It seems many are holding themselves back with the belief that there are only four dimensions—length, width, height, and time. In fact, some have constrained themselves into thinking that the dimension of time is a one-way street. That you can only move in one direction—forward. It would be unsettling to say the least, if we believed that God did not exist because we cannot see Him in one of our four dimensions. Time to let our brains evolve.
Some automatically restrict themselves with their limitation of only four dimensions. A dog cannot see in color, and has no concept of it. It has no concept of emotions like jealousy, hate, ambition, greed, or a number of others. Does that mean those emotions don’t exist? Humans have not seen the wind, a water molecule, cosmic radiation---or a myriad of other items. But they still know they exist. Their mind has evolved to the point of accepting things that cannot be seen.
Webster defines the figurative definition of a “dimension” as a “characteristic, a quality, a part”. Our minds need to expand, and understand that there are likely many more dimensions that the four to which most limit themselves. We are much more evolved than dogs.
Without getting too technical, many more dimensions seem to exist. From Eugenio Calabi(University of Pennsylvania) and Shing-Tung Yau(Harvard University), we know of 10 possible dimensions---three spatial, plus six per Calabi-Yau, plus one of time. String theorists, such as these, say extra dimensions do indeed exist. In fact, the equations that describe superstring theory require a universe with no fewer than 10 dimensions.
How difficult it is to accept the idea—even when we try to imagine a single additional spatial dimension—and our brains hit a brick wall. Actually, an infinite number of dimensions seem to exist if one allows the brain to expand a bit. In the mathematical sense, there’s length, width, depth, time, mass, charge, spin, strangeness, color, charm, etc…
Some minds have evolved to the point of understanding that in “relativity” when items approach the speed of light, strange physical phenomena occur. For those understanding equations as well as those experiencing the speed, length of an object gets shortened, and time itself gets slower. This time phenomenon has already been proven before by two supersonic jets circling the earth. Time devices located in the jets themselves, as well as one synchronized on the ground, shows a definite loss of time for the jets.
Even though this is not Star Trek, it is true that in physics, any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single construct is called the “space-time continuum”. If the dimension of time is altered, what other dimensions are altered? Can our minds reach the inevitable conclusion?
One must wonder about the creation of the expansion rate after the ‘big bang’—slower and the universe re-collapses, faster and the matter would have dispersed too rapidly for stars and galaxies to form; the critical ratio between the masses of the proton and the electron; the exact location of the earth in the solar system; the exact conditions to support human ‘life’. The chances of these conditions appearing naturally just don’t exist.
Are we able to see every dimension that really exists? In those dimensions we can’t see, what is actually there? Does God populate a dimension that we cannot see? It seems that only those with the inability to think multi-dimensionally would not understand this concept.
A good example of multi-dimensional travel is the wave-particle duality of a photon as it fluctuates between the dimensions of space and time. Now we could refute dimensional travel, but it would be difficult being compared to a dog.
Kevin Roeten can be reached at roetenks@charter.net or kevin@kevinroeten.us.
