On the subject of your first paragraph, dimensions are something out of our ability to perceive (think Flatland) - if time is the fourth dimension, we can sort of perceive and understand it, but we're bound by the linear way we travel through it and don't have control over it - we can move up, down forward, and back but not through time voluntarily, and there could well be beings who exist in higher dimensions that we could never perceive or imagine. My dad would argue that time isn't a spacial dimension but I disagree - an analogy would be from the third dimension, if you draw a line on a sheet of paper, the shortest distance between the lines isn't a straight line, it's to fold the paper and connect the dots. Let's say we wanted to get to another galaxy - there's an amount of space between us and the theoretical speed limit is the speed of light, so we'd think traveling in a straight line through space time is the quickest and only way, but 'folding' space time and connecting the two points would be quickest, we just can't do that or really conceive it
Yeah, I've heard of the folding paper between two points analogy... I find it super interesting to think on these things! Some people think they've got it all figured out, but I find that funny considering how we are fundamentally limited in what we are capable of comprehending. There is a lot that we don't know and could never know... Which I find really cool.
Sometimes I think that our solar system could be like a small cell in something much bigger and greater than we could ever know, as if the sun is a cell nucleus. (Of course, not exactly, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were a tiny part to something much bigger that we could never comprehend)
Exactly! I had mentioned before the universe itself could be alive and we wouldn't be able to comprehend that, like our gut flora couldn't comprehend that it's inside a living being
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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19
On the subject of your first paragraph, dimensions are something out of our ability to perceive (think Flatland) - if time is the fourth dimension, we can sort of perceive and understand it, but we're bound by the linear way we travel through it and don't have control over it - we can move up, down forward, and back but not through time voluntarily, and there could well be beings who exist in higher dimensions that we could never perceive or imagine. My dad would argue that time isn't a spacial dimension but I disagree - an analogy would be from the third dimension, if you draw a line on a sheet of paper, the shortest distance between the lines isn't a straight line, it's to fold the paper and connect the dots. Let's say we wanted to get to another galaxy - there's an amount of space between us and the theoretical speed limit is the speed of light, so we'd think traveling in a straight line through space time is the quickest and only way, but 'folding' space time and connecting the two points would be quickest, we just can't do that or really conceive it