NationStates Jolt Archive

Since everyone's posting their theories on time-travel and quantum-physics, I felt it was only appropriate to post a theory of my own; one that I plan to present to my creative-writing class. Tell me what you think.

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Bolol's Cube

Any moviegoer, gamer, D&D player, Dr. Who aficionado and sci-fi fanatic would be familiar with the idea of multiple dimensions, alternate realities, parallel universes and altered timelines. Being a man with far too much time on his hands, I have been able to formulate how this possibly may work.

It would take far too much time (and perhaps an ulcer on my part) to try to figure out how parallel universes and the like are formed (too much math in all likelihood), but I can explain how these states of reality can exist, and how they interact with one and other.

Imagine for a moment a cube. Not a cube in the physical sense (as if there is any truth to the Big Bang Theory, then the void that spawned our existence wouldn’t even support reality as we know it), but a sort of “inter-dimensional” cube. A cube, like all 3D objects, has three dimensions, length, width, and depth. Imagine these three dimensions as axes, with the first axis, length, representing time, the second axis, width, representing the different universes, and the third axis, depth, representing the different planes of existence.

In my hypothesis, our planet exists in the same place, but not necessarily in the same time, the same universe, or the same plane of existence.

Confused yet…? Let me explain each axis in detail.

Axis 1: Time
The first axis, the length on the cube, represents the timeline of a specific universe or plane. Our universe constantly exists in different times. Though we currently exist in our own relative “present”, our universe and planet also exists in different times in our history, and in our future. As we move “backwards” on the axis, we go backwards in our history, as it is already happening, likewise if we move “forward” on the axis. Unlike the other axes, the timeline axis is constantly in flux, and is capable of being altered should events unfolding in the past are changed in some way. Which brings us to the next axis…

Axis 2: Parallel Universes
The term “parallel universe” refers to a universe with the same “rules” (gravity, physics, mathematics etc.) as us, but whose history has unfolded in a different way, from anything as minor as a misplaced rock, to major evolutionary alterations. Like time, which constantly moves forward, unending, infinite, there is also an infinite amount of parallel universes, as there are literally limitless changes that can be made in any timeline. For example, let’s say that you have the choice between pancakes or sausage for breakfast. You choose pancakes, and that is how “history” unfolds. However, in a parallel universe you chose sausage, and thus “history” unfolds differently, creating an alternate timeline, and thus an alternate universe. It can be as minor as that.

Axis 3: Planes of Existence
A different plane is a location that exists in the same time and the same universe as the “original” but the rules that apply to the original do not necessarily apply here. Concepts such as gravity, mathematics and physics, may have no meaning, and rules that would seem almost outrageous to us would be normal to the inhabitants of that plane. These are the different states of existence that religions invoke; places like Heaven, Hell, the Spirit World, Valhalla, and all the rest.

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I am always open to suggestions to make my hypotheses less bullshitty.

Well, we have to know this - what is the origin of all things?

I am always open to suggestions to make my hypotheses less bullshitty.

I think there is an actual hypothesis that is similar to this. In it, there are an infinite amount of universes, all of which are parallel to each other with respect to a certain dimension. However, which dimension it is remains unclear. Perhaps time can be construed as the dimension in which they are parallel, in which case they would never intersect.

Well, we have to know this - what is the origin of all things?

That is something that you'll have to ask your maker when you pass to the next plane of existence, because I have no idea.

That is something that you'll have to ask your maker when you pass to the next plane of existence, because I have no idea.
Doesn't it go something like this?

..."You created a little more than that," replied "Bob" admiringly. "You called into Being every plant, animal and protist in the physical universe-all matter, all energy, all space, all time and all the laws that govern them. In fact, the very plane of reality itself! And don't think we don't appreciate it!"

"Oh, that," said "God," suddenly shy. "Ah, it was nothin'. Still is, in fact."

"Bob" laughed headily at what he hoped was a joke. "But that's what's so hilariously paradoxical about it all: Reality's here, and yet it's also sort of not here at the same time. Existence is real, but it's also nothingness-it's like in the Zen koan where-"

From out of nothingness a Zen Buddhist staff in the shape of a huge pipe suddenly materialized and cracked "Bob" in the head. 'What did you say was real?" asked "God" doubtfully.

