A hack of something from another fic of mine, inspired by a video that inspired something else and gave me headaches for the last 4 hours trying to write it. Submitted for consideration....
A similar explanation is Here, deep in the fic. If you CTRL-F for 'I fell asleep in the Eva', you'll find it.
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So, multiverses, how to they work?
We'll start with a point, first of all. It's nothing more than a single singularity in space and time. It has nothing more than the fact that it exists. It's a Zero-Dimensional Object. It might aswell be nothing and only really exists to make the math work in our computers.
If we extend that point in one direction, we get a line. It has no width, or height, only a single dimension - length. You can draw it on a page if it helps. A line can also be seen as a stack formed from an infinite amount of infinitely small individual points.
Add another direction... we give that line a width. Like a square on a sheet of paper.... it's a two dimensional object. It lives on what's called a 2-dimensional plane. If I turn that square on it's end though, and look at it from above, what do I see? The same line we started with. Would it be wrong to surmise then, that a 2 Dimensional object is formed from a finite stack of infinitesimally thin 1 Dimensional lines, of varying lengths and character?
This is analogous to the concept of an Integral in mathematics. And these individual slices are roughly analogous to the differential.
So. Can I assume you're familiar with the concept of Flatland? It's a two dimensional world where squares, triangles and circles and various hideously complex polygons go about their daily business. They each have length and width, but no height. They can only perceive things in 2 Dimensions. Let's extend that concept to Lineland. A single dimensional world where the lines live. The Lines of Lineland can only perceive a world in One dimension.
But, as we've discussed above, Flatland is just a whole stack of Linelands built on top of each other. They're basically intertwined together.
A flatlander can potentially meet a linelander. If so, what does each and every one of them see?
The Linelander, will see the Flatlander as a Line. What the Linelander sees is the part of the Flatlander that intersects with his dimension - or his plane of existance - a single dimensional slice through the Flatlander. And as the Flatlander moves around the Linelander, what the Linelander will see is a rapidly changing and morphing Line as it's perception is limited only to slices of the Flatlander. Depending on how complex a shape the Flatlander is, it may even seem to split into multiple lines, before reforming into one object.
This would, to the Linelander, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
The Flatlander will, we assume, see a Line and assume it is another Flatlander. Right up until he looks at the Linelander edge-on and sees him disappear - because he is only a line. He has no second dimension. This is, doubtless, a spooky experience for our Flatlander. Furthermore, because the Flatlander is one dimension higher up the pecking order, it can see each and every point that makes up the Linelander. It can see the totality of the Linelander. This is a fairly hefty advantage the Flatlander has. Living a dimension higher tends to have some Godlike advantages.... the bigger the dimensional gap, the more Godlike things get.
Let's get back to Flatland for a second.
Peter Polygon goes out for a stroll. He sets off and walks in a dead straight line from his home. He walks for an hour or so (Let's avoid calling Time a dimension for the time being), and suddenly arrives at the back door of his house. What's happened to him? Assuming he's of a scientific bent, he might start to conclude that the 2 Dimensional space-time he lives within is curved through another dimension - a mysterious and spooky Third Dimension. In essence, both ends of the piece of paper he lives on have been folded over and taped together - like a map folded over. (More likely, it'd be something like a sphere.).
You can get something of the same effect yourself if you leave your own home, then walk and swim for a few years in a dead straight line - and arrive back at your own back door. The world never really seems anything but flat from a human scale - compared to the size of the world, you're small enough to effectively be considered 2-Dimensional.
What this tells us, is that beyond the world that might be familiar, it's possible for us to still observe higher dimensions and their effects... even if one cannot actively control how one travels through that dimension. The flatlander will automatically travel through the Third dimension as he moves around his 2D world. But he can't especially control it. At the same time, he's also constantly travelling forward through time, and through every other dimension that lies above him.
Above him, is The Third Dimension, of Length, Height and Width is where we 'live'. And it's a pretty funky place.
If a Flatlander were to meet one of us, what would he see? Chances are, he'd see
He'd see the part of us that intersects with the plane of his existance. That might be a horizontal slice through our body. It might be vertical, like a carboard cuttout. If you've ever seen the images that come from an MRI scanner - thousands of individual slices of the human body - that's probably what he'll see. And as you move through his dimension, what he'll find is that his perception of you is rapidly changing and morphing in some form of obscene cosmic horror that defies the explanations his 2 Dimensional world gives him.
This would, to the Flatlander, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
To us, the Flatlander's a shape on a page. We can see every single thing about what the Flatlander is. He can only see a slice of us. We're higher up the dimensional pecking order.
