Zhukov
VIP Member
This thread reminded me of a conversation I had on a different board awhile back. The attributes of the "fourth dimensional being" I mention could easily be applied to what people commonly call God.
This is an amalgamation of several different posts in the same thread. I've placed them together in what I hope is a coherent format.
Just some interesting ideas to chew on.
This is an amalgamation of several different posts in the same thread. I've placed them together in what I hope is a coherent format.
Just some interesting ideas to chew on.
It seems to me that the very structure of our universe, as we currently understand it, describes a predetermined future. Its not anything that we could be aware of or perceive in any way, nor does it really affect free will. We have free will, it just that in a sense weve already made our choices. We made our choices before we even existed, as we perceive it. But a sentient fourth-dimensional being observing our universe would be able to examine all four dimensions of our universe; its entire length, width, depth, and time span. And if the entire time span of our universe can be observed, then the future is predetermined. Ultimately, it changes nothing.
As far as forecasting the future, I dont really believe its possible; but the mind is an incredibly complex organ, much of which is still not understood.
Time traveling into the future is proven, although its not really time traveling. Riding in a vehicle moving at near light speed dilates time, and when you got off, you would have moved into the future faster than someone who had not been in your spaceship. Using this method, there isnt any length of time you skipped over, so you didnt really time travel in the sense I think some people are talking about. Traveling back in time youd probably have to find some way to leave our universe, which would in all likelihood destroy you. Travel through a black hole or worm hole would most likely destroy you, and any attempt you made at averting that destruction, if successful, would likely result in counteracting the very effect you desired by jumping into the hole to begin with.
The universe is infinite with a finite volume in the shape of a hyper-sphere. Traveling in any direction for a long enough period of time will lead you back to where you started. And before you ask, it is infinite, without end, in the sense that the surface of a sphere is. And like the surface of a sphere it has no end but a finite surface area, and movement in any direction leads you back to where you started. Only our universe is warped in at least one more dimension than the surface of a sphere; hence it is a hyper-sphere. Therefore, you could not in fact leave it by simply traveling beyond the furthest matter. Additionally, the universe is expanding in the same sense the surface of a balloon expands when you inflate it, but again our universe is expanding in at least one more dimension.
You are a three-dimensional being. You posses width, depth, and length, and you can observe and move freely within these three dimensions. However you are dragged beyond your control one way through time, unable to even stop in an instant and explore, let alone move backwards through it. A fourth-dimensional being would not have this limitation, and would be able to observe and move freely through time. Again, the point was the observation not the observer.
And finally, to use one more one-reduced-dimensional example, if our earlier described expanding two dimensional universe in the form of a sphere increasing in diameter were to come in contact and pass through a three dimensional object such as a sphere that traditionally existed outside said dimension, how would a two-dimensional being in this universe view this object? Initially, at first contact, the sphere could only be seen as a point. As the universe expanded and passed through it however, this point would grow to a circle of increasing diameter as the universe approached the center of our spherical object. Remember, a two dimensional object can only perceive two dimensions and would only be able to see the sphere in cross section and never as a whole. After the midpoint of the sphere, the cross section of the sphere within the universe would decrease in size to a point and then vanish.
So how would we, with our three dimensions, view a hyper sphere? A hyper sphere intersecting with our universe would originally appear as a point and grow into a larger sphere, reach its mid-point, and then contract back down to a point, then out of our universe. However instead of the two-dimensional universe experiencing this as it expanded through the third, we would experience this as our universe expanding through the fourth, or time.
It is now generally accepted that the universe originated from a naked singularity around which space was infinitely curved as it constituted the entirety of all matter/energy in said universe. Detected background radiation seems to echo this phenomenon we refer to as the Big Bang. This naked singularity can be described as a point. The ensuing explosion ejected matter in ever direction at once, reducing the severity of the curvature of space, creating what is commonly understood to be a sphere of ever increasing size.
sphere \"sfir\ n
3 : a figure so shaped that every point on its surface is an equal distance from the center
Many scientists hold to the idea that the amount of matter in the universe will slow and eventually reverse this expansion with ever increasing speed to result in the Big Crush, where all the matter/energy in the universe is once again reduced to a naked singularity and space curvature is restored to infinity creating a single point.
So what does that leave us with? How do we describe our universe? An object that evolves from a point, to a sphere of increasing then decreasing size, and finally back to a point, through time. Sounds like a hyper sphere to me.
Cheers.