"Bob" rubbed his head. "Ah, existence."

"I don't get it. What's 'existence'?"

"Um, well, You know . . . what's here."

"And where, pray tell, is that?"

"Well, actually, that's what I was sort of hoping to ask You. And why did You put it here, of all places?"

"You mean in nowhere? Basically because there just wasn't room anywhere else. Anyway, I wanted it nearby, where I could keep an eye on it. Besides, if I put it somewhere in particular I'd have to put it everywhere else too, wouldn't I? Otherwise nosy creatures like you would never lemme hear the end of it. But I'm still confused: What's 'existence'?"

"I can't believe You're asking me that. It's just . . . I dunno, it's just . . . everything, I guess. You should know, You created it!"
...
"Oh sure. Every time someone conscious comes along they kill 'im and make up a religion about 'im: My boy Jesus, Socrates, Mozart, van Gogh-even you."

"Ah, it was the least I could do. Besides, I was passin' through Frisco that day anyway on business, and I had no evening appointments, so I-"

" "Bob." You still haven't answered My question. Tell Me about this 'existence' myth you people have created, and why you're blaming it all on Me."

"Myth?" "Bob" swallowed hard. "You mean reality's just an illusion? Then the Hindus were right! It's all just the veil of maya, it's all just-"

"Yo, cool out-one myth at a time. And so what if reality's an illusion?"

"Why, that would mean it's not really there."

"But, if nothing's there, how could an illusion be there?"

"Well, I guess nothing would be there except the illusion,"

"But then the illusion would be reality, wouldn't it?"

"Er, I guess it would seem to be, but . . . it wouldn't be, really."

"But how could something be, to you, if it didn't seem to be?"

"Bob's" head was starting to spin, "Ah, I s'pose you'd just, sort of, like, suspect, that . . . maybe . . . like-"

" "Bob." Relax. I think you've been doing lunch with the humans too long." He lit another cigarette, to go with the three already buming. "Y'know, We gods have a word for human consciousness."

"What's that?"

"Paranoia."

It occurred to "Bob" that everything "God" said might be a lie.

"See what I mean?" said "God."

"But how could consciousness itselfbe only paranoia? What about all of human culture: art, science, religion, history, politic-"

"Nothing but a vast web of conspiracy theories. But that's a minor issue. I still don't understand: How could I create everything in existence if I Myself already existed in the first place? Wouldn't that mean I'd've already missed a Spot? I mean, wouldn't I have to've been flat-out not existing from the get-go to pull that off?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if I'm sittin' around existing all over the place I'm gonna need a pretty existence-esque place to do it in, unless I miss My guess. I mean, no matter how many existences you claim I can bang out, including My own, you've still gotta save one out for Me to exist in while I'm knockin' 'em off, that was there when I got there. And believe Me-I'm in the business!-if there's anything that's a bitch to create, it's a thing that already exists in the first placel Like Me, for example. How'm I gonna macrame' Myself outa the woodwork if I've already finished the job?"

"Ah, well, I guess we were all jus' sorta hopin' You'd kinda just handle all that unpleasantness," mumbled "Bob." "We'd all heard how talented You were an' all, an' I guess we all figured, hey, if anyone could do It-"

"God" exploded into belly laughs. "Hoh hoh hoh! Dobbs, you're a hot ticket!" He lunged across the desk and crushed "Bob" in a loving bear hug, killing him instantly. Equally suddenly "Bob" became Jane Dobbs' fertilized ovum, which turned into a blastocyst on the uterine wall of "Bob's" Pipe, which developed into an embryo, which became, in rapid succession, a fetus, an infant, a child, a teenager, a young man, and passed through every stage of "Bob's" adult life, culminating in the astonished Epopt alive in "God's" office exactly as before, having just recalled every moment of thought, sensation and action he had ever experienced in his life. He tried not to seem impressed.

