The Tesseract is the Holy Ghost
Kuriositas has an article today on Tesseracts or hypercubes. As part of their "Tesseract 101" article they included a short clip from Carl Sagan's Cosmos which discusses our different dimensions in what must be the clearest explanation of 4-d that I've ever seen/heard.
I have to admit the tesseract is a hard thing to bend one's three-dimensional mind around. We can't fathom it physically, because it is so different than our plane(s) of existance. Our 3-d "model" looks all wrong, even when it's shown in motion. It looks wrong because we are limited to one "time" at a time, in our 3-d world, whereas in 4-d all are simulpresent? I think I'm getting that right. Still it's beautiful, and Sagan's knack for explaning extremely complex ideas via simple demonstration is staggering. My brain hurts, but I understand a bit more than when I started.
Now among all the elegant and simple beauty of Sagan's description, one thing stands out to me as fantastically spooky. What we see is shadows of the fourth dimension, we see its ghosts because we lack the faculties to see the actual dimension. Beautiful and horrible, isn't it? And its implications are even more astoundingly awesome (in the real sense of the word). What if all "ghosts" are really, as they are often called, "shadows" existing on the elsewhere plane? Oh, science, I love you. It's so effing beautiful. I may glow all day because of this. It makes me want to walk into the ocean, or lick the walls, or call down the moon. (It also makes me want to bite people...which is, admittedly, my problem).
I am a sucker for the spirituality of science. Those who think that science is nothing but cold reason, are misled. One of the reasons I am madly in love with Carl Sagan is that he had such passion for the mysteries still unsolved. My first response to scientific discoveries, or proposed theories, or quantum inquiries is a feeling that MUST be akin to the feeling that religion creates. Christians talk about the Holy Spirit quite frequently, as a sort of feeling. Every religion has a version of it. It's the sense of oneness combined with awe (and maybe, consequently, a little bit of terror).
What's especially nice--I needed this feeling today. I've been too much in my head, alone, seeing tiny obstacles. And science gives me a big religion kinda picture, a holy ghost kinda feeling right when I am bogged in my own little life. So the tesseract is a ghost I am in love with.
Also I'm thinking that people get crucifixes tattooed on themselves quite often. Why not tesseracts? Of course turning a 4-d concept into a 2-d tattoo is a little sad somehow.
Click to viewI have to admit the tesseract is a hard thing to bend one's three-dimensional mind around. We can't fathom it physically, because it is so different than our plane(s) of existance. Our 3-d "model" looks all wrong, even when it's shown in motion. It looks wrong because we are limited to one "time" at a time, in our 3-d world, whereas in 4-d all are simulpresent? I think I'm getting that right. Still it's beautiful, and Sagan's knack for explaning extremely complex ideas via simple demonstration is staggering. My brain hurts, but I understand a bit more than when I started.
Now among all the elegant and simple beauty of Sagan's description, one thing stands out to me as fantastically spooky. What we see is shadows of the fourth dimension, we see its ghosts because we lack the faculties to see the actual dimension. Beautiful and horrible, isn't it? And its implications are even more astoundingly awesome (in the real sense of the word). What if all "ghosts" are really, as they are often called, "shadows" existing on the elsewhere plane? Oh, science, I love you. It's so effing beautiful. I may glow all day because of this. It makes me want to walk into the ocean, or lick the walls, or call down the moon. (It also makes me want to bite people...which is, admittedly, my problem).
I am a sucker for the spirituality of science. Those who think that science is nothing but cold reason, are misled. One of the reasons I am madly in love with Carl Sagan is that he had such passion for the mysteries still unsolved. My first response to scientific discoveries, or proposed theories, or quantum inquiries is a feeling that MUST be akin to the feeling that religion creates. Christians talk about the Holy Spirit quite frequently, as a sort of feeling. Every religion has a version of it. It's the sense of oneness combined with awe (and maybe, consequently, a little bit of terror).
What's especially nice--I needed this feeling today. I've been too much in my head, alone, seeing tiny obstacles. And science gives me a big religion kinda picture, a holy ghost kinda feeling right when I am bogged in my own little life. So the tesseract is a ghost I am in love with.
Also I'm thinking that people get crucifixes tattooed on themselves quite often. Why not tesseracts? Of course turning a 4-d concept into a 2-d tattoo is a little sad somehow.