thinking about this is like a tounge twister for your brain. or mine, at least. i'm all mixed up now.
but i don't think that it should be taken for granted that flipping something in a dimension higher than ours and returning it to the third dimension would end up switching things around in the same way that flipping something here and returning it to flatland would. that is, i'm not entirely sure that right and left would be switched. or that that's the only thing that would happen. my first thought was that everything would be turned inside out.
my next thought is that time is, in a way, a spatial dimension (disclaimer: my complete knowledge of dimensional theory comes from flatland and conversations with friends who have actually read all the latest theories, which is why they are at harvard and oberlin and i am not. most of my ideas about higher dimensions comes from my near-completely ignorant musings). think about it this way: to turn a 1d line into a 2d square, you move the line to the side and connect the outermost points. to turn a 2d square into a 3d cube, you move the square to the side and connect the corners. ==> to turn a 3d cube into a 4d ???, you move the cube to the "side" in the 4th dimension, then connect the corners. however, viewed from the 3d, the cube hasn't moved at all. think about a cube sitting in the 2d. you see a square. as you move to a lower 2d plane, you still see the square, in the exact same place. it's only when you get to a plane below the square that the square is nowhere to be seen.
now think of that in terms of 3d + time (as the 4d), where each second represents a different level of 3d plane. i am sitting staring at a cube. at s1, it is here. at s2, it is still here, in the same place, but i'm at a different place in the 4d (time) => it's moved to the side, so to speak. (where was i going with this? ...oh, right:)
so, thinking of myself as a 4d object which at one end, in the 4d, is a little fetus, and at the other end is a dead, decomposing corpse, to flip me over would be to reverse time. so i'd start as a dead corpse, come to life and get younger till i diminished into an egg and a sperm while everyone around me was doing it the other way around. i'd be flipped.
thinking about it, that's not exactly the same question you were asking, because time might be spatial (if my logic is right, which is doubtful), but if that's the case then we live in the 4th dimension, and you were asking about dimensions higher than the ones we percieve. but it was fun to think about anyway :)
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timeasmymeasure
huh
Date: 2004-08-02 09:58 am (UTC)but i don't think that it should be taken for granted that flipping something in a dimension higher than ours and returning it to the third dimension would end up switching things around in the same way that flipping something here and returning it to flatland would. that is, i'm not entirely sure that right and left would be switched. or that that's the only thing that would happen. my first thought was that everything would be turned inside out.
my next thought is that time is, in a way, a spatial dimension (disclaimer: my complete knowledge of dimensional theory comes from flatland and conversations with friends who have actually read all the latest theories, which is why they are at harvard and oberlin and i am not. most of my ideas about higher dimensions comes from my near-completely ignorant musings). think about it this way: to turn a 1d line into a 2d square, you move the line to the side and connect the outermost points. to turn a 2d square into a 3d cube, you move the square to the side and connect the corners. ==> to turn a 3d cube into a 4d ???, you move the cube to the "side" in the 4th dimension, then connect the corners. however, viewed from the 3d, the cube hasn't moved at all. think about a cube sitting in the 2d. you see a square. as you move to a lower 2d plane, you still see the square, in the exact same place. it's only when you get to a plane below the square that the square is nowhere to be seen.
now think of that in terms of 3d + time (as the 4d), where each second represents a different level of 3d plane. i am sitting staring at a cube. at s1, it is here. at s2, it is still here, in the same place, but i'm at a different place in the 4d (time) => it's moved to the side, so to speak. (where was i going with this? ...oh, right:)
so, thinking of myself as a 4d object which at one end, in the 4d, is a little fetus, and at the other end is a dead, decomposing corpse, to flip me over would be to reverse time. so i'd start as a dead corpse, come to life and get younger till i diminished into an egg and a sperm while everyone around me was doing it the other way around. i'd be flipped.
thinking about it, that's not exactly the same question you were asking, because time might be spatial (if my logic is right, which is doubtful), but if that's the case then we live in the 4th dimension, and you were asking about dimensions higher than the ones we percieve. but it was fun to think about anyway :)
back to work :(