: Witten’s note for The Principles of Deep Learning Theory says it is very interesting, for a physicist, to see deep learning approached from statistical physics. Source: [deeplearningtheory.com, endorsements](https://deeplearningtheory.com/) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplancrossed into AI2026 Kaplan told Quanta that AI could soon write theory papers as good as Witten’s or Arkani-Hamed’s, naming both as the bar. Source: [Quanta Magazine, January 26, 2026](https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-physics-dead-dying-or-just-hard-20260126/) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
9. Nima Arkani-Hamed2013 · The Amplituhedron · middle depth Scattering amplitudes and the amplituhedron; at the Institute for Advanced Study; Jared Kaplan’s PhD advisor. [Jared Kaplan, his student](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: Unwinding the Amplituhedron (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGNZEZcO3bo)
   - Jared Kaplancoauthor2008 Coauthors, with Freddy Cachazo, of What is the Simplest Quantum Field Theory?, written while Kaplan was his student. Source: [arXiv:0808.1446](https://arxiv.org/abs/0808.1446) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplanadvisor2009 Arkani-Hamed advised Kaplan’s Harvard PhD; the thesis, Aspects of Holography, was defended in 2009. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record (advisor named in the Kaplan FounderFile)](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1243499) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
   - Edward Wittenidea lineage2009 Connects through twistor space: Arkani-Hamed’s 2009 paper The S-Matrix in Twistor Space (with Cachazo, Cheung and Kaplan) says its construction was inspired by Witten’s 2003 twistor string theory. Source: [arXiv:0903.2110](https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.2110) · [arXiv:hep-th/0312171, Witten’s twistor string paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0312171) Outside source
   - Edward Wittensame place2012 Faculty colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study, where Arkani-Hamed’s appointment began in 2008; both were among its four 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize winners. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) · [IAS School of Natural Sciences faculty](https://www.ias.edu/sns/people/faculty) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenasame place2012 Faculty colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study; both were among its four 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize winners. Source: [IAS press release, 2012](https://www.ias.edu/press-releases/four-faculty-members-institute-advanced-study-awarded-inaugural-fundamental-physics) Outside source
   - Richard Feynmanidea lineage2013 Connects by contrast: The Amplituhedron starts from the observation that scattering amplitudes have a simplicity that Feynman diagrams hide, and looks for a formulation without them. Source: [arXiv:1312.2007](https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.2007) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenacoauthor2015 Coauthors of Cosmological Collider Physics, on reading heavy particles off the pattern of primordial fluctuations. Source: [arXiv:1503.08043](https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.08043) Outside source
   - Sabrina Pasterskiidea lineage2020 Connects through celestial amplitudes: Arkani-Hamed coauthored Celestial Amplitudes from UV to IR with Pate, Raclariu and Strominger, and Pasterski’s 2021 review cites it. No joint paper is claimed. Source: [arXiv:2012.04208](https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.04208) · [arXiv:2111.11392, Celestial Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11392) Outside source
10. Adam Brown2015 · Complexity Equals Action · near the boundary Theoretical physicist (black holes and quantum complexity) who leads the Blueshift team at Google DeepMind. Leads Blueshift at Google DeepMind; joined Google in 2018. [Source](https://aspenphys.org/people/adam-brown/), checked 2026-11-12. [The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Ethan Dyer, who joined Blueshift in 2018](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)[Watch: Training Sand to Think: Artificial General Intelligence and the Future of Physics (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw60FH5iflI)
   - Daniel Robertscoauthor2015 Coauthors, with Susskind, Swingle and Zhao, of Complexity Equals Action, published in Physical Review Letters as Holographic Complexity Equals Bulk Action? Source: [arXiv:1509.07876 · Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 191301](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
   - Leonard Susskindcoauthor2015 Coauthors of Complexity Equals Action, with Daniel Roberts, Brian Swingle and Ying Zhao. Source: [arXiv:1509.07876](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
   - Ethan Dyersame place2018 Dyer joined Google’s Blueshift team in 2018, the group Adam Brown leads, and the two co-organized meetings on theoretical physics for machine learning. Source: [Dyer FounderFile](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)
