Another interesting thought I had today on the way home from my Physics class

[o00dan00o]

The biggest question regarding time and time-travel is whether time is linear, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensional. As humans we can only perceive time seemingly in a linear fashion. However if one thinks of it in depth... humans often think about how life might have been had they done something differently. This could possibly add an extra dimension

Comments

[nihil_domini]

I myself have previously concocted a similar theory. The theory relates entrely to the concept that time is in itself a spacial dimension. When I was younger I refused to believe this. This was because that any event or series of events would create multiple possible outcomes. As a result Entropy (the state of disorder in a given space) would increase with time. It cannot possibly decrease with time. Conversely time cannot exist without entropy. The amount of timelines existing within the flow of time is constantly increasing. This suggests a sort of temporal beginning. I refused to believe that anything that would profess to be a manner of spacial measurement could possibly have a boundary such as a beginning. I have since come around. In closely examining the nature of space(not the outer kind I'm working on pure logic here, not idealism or philosophy. Bring either of those things into this and I'll kick your ass!) and measurement I have come to realise that x,y,z spacial meausrements bears a striking similarity to temporal measurement. Such as the fact that no truly accurate measurements can ever be taken. Both space and time (unlike the stuff in it) can be measured in infinitely smaller increments (like a fractal). If viewed from this perspective both time and space behave identically. If such aspects maintain themselves to be true (which it doesn't because we can't possibly prove it) then it could be concluded that Time is indeed a fourth dimension. And the full scope of adjacent timelines (which probably behave in the same fractal aspect when viewed from all angles) could be said to be a fifth. However the continually expanding nature of this fifth dimension still throws a wrench in this theory, but it might possibly be explained away as it's aspect of the spacial curvature that the three confirmed dimensions posess. Don't ask about a sixth dimension. My brain doesn't have that kinda constitution

Addendum!

[nihil_domini]

Any faulty logic or incomplete ideas are not the result of my own philosophical bent or belief structure. They exist purely because I'm really fucking lazy.

Re: Addendum!

[o00dan00o]

Oh, don't worry, physicists agree that time is the fourth dimension we all believe it to be. My physics professor says some similar things among-which is that time and space go hand in hand. You cannot move through one without moving through the other. Its just the nature of this fourth dimension which isn't quite agreed upon as of yet.

Also, another interesting theory my professor explained:
In your theory you assume both time and space are planar (e.g. coordinate axes, which means they go on forever and ever off to infinity in either direction). Recent studies have been done to see if space is planar or curved. Its a well-known fact that the sum of all angles in a triangle in a planar system is 180 degrees. What astrologists have done is picked three random stars in space and created a triangle, then added the angles between them. However, what they found was that the angles added up to less than 180 degrees, implying that space is curved (supposedly saddle-shaped). Its very hard to imagine this, but it does make alot of sense.