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Extra dimensions are just scifi stuff. Physics would break appart if there were any "big enough" dimensions. Gravity & electromagnetism would not behave the way

Extra dimensions are just scifi stuff. Physics would break appart if there were any "big enough" dimensions. Gravity & electromagnetism would not behave the way they behave (inverse square laws).

isityouyesitsme 3y ago
It is also possible that everything humans understand is simply a vignette into a much larger reality, and all of those things would fall apart because they aren't true, they're merely the laws we've discovered with the limited information we have available to us.
- paulrouget 3y ago
  Then a "dimension" would not be a dimension as defined by math and physics.
  - isityouyesitsme 3y ago
    Throw-away comment: that's essentially the point.
- maxbond 3y ago
  Maybe. Is that a good explanation for some grainy footage? Is it a better explanation than, "the drone technology most of us are familiar with is a vignette of a much larger space of technological possibility; without the need to accommodate human frailty, strange and wonderful configurations of aircraft are possible, so much so that they may baffle even experienced airman? And like any strange and wonderful technology in this world, it's first used to spy, and in a decade will be used to serve ads."
  - isityouyesitsme 3y ago
    Please cote the spot where I suggested anything that even remotely looks like I took a position. All I mean to say is that circular logic based on upholding one's views of reality do not bring any clarity to the situation. The same situation seems to happen countless times in the history of empirical science and mathematics. There are incontrovertible facts, until some new information controverts them.
    - maxbond 3y ago
      That's fine, but you asked a question and I responded to it. Whether you hold a position, that's not really my business, I believe you when you say you don't.
      - maxbond 3y ago
        I'm seeing now that it was a proposition not a question (I read it as "Is it" rather than "It is"), my mistake there. But I would've responded in the same way regardless, so substitute this with, "you proposed something and I responded to it."
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  Is there any way to falsify this idea?
  - isityouyesitsme 3y ago
    I don't think that there is. An obvious comparison is religious thought. Unlike most religious thought, you do actually learn when the consensus has been utterly wrong. What you don't know is when that will happen.
anon1199022 3y ago
or maybe it might takes as few hundred more years to understand them? Our understanding of things evolve very slowly compared to age of universe.
- paulrouget 3y ago
  Dimensions have a strict definition. Under those strict definitions we can draw conclusions that are 100% true. Math tell us things that can't be invalidated in the future. If it turns out there is "something else", it would not be a dimension as defined by math and physics.
- oefrha 3y ago
  Speaking as a former theoretical high energy physicist who has studied string theory and other BSM theories (including “extra dimensions”) quite extensively and black hole information theory to a reasonable extent, the higher dimensions talked about in any close-to-mainstream physics really has nothing to do with sci-fi “inter-dimensional travel”. It’s quite amusing to read the sentence “Seems easier to live in a higher dimension than to break the speed of light”. The latter is well established, very precise physics, the former is a very vague, so far fictional concept with little to do with our current understanding of physics (and actually very much goes against it), yet somehow one is “easier” than another. Of course we can’t rule anything out, including “extra dimensions” in some scifi-esque sense that’s not currently understood, but these two don’t belong in the same sentence. (Btw, I enjoy sci-fi about traveling between alternate universes.)
  - tomohelix 3y ago
    The way I understand the extra "dimension" here is like me viewing a bacteria on a cover slide. To the bacteria, that 2D flat plane is all that matters. Sure, technically it is 3D, but the 3rd dimension is compressed so much it is basically nonexistent and the bacteria can't really be bothered anyway. They can't even comprehend the concept of dimensions. But to me, I am fully in 3D. I am literally an extradimensional being to the bacteria. And I am so far above it (no pun intended) I am incomprehensible to anything that lives on that 2D slide. Even if I assume the bacteria has some really good teachers and can build stuff (they actually do, they make biofilms that are pretty complex "superstructures"), the kind of thing they can do in their limited plane of existence is nothing compared to what a human can. So while I don't believe anything that was released so far points conclusively to real aliens, I don't find the concept of extradimensional beings too far fetch.