   - Daniel Robertscrossed into AI2026 Both coauthors now work at AI labs: Adam Brown leads Blueshift at Google DeepMind and Roberts leads Frontiers at OpenAI, by their own current bios. Source: [Aspen Center for Physics, Adam Brown](https://aspenphys.org/people/adam-brown/) · [danintheory.com, Dan Roberts](https://danintheory.com/) · checked 2026-11-12 Outside source
11. Sabrina Pasterski2017 · The conformal basis for celestial amplitudes · middle depth Celestial holography: a holographic description for flat space. Research faculty at the Perimeter Institute. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: Asymptotic Symmetries and Detectors, Part 1 (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3G2FmoJYdE)
   - Stephen Hawkingidea lineage2016 Connects through a citation: Soft Hair on Black Holes, by Hawking, Perry and Strominger, cites Pasterski’s papers on gravitational and electromagnetic memory. Source: [arXiv:1601.00921, Soft Hair on Black Holes (reference list)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00921) · [arXiv:1502.06120, New Gravitational Memories](https://arxiv.org/abs/1502.06120) · [arXiv:1505.00716, Asymptotic Symmetries and Electromagnetic Memory](https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.00716) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedidea lineage2020 Connects through celestial amplitudes: Arkani-Hamed coauthored Celestial Amplitudes from UV to IR with Pate, Raclariu and Strominger, and Pasterski’s 2021 review cites it. No joint paper is claimed. Source: [arXiv:2012.04208](https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.04208) · [arXiv:2111.11392, Celestial Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11392) Outside source
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage2021 Connects through the holographic principle: Pasterski’s Snowmass review cites Maldacena’s 1997 paper as a concrete realization and sets out to find the counterpart for asymptotically flat space. Source: [arXiv:2111.11392, Celestial Holography](https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11392) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplancrossed into AI2025 Kaplan, by then at Anthropic, gave a virtual talk at Perimeter’s Theory + AI Symposium in April 2025; Pasterski was one of its three scientific organizers. Source: [Perimeter Institute event page](https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/951/) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
12. Dario Amodei2020 · Language Models are Few-Shot Learners (GPT-3) · near the boundary Physics PhD (Princeton, 2011) who directed the GPT-2 and GPT-3 work at OpenAI, then co-founded Anthropic with Kaplan and McCandlish. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dario)[The Ghost in the Machine: an oral history of GPT-3](https://www.contextjamming.com/FewShotLearners-Oral-History)[Architectural Determinism](https://www.contextjamming.com/architectural-determinism)[Watch: Dario Amodei / Founder File (playlist) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo0uQZGQpJoJ0axxK05iJw2vrLBRIyC8h)
   - Sam McCandlishcoauthor2018 Coauthors, with Kaplan and the OpenAI Dota team, of An Empirical Model of Large-Batch Training, on the gradient noise scale. Source: [arXiv:1812.06162](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.06162) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplancoauthor2020 Coauthors of Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models: Kaplan and McCandlish led the research and Amodei, the last author, provided guidance. Source: [arXiv:2001.08361, contributions statement](https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08361) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplancrossed into AI2021 Two physics PhDs, both among the co-founders of Anthropic in 2021. Source: [Amodei FounderFile, timeline](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dario) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dario](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dario)
13. Jared Kaplan2020 · Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models · near the boundary Holography PhD (Harvard, 2009) who measured neural scaling laws and co-founded Anthropic. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[arXiv Explainers](https://www.contextjamming.com/explainers)[Watch: Jared Kaplan (playlist) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo0uQZGQpJoJYZ9rfrg6dAO6OxMDec_Qt)
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedcoauthor2008 Coauthors, with Freddy Cachazo, of What is the Simplest Quantum Field Theory?, written while Kaplan was his student. Source: [arXiv:0808.1446](https://arxiv.org/abs/0808.1446) Outside source
   - Nima Arkani-Hamedadvisor2009 Arkani-Hamed advised Kaplan’s Harvard PhD; the thesis, Aspects of Holography, was defended in 2009. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record (advisor named in the Kaplan FounderFile)](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1243499) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage2009 Connects through Kaplan’s thesis topic: Aspects of Holography works inside the AdS/CFT correspondence Maldacena proposed in 1997. No joint paper is claimed. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1243499) Also on this site: [/founder-files/maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena)
