Does a 4-D space make you uncomfterable?

Question

if 4-D space is to exist (we can move in 3 dimensions forwards/backwards, up/down, side to side... time makes the fourth) it is to say that everything already has happened... if we walk forward, the ground doesn't just materialize underneath our feet as we approach it, it's already there.. we may not be able to see it ALL, but it's definately there.... if time is a fourth dimension it would follow this as well.. we may not be able to see it, but the future, and the past exist right along side the present, and our 3 other spacial dimensions.

and to say this, means you don't control anything... you can sit there and make what you think is a conscience decision to do something, like pick up a glass of water and find that as proof that you are actually in control... but in reality, that event existed even before the dinosaurs were around.... or before the sun ever even formed... all you did is play out the scene exactly as it was meant to be played like the puppet you are....

this idea makes me very uncomfterable... for various reasons... does it have the same effect on you?

Answer 1

Warped 4D space is mathematically equivalent to force fields in a flat 3D space. It makes computer's very comfortable because it simplifies programming and reduces processing time. Our human brains have evolved to think in 3D, so we are not comfortable in a 4D world.  

Answer 2

Its important to realise that time is not a spatial dimension like the other three. If time were like the spatial dimensions there would be no automatic flow of time;  after all..  we don't continually move through the other three dimensions of space like we do with the dimension of time.

With time we are moving continuously through it - whether we like it or not. With time we have no choice - We can change neither the direction nor the speed of its flow in the way we can alter our position in the spatial dimension.

So it's wrong to think of the future as fixed by comparing it with the spatial dimensions.

But it is difficult to see where our free will comes into play. Or indeed what a consciousness actually is. How a complex chemical computer like our brain actually has consciousness and free will is a huge mystery. It could well be that free will IS an illusion (albeit a very good one!) and that the future IS already mapped out.

I agree with you - it is a little uncomfortable!

ADDITION AFTER YOUR COMMENT:

yes - we do move due to the earth spinning, the solar sytem moving and the galaxy moving... but in addition we can also move freely. We are free to move as we choose within this framework in a way which is not possible in the time dimension. That was the point I was trying to make. Fundementally:  Time is different from the other dimensions.

Answer 3

Only in the theory of relativity it's true. Relativity makes space and time the same and treats time as though it has definite dimensions to it, but as soon as you put quantum physics into the equation there is no future and past at all. Time is just a relic of Newtonian physics which became relative with Einstein and does not exist in quantum reality. The future and past doesn't make sense because time doesn't exist anyways. Its just our perception of separate objects on this magnification.

Answer 4

For me it's comforting knowing our perceived reality is not the final word - that there's something beyond, if you will.

I think your uneasiness comes from trying to understand something that is fundamentally not perceivable from where we are - thus you end up with things like "all you did is play out the scene exactly as it was meant to be played like the puppet you are".

Round hole square peg kinda thing. Trying to speak of the fourth dimension in three dimensional language doesn't fully work .

Trying to understand 4 through 3 can't work - so if you know that, what is there to be uncomfortable about?

  

Answer 5

I may be missing something but no, I'm not made uncomfortable because I've been able to convince myself that there is "something", "some ME" that stands "outside" (or maybe "inside... as in the micro world where the "laws" of time and space don't apply).

To this "me" everything is indeed happening at once because time and space are just a "dream" in the "real" world where I exist.  But the "source" of the dream is still "me" and I assume "I" have good reasons for it;)

Megalomania much? Sure, but I think it's more honest than most religions;) And not that far fetched in "light" of some of the baffling things we observe happening on the micro level and the mysteries of consciousness and reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_tNzeouH...

And really....since I imagine that "me" to be a part of the "All" it isn't as arrogant as it looks at first glance.

Answer 6

I look at it like this. If you could stand outside of time, it would be like looking at a record (does anyone remember LPs?) You could look at the grooves of the beginning and the end all at the same time.   But we live in time. In fact, as biological and chemical animals, we require time in order to live. We are like the needle on the record riding along the groove experiencing life as it happens. From where we are, every choice is ours! Its simply a hypothetical consequence of being out side of time - which is imposible for us - that you could see the end of all things and know what your future was.

Since being there would have to mean you're dead, I wouldnt worry about it too much. As far as 4d space makking me uncomfortable, you should try sleeping on a mattress stuffed with dodeccahedrons. It ain't easy.

added later:

Great topic. You can find it in religeon under "predeterminism".

But to clarify, the point of view to which we refer hypothetically, doesn't exist. That view of the record "if you could see the whole LP at once" - Does not exist. Its a hypothetical construct. It could never be seen by us since we require time to live.  

And then again it becomes a religeous discussion if you believe our spirits go on living after out bodies die.