Now, comes the question of Time, which some call the 4th Dimension. Some have argued that humans are 4th-dimensional beings because we also move forward through time - they're wrong. We are three dimensional lifeforms. But, we are aware of the passage and existing of Time. We know it's moving forward because we have memories... we can still perceive the presence of the 4th Dimension indirectly. In more complex terms, our current 3 Dimensional self, includes information from all past 3 Dimensional selves as part of its makeup. Our memories and natural awareness allow us to perceive this fact.
But, from instant to instant, we are 3 Dimensional creatures. Only, each instant includes some information from all other previous instants, the result of irreversible changes upon changes across time. This, is Entropy. This is what gives Time it's Arrow.
If we go back to the Flatlander whose world has been warped within the Third Dimension... What would our world look like if it were folded back on itself through the Fourth Dimension in the same way?
You would leave your home with the intent to travel around the world and back to your home. As you leave, there's a chance you'd see yourself arriving again. You wave to yourself if you do and you wave back. You leave, you travel for what feels to you to be a year, then arrive back at your home just in time to see yourself leave, and wave at yourself. Congratulations, you've managed to move through the 4th Dimension.
But, what would a 4th Dimensional Life-form look like, and how would they perceive the world? What does a human being look like in the 4th Dimension.
A Fourth Dimensional lifeform would be able to move through time as it saw fit - as easily as we can move through our three dimensions. It can exist in any instant or places it chooses in its life, between the moment it is born and the moment it dies and it exists in all moments simultaneously. A 4D lifeform when confronted with a locked door, can simply take a step to the side to a point in time when the door is open - or never existed. It can walk around a wall by simply stepping to a time when the wall didn't exist, then back again.
That's a freaky concept to get your heads around but there's no need to worry... Kurt Vonnegut explained it better than I can in Slaughterhouse 5. The Tralfamadorians are Fourth Dimensional Life.
To a Fourth dimensional lifeform, our entire existance would be - essentially, a line in the Time dimension (A timeline, geddit?). It would be a trace of everywhere and everywhen we have ever been, and can access each and every one of those points at will.
It would see the Integral of your 3 Dimensional life, with respect to time - for the mathematically inclined. It would see you being born and dying of old age and sitting at your computer monitor reading this rambling spiel, and it would be capable of stepping to any moment of this at will.
What we would see looking at a 4th dimensional lifeform? We'd see a three dimensional slice of it, interacting with our planes of existance. And that slice would likely be morphing and changing rapidly in ways that defy rational comprehension, flitting from point to point regardless of barriers or gates. It would wink in and out of existance or appear to step through solid walls.
This would, to us, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
Here's where things start getting really fun.
Let's go back to our example above. Let's say, you leave your home intent to travel around the world - again - now aware of the fact that you will also move through the 4th dimension in the process. You come outside, and look for yourself to wave at - and see nobody. Being a sensible person, you conclude that maybe you died along the journey and that maybe making the journey would be a bad idea - so go back indoors and never go around the world to meet yourself. Or, if you're feeling gutsy, decided to tell destiny to go spin on a finger, have a great trip and try to enjoy it as it comes - then through some miracle, come home just in time to see yourself leave. Inspite of never having seen yourself arrive when you left.
Some would call this a Time Paradox.
Time Paradoxes can't happen. They don't exist. What just happened above, is perfectly possible. And what you should be doing is congratulating yourself on discovering evidence for the Fifth Dimension too. Give yourself a pat on the back. Or test the theory by blowing the younger you's brains out. Or shoot your older self, pick up his gun, come back around and shoot your younger self. Or get surprised when your older self shoots you for no good reason. The Time Paradox is only possible in a Deterministic universe - what some people call a clockwork universe. The Universe, does not run on clockwork. It runs on probabilities - what 'might' happen. It's all Quantum and really, really complicated and far beyond even my understanding.
When you set off on your journey, you might have a 75% chance of making it around the world to see yourself leave. Which means there's a 25% chance - or one time in four - that you'll leave your home and not see yourself arrive. Or even stranger - arrive to find that you didn't see yourself leave and so decided not to go. It's entirely possible to see yourself arrive, and then die along the way - the probabilities still work out. If you carry on around the world after seeing yourself arrive, secure in the knowledge that you can't possible die because that'd cause a Time Paradox, you're in for a rude awakening if you try play Russian Roulette. Even less likely... you might get a knock on the door and be met by yourself having chosen never to set out.
All of these are possible outcomes, some more or less likely than others.
