( this is a scientific and mathematical discussion, not woo )
I was trying to wrap my head around what it would mean to be a being that can perceive a 5th dimension, and that got me to thinking if such beings could simultaneously exist with the rest of us 4 dimensional ones.
What do you think?
For me the required behavior of a "lifeform" whatever that means, is something like "a configuration of particles that can act to maintain itself through each dimension in the space." For example a cell maintains itself through all 3 spatial dimension as well as the temporal one, and a human does an even better job of the same. Without such behavior, the particles are not "life" or "alive" in any sense.
My feeling is this: for a collection of particles to maintain a configuration requires a certain amount of determinism over the fate of those particles by the collection itself. For example a cell acts to maintain homeostasis, likewise our body acts to maintain its structure, etc. Doing so requires that a behavior exhibited by the system can change the fate of the system I.E. it has some amount of "control" over what happens to it -- in *every* dimension it inhabits.
So in other words a 2 dimensional life form would only be possible in a world that genuinely has only 2 dimensions. Any more dimensions and the ability of 2 dimensional systems to exhibit any control over their future is removed ( unless the extra dimensions were held constant somehow ).
The implication is that since we are 4 dimensional life forms, and we exist, our universe is home to exclusively 4 dimensional life forms. Or at the very least, a lifeform of dimensions < n is at the whim of the processes that operate in n dimensions, and so would face a transient existence at best.
I was trying to wrap my head around what it would mean to be a being that can perceive a 5th dimension, and that got me to thinking if such beings could simultaneously exist with the rest of us 4 dimensional ones.
What do you think?
For me the required behavior of a "lifeform" whatever that means, is something like "a configuration of particles that can act to maintain itself through each dimension in the space." For example a cell maintains itself through all 3 spatial dimension as well as the temporal one, and a human does an even better job of the same. Without such behavior, the particles are not "life" or "alive" in any sense.
My feeling is this: for a collection of particles to maintain a configuration requires a certain amount of determinism over the fate of those particles by the collection itself. For example a cell acts to maintain homeostasis, likewise our body acts to maintain its structure, etc. Doing so requires that a behavior exhibited by the system can change the fate of the system I.E. it has some amount of "control" over what happens to it -- in *every* dimension it inhabits.
So in other words a 2 dimensional life form would only be possible in a world that genuinely has only 2 dimensions. Any more dimensions and the ability of 2 dimensional systems to exhibit any control over their future is removed ( unless the extra dimensions were held constant somehow ).
The implication is that since we are 4 dimensional life forms, and we exist, our universe is home to exclusively 4 dimensional life forms. Or at the very least, a lifeform of dimensions < n is at the whim of the processes that operate in n dimensions, and so would face a transient existence at best.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1DxkMqH
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