   - Sam McCandlishcoauthor2020 First and second authors of Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models, written at OpenAI. Source: [arXiv:2001.08361](https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08361) Also on this site: [/founder-files/sam-mccandlish](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish)
   - Enrico Fermiidea lineage2020 Connects through a method: Kaplan’s 2020 lecture compares training compute with the human brain by Fermi estimate, the order-of-magnitude reasoning that carries Fermi’s name. The two never overlapped. Source: [Kaplan FounderFile, § 03 The Biological Benchmark](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
   - Dario Amodeicoauthor2020 Coauthors of Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models: Kaplan and McCandlish led the research and Amodei, the last author, provided guidance. Source: [arXiv:2001.08361, contributions statement](https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08361) Outside source
   - Sam McCandlishcrossed into AI2021 Two holography PhDs who left physics for AI and were among the co-founders of Anthropic in 2021. Source: [Kaplan FounderFile, timeline](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
   - Ethan Dyercoauthor2021 Coauthors of Explaining Neural Scaling Laws, with Bahri, Lee and Sharma. Source: [arXiv:2102.06701](https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.06701) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)
   - Daniel Robertscited in the book2021 Connects through a citation: the epilogue of Roberts and Yaida’s The Principles of Deep Learning Theory points to Kaplan’s 2020 scaling-laws paper as the empirical study of scaling in language models, and suggests the book’s representation group flow may explain those laws. Source: [arXiv:2106.10165, Epilogue ε, reference \[72\]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10165) Outside source
   - Dario Amodeicrossed into AI2021 Two physics PhDs, both among the co-founders of Anthropic in 2021. Source: [Amodei FounderFile, timeline](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dario) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dario](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dario)
   - Sabrina Pasterskicrossed into AI2025 Kaplan, by then at Anthropic, gave a virtual talk at Perimeter’s Theory + AI Symposium in April 2025; Pasterski was one of its three scientific organizers. Source: [Perimeter Institute event page](https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/951/) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
   - Edward Wittencrossed into AI2026 Kaplan told Quanta that AI could soon write theory papers as good as Witten’s or Arkani-Hamed’s, naming both as the bar. Source: [Quanta Magazine, January 26, 2026](https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-particle-physics-dead-dying-or-just-hard-20260126/) Also on this site: [/founder-files/pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski)
14. Sam McCandlish2020 · Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models · near the boundary Holography PhD (Stanford, 2017), scaling-laws coauthor and Anthropic co-founder. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish)[The Network Is Not the Space (kinematic space)](https://www.contextjamming.com/kinematic)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: Building Anthropic: a conversation with our co-founders (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2lIWXLLN4)
   - Juan Maldacenaidea lineage2017 Connects through McCandlish’s Stanford thesis, Depth Perception in Holography, which studies how boundary data reconstructs the bulk in AdS/CFT. Source: [INSPIRE-HEP thesis record](https://inspirehep.net/literature/1782526) · [arXiv:1604.03110, A Stereoscopic Look into the Bulk](https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.03110) Also on this site: [/founder-files/sam-mccandlish](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish)
   - Dario Amodeicoauthor2018 Coauthors, with Kaplan and the OpenAI Dota team, of An Empirical Model of Large-Batch Training, on the gradient noise scale. Source: [arXiv:1812.06162](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.06162) Outside source
   - Jared Kaplancoauthor2020 First and second authors of Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models, written at OpenAI. Source: [arXiv:2001.08361](https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.08361) Also on this site: [/founder-files/sam-mccandlish](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish)
   - Jared Kaplancrossed into AI2021 Two holography PhDs who left physics for AI and were among the co-founders of Anthropic in 2021. Source: [Kaplan FounderFile, timeline](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan) Also on this site: [/founder-files/kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan)
