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timerippleNon-scientists and non-philosophers be warned.
I was brushing my teeth just now, as most civilized people do before bed, when a thought occurred to me that had not done so before. In Dionys Burger's Sphereland (a continuation of Edwin Abbott's Flatland), mention is made of a two-dimensional life form being "lifted" into the third dimension, flipped over, and returned to the second dimension, now in a mirror-image form of its previous self. What, then, would happen if a three-dimensional life form were so transformed by passage and reversal through a higher spatial dimension? I'm hesitant to say "through the fourth dimension" because that's supposed to be Time, and I don't know much about how Time relates to Space, or if it could relate in this way to a spatial object. (Alas, my aspirations to become a temporal expert were cut short by my dismal failure to satisfactorily comprehend Classical Mechanics.)
Unfortunately my next questions sort of need that information as part of any speculative answer. I began to wonder, not whether such a thing would be feasible, but what effect this transformation would have on the body of, say, a human being or other Earth life form. Earth life is carbon-based (as far as I know) and contains a certain amino acid in its "left-handed" form (the "right-handed" form is deadly). My first thought was that the subject would probably die, or at least return in an unrecognizable shape, since the amino acids would now be right-handed. However, upon closer inspection it occurred to me that the entire three-dimensional shape would be reconfigured, not just the "handedness" of the molecule. Again, at this point it would be really, really handy to know what sort of changes such a transformation would effect.
Then I got to thinking about the rest of the body at the molecular level. The DNA would code (if the atoms themselves still interacted in the same way) for entirely different proteins than they did before. Even supposing the new proteins were functional and could interact with one another within the body, how might they react with outside substances that did not undergo a dimensional transformation? In fact, would the atoms interact in the same way as they did before? (I know, I already asked that. Sort of.)
What if the higher dimension were in fact Time? I, along with most of the general population, know very little about Time beyond its daily importance in everyday life. I have an amusing image of the transformed life form living its life backwards, like T.H. White's Merlin. Then the developmental biologist in me kicks in, and says "What in heck would that do to the pathways and concentrations that kick in at specific times during development?" I really ought to read the remaining books on my Physics/QM/Astronomy shelf, in hopes that I may learn something of the concept of individual time, and whether it is relevant to my next questions. Can a temporally flipped person interact with a non-temporally flipped environment at any level (ie anywhere from atomic to social)? If the dimensional flip didn't kill you, how would this work?
I want answers! Fiona's Proposed Reading is as follows:
The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
Time Travel in Einstein's Universe, Richard Gott
The Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker
Fiona's Past Reading includes but is not necessarily totally limited to:
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
Black Holes and Baby Universes, Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything, Kitty Ferguson
Flatland, Edwin A. Abbott
Sphereland, Dionys Burger
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, John Gribbin
The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence M. Krauss
Any other books you physicist people would care to recommend? Better yet, please comment about this stuff! I already know I'm completely off my rocker, but don't let that stop you. Please restrain yourself in matters of equations, however, because while I may be a reasonably intelligent person with a penchant for odd dimensional questions, I fared rather abysmally in classical mechanics and have had no math since multivariable calculus (and that was over a year ago. I've done nothing more interesting than long division since).
P.S. I saw an new illustrated copy of A Brief History of Time in Barnes & Noble the other day. I am covetous. *sigh*
I was brushing my teeth just now, as most civilized people do before bed, when a thought occurred to me that had not done so before. In Dionys Burger's Sphereland (a continuation of Edwin Abbott's Flatland), mention is made of a two-dimensional life form being "lifted" into the third dimension, flipped over, and returned to the second dimension, now in a mirror-image form of its previous self. What, then, would happen if a three-dimensional life form were so transformed by passage and reversal through a higher spatial dimension? I'm hesitant to say "through the fourth dimension" because that's supposed to be Time, and I don't know much about how Time relates to Space, or if it could relate in this way to a spatial object. (Alas, my aspirations to become a temporal expert were cut short by my dismal failure to satisfactorily comprehend Classical Mechanics.)
Unfortunately my next questions sort of need that information as part of any speculative answer. I began to wonder, not whether such a thing would be feasible, but what effect this transformation would have on the body of, say, a human being or other Earth life form. Earth life is carbon-based (as far as I know) and contains a certain amino acid in its "left-handed" form (the "right-handed" form is deadly). My first thought was that the subject would probably die, or at least return in an unrecognizable shape, since the amino acids would now be right-handed. However, upon closer inspection it occurred to me that the entire three-dimensional shape would be reconfigured, not just the "handedness" of the molecule. Again, at this point it would be really, really handy to know what sort of changes such a transformation would effect.
Then I got to thinking about the rest of the body at the molecular level. The DNA would code (if the atoms themselves still interacted in the same way) for entirely different proteins than they did before. Even supposing the new proteins were functional and could interact with one another within the body, how might they react with outside substances that did not undergo a dimensional transformation? In fact, would the atoms interact in the same way as they did before? (I know, I already asked that. Sort of.)
What if the higher dimension were in fact Time? I, along with most of the general population, know very little about Time beyond its daily importance in everyday life. I have an amusing image of the transformed life form living its life backwards, like T.H. White's Merlin. Then the developmental biologist in me kicks in, and says "What in heck would that do to the pathways and concentrations that kick in at specific times during development?" I really ought to read the remaining books on my Physics/QM/Astronomy shelf, in hopes that I may learn something of the concept of individual time, and whether it is relevant to my next questions. Can a temporally flipped person interact with a non-temporally flipped environment at any level (ie anywhere from atomic to social)? If the dimensional flip didn't kill you, how would this work?
I want answers! Fiona's Proposed Reading is as follows:
The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
Time Travel in Einstein's Universe, Richard Gott
The Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker
Fiona's Past Reading includes but is not necessarily totally limited to:
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
Black Holes and Baby Universes, Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything, Kitty Ferguson
Flatland, Edwin A. Abbott
Sphereland, Dionys Burger
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, John Gribbin
The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence M. Krauss
Any other books you physicist people would care to recommend? Better yet, please comment about this stuff! I already know I'm completely off my rocker, but don't let that stop you. Please restrain yourself in matters of equations, however, because while I may be a reasonably intelligent person with a penchant for odd dimensional questions, I fared rather abysmally in classical mechanics and have had no math since multivariable calculus (and that was over a year ago. I've done nothing more interesting than long division since).
P.S. I saw an new illustrated copy of A Brief History of Time in Barnes & Noble the other day. I am covetous. *sigh*
