German physicist Werner Heisenberg developed the first equations of quantum mechanics using Matrix mathematics. He deduced that space and time were pixelated into indivisible, 3-dimensional Planck length units (similar to the 2D pixels on your computer screen). The mathematics indicated this, and there was no solid experimental evidence for smooth – in other words not pixelated – spacetime.

Smooth spacetime comes with the strange implication of an infinite amount of points between any two points. The entertaining Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox confronts this problem by suggesting that if you want to get from point A to point B, you first must get half way between those two points. And to get there, you must get half way between those two points and so on ad infinitum.

Obviously, this paradox is silly because we usually do get to point B. However, if we do get to point B, this implies that reality is pixelated. Heisenberg’s ideas of a pixelated reality were too radical for most scientists of his day except, notably, for Niels Bohr, who agreed with them. Today, more scientists agree with this digital physics notion of a pixelated spacetime. Many still do not, and believe spacetime is smooth, and without structure – not pixelated. On the other hand, most agree that a length can be no shorter than the Planck length, which suggests that reality is pixelated. So there is a good deal of confusion.

We believe that until a powerful quantum gravity theory of pixelated spacetime is discovered, the issue will remain confusing.