15. Daniel Roberts2021 · The Principles of Deep Learning Theory · near the boundary Quantum chaos and holographic complexity, then The Principles of Deep Learning Theory; now at OpenAI. Leads Frontiers at OpenAI; visiting scientist at MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics. [Source](https://danintheory.com/), checked 2026-11-12. [Ethan Dyer, his coauthor](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: The Principles of Deep Learning Theory (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzR2gZrsdJc)
   - Adam Browncoauthor2015 Coauthors, with Susskind, Swingle and Zhao, of Complexity Equals Action, published in Physical Review Letters as Holographic Complexity Equals Bulk Action? Source: [arXiv:1509.07876 · Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 191301](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
   - Leonard Susskindcoauthor2015 Coauthors of Complexity Equals Action, which conjectures that the quantum complexity of a holographic state is dual to the action of a region of spacetime. Source: [arXiv:1509.07876](https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.07876) Outside source
   - Ethan Dyercoauthor2018 Coauthors of Gradient Descent Happens in a Tiny Subspace, with Guy Gur-Ari. Source: [arXiv:1812.04754](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04754) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)
   - Jared Kaplancited in the book2021 Connects through a citation: the epilogue of Roberts and Yaida’s The Principles of Deep Learning Theory points to Kaplan’s 2020 scaling-laws paper as the empirical study of scaling in language models, and suggests the book’s representation group flow may explain those laws. Source: [arXiv:2106.10165, Epilogue ε, reference \[72\]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10165) Outside source
   - Richard Feynmanidea lineage2021 Connects through method: The Principles of Deep Learning Theory treats neural networks with the perturbative field-theory toolkit, and its first and last chapters open with epigraphs about Feynman. The book itself draws no Feynman diagrams. Source: [arXiv:2106.10165](https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10165) Outside source
   - Edward Wittenendorsed the book2022 Connects through an endorsement: Witten’s note for The Principles of Deep Learning Theory says it is very interesting, for a physicist, to see deep learning approached from statistical physics. Source: [deeplearningtheory.com, endorsements](https://deeplearningtheory.com/) Outside source
   - Adam Browncrossed into AI2026 Both coauthors now work at AI labs: Adam Brown leads Blueshift at Google DeepMind and Roberts leads Frontiers at OpenAI, by their own current bios. Source: [Aspen Center for Physics, Adam Brown](https://aspenphys.org/people/adam-brown/) · [danintheory.com, Dan Roberts](https://danintheory.com/) · checked 2026-11-12 Outside source
16. Leo Szilard bridge figure1939 · The Einstein–Szilard letter · deep in the bulk A bridge figure, not one of the fifteen: conceived the neutron chain reaction in 1933 and worked with Einstein on the 1939 letter to Roosevelt. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/szilard)[Watch: Leo Szilard: The Man Who Made the Atomic Bomb Possible, Then Fought to Stop It (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLRoibMqzGM)
   - Albert Einsteincoauthor1939 Einstein wrote the August 2, 1939 letter to President Roosevelt with Szilard’s help, and signed it. Source: [U.S. Department of Energy, Manhattan Project history](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm) Also on this site: [/founder-files/szilard](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/szilard)
   - Enrico Fermicoauthor1939 Coauthors, with Herbert Anderson, of Neutron Production and Absorption in Uranium, written at Columbia in 1939. Source: [Phys. Rev. 56, 284 (1939)](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.56.284) Outside source
17. Ethan Dyer bridge figure2019 · Asymptotics of Wide Networks from Feynman Diagrams · near the boundary A bridge figure, not one of the fifteen: holographer who joined Google’s Blueshift team and wrote scaling-law theory with Kaplan. [Read the FounderFile →](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)[The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora)[Watch: Lessons from scale for large language models and quantitative reasoning (video) ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfWPCeyh77k)
   - Daniel Robertscoauthor2018 Coauthors of Gradient Descent Happens in a Tiny Subspace, with Guy Gur-Ari. Source: [arXiv:1812.04754](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04754) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)
   - Adam Brownsame place2018 Dyer joined Google’s Blueshift team in 2018, the group Adam Brown leads, and the two co-organized meetings on theoretical physics for machine learning. Source: [Dyer FounderFile](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)
   - Jared Kaplancoauthor2021 Coauthors of Explaining Neural Scaling Laws, with Bahri, Lee and Sharma. Source: [arXiv:2102.06701](https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.06701) Also on this site: [/founder-files/dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer)

