Time is a Direction

To read along with this blog go to
http://imaginingthetenthdimension.blogspot.com/2008/04/time-is-direction.html
April 6, 2008
For us, time is a direction in the fourth spatial dimension. That's one of the ideas that is central to the way of visualizing reality that I have advanced in my book and its well-known animation.

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[ballaststoffel2]

When time is the 4th dimension, how would you measure the duration of two 5 dimensional Spheres, where one is rotating around the other... all that happening in the 6th dimension?

Again Time?

Well, the answer is easy. Time has to be dimensionless. Why don't you finally realize that?!?

Direction is a line or a curve in whatever dimension, but not time. You need time to "walk" in that direction, but it really does not matter, how many dimensions are involved. It is true in every dimension.

[10thdim]

@ballaststoffel2 Right! As I've said often in this vlog, time for a 5th dimensional observer would be in the 6th dimension, or for a 2D flatlander would be in the 3rd dimension.

The point of saying that time is a direction not a dimension in the video is the same as saying that "up" or "forward" are not dimensions. "Forward" is not in a specific dimension, it's just a label. Could "forward" be thought of as a direction in the 4th spatial dimension? Sure, within a certain frame of reference.

Rob

[TheJustinfernandez]

i dunno.. if the absolute is infinite and there was no concept of time before the creation of the universe.

Then shouldn't it be more than just mere a direction.

[10thdim]

@TheJustinfernandez I agree! But this is the difficulty of language in these discussions: from our experience, "time" moves inexorably forward only, this is why physicists often count "time" as being separate from the spatial dimensions (for instance M Theory says there are 10 spatial dimensions plus 1 of time). If you say there was no "time" before our universe then you're talking about both time and anti-time, 2 directions which I would say do make a full spatial dimension.

Thanks!

Rob

[psychehaha]

@socratesrock Wow, this is old. Anyway, did you even watch the video I was responding to? To begin, The Everett model is far from being widely accepted. Even if it were, you're missing the point. This video claims that alternate universes arise because time is the 4th dimension and because there are higher dimensions on top of that. That's patently false. Alternative universes (if they exist) arise from quantum mechanical effects (like I said), not from the fact that there are higher dimensions

[truantz91]

different laws of physics or altering our own timelines are not possible even within the parallel universes in the 5th dimension you would need higher dimensions to achieve these

[dumbchildmusic]

I'M TO TIRED TO HEAR THE WORDSSSS

[Sidivan]

I absolutely love your videos. I have a question about travel in the "Time" direction. If Time and Anti-time are directions just as forward, back, up, down, left, and right are directions, then movement in these directions requires force. What force propels us in the Time direction?

[5up3rp3rs0n]

You are in 4d! :O

[linkinnark]

There is only one dimension, the dot. Within the dot contains everything. This guy has a new way of looking at it, and it seams more likely. look up " Crossing the Event Horizon - The Search for the Fundamental Pattern"

[2ndhandsoul]

@2ndhandsoul ...Is every Now a "reset" to 0 co-ordinates in order for the fourth dimension to remain at right angles to the fifth? That probably makes no sense. It would probably mean there is no movement, but it's easy to confuse direction with how we consider speed. Relativistically we feel stationary and everything moves around us, while we're moving around to everything else, etc.?

[2ndhandsoul]

@TheJustinfernandez Well, to go along with this notion, what I wonder is: what set the "vector" or "motion" which carries our perception through dimensions in this seemingly linear and "forward" direction? Would anti-time appear in a similar fashion to inhabitants there? The "dawn" of the universe might be seen as the 0 co-ordinate along the fourth dimensional line we are along...? In the fifth dimension is there anti-probability, though?

[psychehaha]

@socratesrock And, at that point, physicists don't refer to alternate universes as "higher dimensions". There are 11 spatio-temporal dimensions, and if something is orthogonal to that, it's not considered to be a dimension (dimensions are considered to be either spatial and temporal, and alternate universes are neither). Think about alternate dimensions as different possibilities within the same 11 dimensions.

[psychehaha]

@socratesrock Time is not the 4th dimension. M-theory posits 10 spatial dimensions (many of which are believed to be tiny dimensions that wrap around the first) and 1 temporal dimension independent of each spatial dimension. See here that having 11 dimensions does not point to alternate universes. If you want to square the Everett model (which is far more controversial than M-theory) with M-theory, then you'd have to accept that alternate universes are orthogonal to all 11 dimensions.

[socratesrock]

@psychehaha Everett said that the quantum wavefunction's probabilistic outcomes occur in a subspace which is orthogonal to spacetime. What's at right angles to the fourth dimension? The fifth, of course.