It's these Probabilities, these 'Might Be's' are what form the Fifth Dimension. The Fifth Dimension is everything that is possible for your to start as, and for you to become. It is everything you are capable of doing an not doing, all at once. It is the sum total of every probabalistic interaction and even that makes up your life from Start to Finish.
If you visualise yourself in the 4th Dimension as a Timeline - the you in the 5th Dimension will will be that timeline and all the possibilities attached to it. It could be a trunk with an infinite number of branches spilling off it - each branch thicker or thinner depending upon how likely or unlikely the event that spawned it actually is. If you chose to play Russian Roulette - each time you squeeze the trigger, the branch leading from that decision gets thinner and thinner, as the likelyhood of you surviving to reach this point and continuing to play gets lower and lower. You might squeeze the trigger six times - and marvel at surviving when the bullet misfires. But 9999999 instances of you ended with brain splattered on the wall.
But more than that, the You in the Fifth dimension will have many, many roots too. These are all the possible startpoints, based on the lives your parents and their parents and their parents before them have let. This doesn't form a tree of life, so much as a tangled mangrove - or a tapestry if you feel prosaic (or like Star Trek TNG).
And all of these tapestries of stars and planets and people and galaxies and STUFF all interweave and tie together to form the Universe we live in and everything it is possible for that universe to become.
What you get is the most intricately woven multidimensional tapestry imaginable. It's the tapestry of time and space itself.
For exactly one universe.
All of this, springs from the roots of one single Big-Bang, one single possible start for the universe. And rather than tracking You as such, these probabilities instead track the individual particles that make up You. How these elementary particles form and collapse and exist through all space and time leading from that one Big Bang. For multiple Universes- where things might start differently, with different weightings of particles and the like and different initial conditions and laws of physics for each one - you get an entirely different set of 5-dimensional probabilities.
That's you're sixth dimension... Hence, Six Coordinates. X, Y, Z, I, J, K That's where we can play right now. Different universes, and the tapestry of probabilities within those universes.
Beyond that, are Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten... And, it might surprise you to know that in some theories, there can be 11 or even 21 possible Dimensions. What does that look like? A Tapestry, of Tapestries, of Tapestries..... a multi-dimensional weave of time and space itself, of all that might be and all that can be.
Does your head hurt yet?
As for how this works for the Side-Step.... well, that's another post.
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________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
A similar explanation is Here, deep in the fic. If you CTRL-F for 'I fell asleep in the Eva', you'll find it.
--------
So, multiverses, how to they work?
We'll start with a point, first of all. It's nothing more than a single singularity in space and time. It has nothing more than the fact that it exists. It's a Zero-Dimensional Object. It might aswell be nothing and only really exists to make the math work in our computers.
If we extend that point in one direction, we get a line. It has no width, or height, only a single dimension - length. You can draw it on a page if it helps. A line can also be seen as a stack formed from an infinite amount of infinitely small individual points.
Add another direction... we give that line a width. Like a square on a sheet of paper.... it's a two dimensional object. It lives on what's called a 2-dimensional plane. If I turn that square on it's end though, and look at it from above, what do I see? The same line we started with. Would it be wrong to surmise then, that a 2 Dimensional object is formed from a finite stack of infinitesimally thin 1 Dimensional lines, of varying lengths and character?
This is analogous to the concept of an Integral in mathematics. And these individual slices are roughly analogous to the differential.
So. Can I assume you're familiar with the concept of Flatland? It's a two dimensional world where squares, triangles and circles and various hideously complex polygons go about their daily business. They each have length and width, but no height. They can only perceive things in 2 Dimensions. Let's extend that concept to Lineland. A single dimensional world where the lines live. The Lines of Lineland can only perceive a world in One dimension.
But, as we've discussed above, Flatland is just a whole stack of Linelands built on top of each other. They're basically intertwined together.
A flatlander can potentially meet a linelander. If so, what does each and every one of them see?
The Linelander, will see the Flatlander as a Line. What the Linelander sees is the part of the Flatlander that intersects with his dimension - or his plane of existance - a single dimensional slice through the Flatlander. And as the Flatlander moves around the Linelander, what the Linelander will see is a rapidly changing and morphing Line as it's perception is limited only to slices of the Flatlander. Depending on how complex a shape the Flatlander is, it may even seem to split into multiple lines, before reforming into one object.
