I've been reading
The Elegant Universe which is an amazing book. It starts off explaning the problems with
Newtonian Physics, explains how
Special and
General Relativity solved those problems, what
Quantum Mechanics is (but not the how or the why, because no one
knows the how or the why), and how the
superstring theory came about.
I just got to the part about a
multi-dimensional universe. The book states that there must be at least 11 dimensions for the math in the superstring theory to work out correctly. Four are tangable and we can directly experience those (three space, one would be time), and the other 7+ must be smaller than what we can currently detect. A few thoughts instantly popped into my mind, and I didn't know where to write them, so I figured Everything2 would be good. What follows are all my own thoughts.
Could there be an
infinite number of dimensions? The possibility hasn't been ruled out. Perhaps there are four we deal with in everyday life, another four extremely small dimensions, smaller than what we can detect, and then even 4 smaller dimentions to those dimensions, and so on forever? I don't know how the math works out on all this, but that thought brought up a few thoughts of it's own. And since each dimension gets smaller and smaller, perhaps their effect on our dimensions is less and less so that their effect on our dimensions is a sum of all the smaller ones? You know, like the
limit as n approaches infinity. And if so, can't each of those smaller dimensions evolve in a way very similar to ours, since their "strings" in the supersting theory also have an infinite number of dimensions to oscolate in? And if so, then maybe our four dimensions are just part of another four larger dimensions except that those greator ones also cannot be detected because they are past the bounds of our known universe? then the four dimensions we live in are just a tiny speck in the very huge number of universes out there, many much bigger than our universe, many much smaller, each with their own worlds and life forms and
cultures perhaps studying physics and with some
college kids sitting in class pondering thoughts just like mine.
Many questions, no answers but something that had been on my mind for a few hours while I was supposed to be listening in Econ class or doing math or whatever else.
Of course I understand that the proceding thought are totally
science-fiction. but none of it has actually been "disproven." Highly unlikely, but still possible. Many times I wish I had been born a few thousands years later when they had all the answers to this. If I could just find a nearby
event horizon to stand next to for a few hours and let a few hundred earth years pass, that would be just perfect...