"Dobbs: Lemme get this straight. You've got one thing, 'reality,' which you hope exists, and which you think exists, since it is existence, but which you're afraid might not. Then you've got something else, 'nothingness,' which you think doesn't, which actually can't, since it is nonexistence, and therefore which you hope doesn't-but which somehow does, since you've got both a concept of it and a word for it, and which you're afraid does so to the exclusion of whatever really does."

"Bob" struggled to explain his concept of the coexistence of being and nonbeing, which he knew went far beyond anything in Zen. "In a way, for some people, maybe. But what I'm saying is: Maybe everything exists and yet doesn't exist at the same time!"

"And what time is that?"

"Um, now, I suppose. You know, all the time. The infinite eternal spacetime now-moment, in which things happen, and all that."

"In which things happen? What things?"

"Everything! What doesn't?"

"Everything. What does? Name one thing that happens."

"Ahhh . . . me talking to You right now."
...
"All this is just a dream you're having, which I personally programmed from a software database of your own crude assumptions and stereotypes about God and the nature of reality. A dream which, I may add, just became lucid. We manufacture and release a customized dream of clichés for every subscriber-er, creature-in the universe."

"Bob" wasn't surprised: He'd noticed "Reg. Olympus Pat. Off." embossed in the lower right-hand corner of every retinal image he'd had since arriving. "I'll buy that," he said. "But what about me in bed dreaming this? Surely that's real, isn't it?"

"Dream on. That's just an infinitesimal monad of infinite reality, which is nothing but a dream I'm having."

"Bob" wondered why no one had mentioned this noteworthy fact to him before, but tried to appear nonchalant. "Oh sure, everyone knows that. What I meant was, within Your dream I'm real-r as real as anything else is, anyway." His voice fell to a worried whisper. "Um . . . right?"

"As a matter of fact, no. At this point your real physical self and private personality are almost totally obscured by the SubGenius ideology created by yourself and your sla-er, followers. Indeed, it's pretty safe to say that if you hadn't existed they would have had to invent you-although their amateurish version would've fallen far short of Mine."

"You've got a point therw-but that's fine with me. The less they know about me the better. They know far too much as it is! But at least the Church is real."

"A mere idea in the minds of its parishioners."

"Perhaps. But those minds are real, and so are the bodies they're lost in."

"Sure. Until My dream's attention gets bored and wavers for a moment, and their whole galactic superduster evaporates like breath on a mirror."

"Bob" considered this, then his eyes slitted suspiciously. "Wait a minute. If this is my dream, then You're the one who'll do the evaporating when my attention wanders. Not only that, but if I'm the one writing Your lines, how do I know I haven't filled Your mouth with lies?"

"You don't, any more than you know all the waking thoughts you feed yourself aren't lies. Most of them are, as you know. But I'm probably your Higher Self, that tells you all the things you know are true but won't admit, because you're afraid they're blasphemous against your religion: survival. For all you know, I might even be your Atman, a term you might remember from the Rajneesh Account. Essentially I'm the hit man of the mind: You call Me in as infrequently as possible, I smother some cherished self-delusion in its crib, and you disavow all knowledge of the operation. Sort of the Grassy Knoll of consciousness. But occasionally, like now, you find Me useful as entertainment-so long as I don't get uppity and tell you, say, two painful truths in quick succession."



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EDIT: BTW, it really is worth reading the full version. Also, as per OP standards, there is more elucidation on the nature of the time-space/"universal" matrix.

Where is that from? Sorry if I missed that.

Where is that from? Sorry if I missed that.
Topic line ...

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/classic/classictales/RealStory.html

Best story i ever read. Seriously.
More specifically, i meant that as a response to the semantic nature of that NSr's post in lieu of the pragmatic nature of your thread.

So close..

http://www.timecube.com/

So close..

http://www.timecube.com/


We have a winner. I love that timecube guy: the man is the Chuck Norris of insanity.

This is what came to my mind: http://www.dvd-galaxis.de/dvd-shop-film-filme/181046.jpg
More to the point, has anyone read Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku?

This is what came to my mind: http://www.dvd-galaxis.de/dvd-shop-film-filme/181046.jpg
More to the point, has anyone read Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku?
Sk8r boi?

Seriously, i haven't. Is it worth it?