Extra dimensions are just scifi stuff. Physics would break appart if there were any "big enough" dimensions. Gravity & electromagnetism would not behave the way they behave (inverse square laws).

isityouyesitsme 3y ago

It is also possible that everything humans understand is simply a vignette into a much larger reality, and all of those things would fall apart because they aren't true, they're merely the laws we've discovered with the limited information we have available to us.

paulrouget 3y ago
Then a "dimension" would not be a dimension as defined by math and physics.
- isityouyesitsme 3y ago
  Throw-away comment: that's essentially the point.
maxbond 3y ago
Maybe. Is that a good explanation for some grainy footage? Is it a better explanation than, "the drone technology most of us are familiar with is a vignette of a much larger space of technological possibility; without the need to accommodate human frailty, strange and wonderful configurations of aircraft are possible, so much so that they may baffle even experienced airman? And like any strange and wonderful technology in this world, it's first used to spy, and in a decade will be used to serve ads."
- isityouyesitsme 3y ago
  Please cote the spot where I suggested anything that even remotely looks like I took a position. All I mean to say is that circular logic based on upholding one's views of reality do not bring any clarity to the situation. The same situation seems to happen countless times in the history of empirical science and mathematics. There are incontrovertible facts, until some new information controverts them.
  - maxbond 3y ago
    That's fine, but you asked a question and I responded to it. Whether you hold a position, that's not really my business, I believe you when you say you don't.
    - maxbond 3y ago
      I'm seeing now that it was a proposition not a question (I read it as "Is it" rather than "It is"), my mistake there. But I would've responded in the same way regardless, so substitute this with, "you proposed something and I responded to it."
kevinmchugh 3y ago
Is there any way to falsify this idea?
- isityouyesitsme 3y ago
  I don't think that there is. An obvious comparison is religious thought. Unlike most religious thought, you do actually learn when the consensus has been utterly wrong. What you don't know is when that will happen.

anon1199022 3y ago

or maybe it might takes as few hundred more years to understand them? Our understanding of things evolve very slowly compared to age of universe.

paulrouget 3y ago
Dimensions have a strict definition. Under those strict definitions we can draw conclusions that are 100% true. Math tell us things that can't be invalidated in the future. If it turns out there is "something else", it would not be a dimension as defined by math and physics.
oefrha 3y ago
Speaking as a former theoretical high energy physicist who has studied string theory and other BSM theories (including “extra dimensions”) quite extensively and black hole information theory to a reasonable extent, the higher dimensions talked about in any close-to-mainstream physics really has nothing to do with sci-fi “inter-dimensional travel”. It’s quite amusing to read the sentence “Seems easier to live in a higher dimension than to break the speed of light”. The latter is well established, very precise physics, the former is a very vague, so far fictional concept with little to do with our current understanding of physics (and actually very much goes against it), yet somehow one is “easier” than another. Of course we can’t rule anything out, including “extra dimensions” in some scifi-esque sense that’s not currently understood, but these two don’t belong in the same sentence. (Btw, I enjoy sci-fi about traveling between alternate universes.)
- tomohelix 3y ago
  The way I understand the extra "dimension" here is like me viewing a bacteria on a cover slide. To the bacteria, that 2D flat plane is all that matters. Sure, technically it is 3D, but the 3rd dimension is compressed so much it is basically nonexistent and the bacteria can't really be bothered anyway. They can't even comprehend the concept of dimensions. But to me, I am fully in 3D. I am literally an extradimensional being to the bacteria. And I am so far above it (no pun intended) I am incomprehensible to anything that lives on that 2D slide. Even if I assume the bacteria has some really good teachers and can build stuff (they actually do, they make biofilms that are pretty complex "superstructures"), the kind of thing they can do in their limited plane of existence is nothing compared to what a human can. So while I don't believe anything that was released so far points conclusively to real aliens, I don't find the concept of extradimensional beings too far fetch.