"In a larger sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure "painted" on the cosmological horizon"

True for an anti de Sitter space (thus ADS/CFT) but not for the one we live in which is a de Sitter space and lacks the requisite boundry. I wish someone could explain the relevance of ADS/CFT to this universe.

I once had the opportunity of being in a car alone with Juan Maldacena for an hour and asked him. He pretty much shrugged (probably meaning any attempt to explain that to me, a layman physics junkie, would be futile.) He's a really, really nice and personable guy so I'm sure that if there was anything I could have understood he would have tried.