This would, to the Linelander, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
The Flatlander will, we assume, see a Line and assume it is another Flatlander. Right up until he looks at the Linelander edge-on and sees him disappear - because he is only a line. He has no second dimension. This is, doubtless, a spooky experience for our Flatlander. Furthermore, because the Flatlander is one dimension higher up the pecking order, it can see each and every point that makes up the Linelander. It can see the totality of the Linelander. This is a fairly hefty advantage the Flatlander has. Living a dimension higher tends to have some Godlike advantages.... the bigger the dimensional gap, the more Godlike things get.
Let's get back to Flatland for a second.
Peter Polygon goes out for a stroll. He sets off and walks in a dead straight line from his home. He walks for an hour or so (Let's avoid calling Time a dimension for the time being), and suddenly arrives at the back door of his house. What's happened to him? Assuming he's of a scientific bent, he might start to conclude that the 2 Dimensional space-time he lives within is curved through another dimension - a mysterious and spooky Third Dimension. In essence, both ends of the piece of paper he lives on have been folded over and taped together - like a map folded over. (More likely, it'd be something like a sphere.).
You can get something of the same effect yourself if you leave your own home, then walk and swim for a few years in a dead straight line - and arrive back at your own back door. The world never really seems anything but flat from a human scale - compared to the size of the world, you're small enough to effectively be considered 2-Dimensional.
What this tells us, is that beyond the world that might be familiar, it's possible for us to still observe higher dimensions and their effects... even if one cannot actively control how one travels through that dimension. The flatlander will automatically travel through the Third dimension as he moves around his 2D world. But he can't especially control it. At the same time, he's also constantly travelling forward through time, and through every other dimension that lies above him.
Above him, is The Third Dimension, of Length, Height and Width is where we 'live'. And it's a pretty funky place.
If a Flatlander were to meet one of us, what would he see? Chances are, he'd see
He'd see the part of us that intersects with the plane of his existance. That might be a horizontal slice through our body. It might be vertical, like a carboard cuttout. If you've ever seen the images that come from an MRI scanner - thousands of individual slices of the human body - that's probably what he'll see. And as you move through his dimension, what he'll find is that his perception of you is rapidly changing and morphing in some form of obscene cosmic horror that defies the explanations his 2 Dimensional world gives him.
This would, to the Flatlander, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
To us, the Flatlander's a shape on a page. We can see every single thing about what the Flatlander is. He can only see a slice of us. We're higher up the dimensional pecking order.
Now, comes the question of Time, which some call the 4th Dimension. Some have argued that humans are 4th-dimensional beings because we also move forward through time - they're wrong. We are three dimensional lifeforms. But, we are aware of the passage and existing of Time. We know it's moving forward because we have memories... we can still perceive the presence of the 4th Dimension indirectly. In more complex terms, our current 3 Dimensional self, includes information from all past 3 Dimensional selves as part of its makeup. Our memories and natural awareness allow us to perceive this fact.
But, from instant to instant, we are 3 Dimensional creatures. Only, each instant includes some information from all other previous instants, the result of irreversible changes upon changes across time. This, is Entropy. This is what gives Time it's Arrow.
If we go back to the Flatlander whose world has been warped within the Third Dimension... What would our world look like if it were folded back on itself through the Fourth Dimension in the same way?
You would leave your home with the intent to travel around the world and back to your home. As you leave, there's a chance you'd see yourself arriving again. You wave to yourself if you do and you wave back. You leave, you travel for what feels to you to be a year, then arrive back at your home just in time to see yourself leave, and wave at yourself. Congratulations, you've managed to move through the 4th Dimension.
But, what would a 4th Dimensional Life-form look like, and how would they perceive the world? What does a human being look like in the 4th Dimension.
A Fourth Dimensional lifeform would be able to move through time as it saw fit - as easily as we can move through our three dimensions. It can exist in any instant or places it chooses in its life, between the moment it is born and the moment it dies and it exists in all moments simultaneously. A 4D lifeform when confronted with a locked door, can simply take a step to the side to a point in time when the door is open - or never existed. It can walk around a wall by simply stepping to a time when the wall didn't exist, then back again.
That's a freaky concept to get your heads around but there's no need to worry... Kurt Vonnegut explained it better than I can in Slaughterhouse 5. The Tralfamadorians are Fourth Dimensional Life.
To a Fourth dimensional lifeform, our entire existance would be - essentially, a line in the Time dimension (A timeline, geddit?). It would be a trace of everywhere and everywhen we have ever been, and can access each and every one of those points at will.
It would see the Integral of your 3 Dimensional life, with respect to time - for the mathematically inclined. It would see you being born and dying of old age and sitting at your computer monitor reading this rambling spiel, and it would be capable of stepping to any moment of this at will.