## How to read the diagram

The shape is anti-de Sitter space drawn the usual way: a cylinder. Each horizontal slice is a Poincaré disk, a map of hyperbolic space in which the edge is infinitely far away, and the slices are stacked along a vertical time axis. The wall of the cylinder is the boundary, where the conformal field theory lives. The inside is the bulk, where gravity lives. In the AdS/CFT correspondence the two are the same physics written twice.

- **Depth is a judgment, not a measurement.** Height on the cylinder is a year you can check; depth is my reading, in three bands. Einstein, Fermi and Feynman sit deep in the bulk because the rest is built on them. Maldacena, Witten, Arkani-Hamed and Pasterski sit at middle depth: holography’s core. Kaplan, McCandlish, Amodei, Adam Brown and Roberts sit near the boundary, because the boundary is where the theory becomes the product.
- **Height is time.** Each person sits at the year of their landmark work, from general relativity in 1915 to *The Principles of Deep Learning Theory* in 2021.
- **The curves are real geodesics.** Seen from above, every connection is the shortest path between two points of the hyperbolic disk: an arc of a circle that meets the boundary at a right angle. The faint pattern on the active slice is the {7,3} tiling, seven-sided tiles meeting three to a corner, all the same size in hyperbolic terms.

## Five kinds of connection

- advisorPhD advisor and student.
- coauthorNames on the same paper.
- same placeSame place at the same time: an institute, a lab, a lecture room.
- idea lineageOne body of work builds on another; an interpretation, not a collaboration.
- crossed into AIThe link runs through an AI lab or an AI event.

## How the connections were sourced

There are 46 connections. 16 are backed by a page on this site, mostly the FounderFiles on [Jared Kaplan](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/kaplan), [Juan Maldacena](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/maldacena), [Sam McCandlish](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/sam-mccandlish), [Sabrina Pasterski](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/pasterski) and [Ethan Dyer](https://www.contextjamming.com/founder-files/dyer). The other 30 rest on outside sources: arXiv and INSPIRE-HEP records, institute pages and U.S. Department of Energy history pages. Every row links to its source.

Connections marked *idea lineage* are interpretation. They say one body of work builds on another, not that two people worked together. Where a link could not be sourced it was left out, and a person with two solid connections was left with two. Current roles for Adam Brown and Daniel Roberts were checked on November 12, 2026. The Adam Brown here is the physicist who leads Blueshift at Google DeepMind. He is not the GPT-3 author with the same surname who has a FounderFile on this site.

Ethan Dyer and Leo Szilard appear as bridge figures. They are not among the 15, but each joins two people who are. For the longer story of why holographers ended up at AI labs, read [The Data Desert: Physics, AI, and the Diaspora](https://www.contextjamming.com/PhysicsAI-Diaspora).