What we would see looking at a 4th dimensional lifeform? We'd see a three dimensional slice of it, interacting with our planes of existance. And that slice would likely be morphing and changing rapidly in ways that defy rational comprehension, flitting from point to point regardless of barriers or gates. It would wink in and out of existance or appear to step through solid walls.
This would, to us, appear to be some form of hideous cosmic horror, and would likely result in a fairly hefty SAN loss.
Here's where things start getting really fun.
Let's go back to our example above. Let's say, you leave your home intent to travel around the world - again - now aware of the fact that you will also move through the 4th dimension in the process. You come outside, and look for yourself to wave at - and see nobody. Being a sensible person, you conclude that maybe you died along the journey and that maybe making the journey would be a bad idea - so go back indoors and never go around the world to meet yourself. Or, if you're feeling gutsy, decided to tell destiny to go spin on a finger, have a great trip and try to enjoy it as it comes - then through some miracle, come home just in time to see yourself leave. Inspite of never having seen yourself arrive when you left.
Some would call this a Time Paradox.
Time Paradoxes can't happen. They don't exist. What just happened above, is perfectly possible. And what you should be doing is congratulating yourself on discovering evidence for the Fifth Dimension too. Give yourself a pat on the back. Or test the theory by blowing the younger you's brains out. Or shoot your older self, pick up his gun, come back around and shoot your younger self. Or get surprised when your older self shoots you for no good reason. The Time Paradox is only possible in a Deterministic universe - what some people call a clockwork universe. The Universe, does not run on clockwork. It runs on probabilities - what 'might' happen. It's all Quantum and really, really complicated and far beyond even my understanding.
When you set off on your journey, you might have a 75% chance of making it around the world to see yourself leave. Which means there's a 25% chance - or one time in four - that you'll leave your home and not see yourself arrive. Or even stranger - arrive to find that you didn't see yourself leave and so decided not to go. It's entirely possible to see yourself arrive, and then die along the way - the probabilities still work out. If you carry on around the world after seeing yourself arrive, secure in the knowledge that you can't possible die because that'd cause a Time Paradox, you're in for a rude awakening if you try play Russian Roulette. Even less likely... you might get a knock on the door and be met by yourself having chosen never to set out.
All of these are possible outcomes, some more or less likely than others.
It's these Probabilities, these 'Might Be's' are what form the Fifth Dimension. The Fifth Dimension is everything that is possible for your to start as, and for you to become. It is everything you are capable of doing an not doing, all at once. It is the sum total of every probabalistic interaction and even that makes up your life from Start to Finish.
If you visualise yourself in the 4th Dimension as a Timeline - the you in the 5th Dimension will will be that timeline and all the possibilities attached to it. It could be a trunk with an infinite number of branches spilling off it - each branch thicker or thinner depending upon how likely or unlikely the event that spawned it actually is. If you chose to play Russian Roulette - each time you squeeze the trigger, the branch leading from that decision gets thinner and thinner, as the likelyhood of you surviving to reach this point and continuing to play gets lower and lower. You might squeeze the trigger six times - and marvel at surviving when the bullet misfires. But 9999999 instances of you ended with brain splattered on the wall.
But more than that, the You in the Fifth dimension will have many, many roots too. These are all the possible startpoints, based on the lives your parents and their parents and their parents before them have let. This doesn't form a tree of life, so much as a tangled mangrove - or a tapestry if you feel prosaic (or like Star Trek TNG).
And all of these tapestries of stars and planets and people and galaxies and STUFF all interweave and tie together to form the Universe we live in and everything it is possible for that universe to become.
What you get is the most intricately woven multidimensional tapestry imaginable. It's the tapestry of time and space itself.
For exactly one universe.
All of this, springs from the roots of one single Big-Bang, one single possible start for the universe. And rather than tracking You as such, these probabilities instead track the individual particles that make up You. How these elementary particles form and collapse and exist through all space and time leading from that one Big Bang. For multiple Universes- where things might start differently, with different weightings of particles and the like and different initial conditions and laws of physics for each one - you get an entirely different set of 5-dimensional probabilities.
That's you're sixth dimension... Hence, Six Coordinates. X, Y, Z, I, J, K That's where we can play right now. Different universes, and the tapestry of probabilities within those universes.
Beyond that, are Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten... And, it might surprise you to know that in some theories, there can be 11 or even 21 possible Dimensions. What does that look like? A Tapestry, of Tapestries, of Tapestries..... a multi-dimensional weave of time and space itself, of all that might be and all that can be.
Does your head hurt yet?
As for how this works for the Side-Step.... well, that's another post.
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________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?