You are on page 1of 2

THE MYTH OF THE DIMENSIONS OF UNIVERSE

This article does not intend to get into the finer details of the existence and perception of dimensions and neither to clarify any of your questions, only to introduce you to another concept of dimensionality that may deliver an insight in the world you are living in. I think the word 'dimension' is not used properly in our common language. The three dimensions we know as length, width and height are according to me - not dimensions but directions. What's the difference, you say? There may be a tiny difference in interpretation that appears to be semantics only, but the tiny difference of how we name reality, may lead to confusion (and thinking that 26 dimensions truly exist). Next to the above mentioned use, the dictionary explains the word 'dimension' also as: Magnitude, Size, Scope, Aspect. As such dimensions are very concrete, while a single dimension (as in three dimensional) is not a concrete aspect by itself (have you ever seen anything with just a width?). Language is important and incorrect use may deliver us a false image. I believe a dimension can only exists when it already has two directions, like a flat piece of paper with length and width on which a dimensional painting can be painted. Of course the painted reality is not real, only the painting (frame, paint, canvas) is. If you follow the different use of the word dimension that I propose, reality would then contain two dimensions (which still contains those three directions). One dimension would show reality, but is actually fake. Two dimensions are reality. The directions are real too. To see depth I only use two eyes. Two dimensions deliver the depth of the three directional world we live in. Duality is sufficient to deliver a complex world in which sometimes single dimensions get an important place as well which reflect reality but the reflections aren't real themselves (paintings, movies, computer games, but to take this in another direction: ideas can be one dimensional as well). To see depth, one eye kind of is not enough. Of course, by moving your head, you can get a second position for a single eye, and the variation of positioning yourself does provide depth. Pigeons, for instance, bob their heads all the time to get more information of depth

on what is in front of them - the small difference that exists between both their eyes is therefore significantly augmented by the bobbing of the head. The second eye (or the second position) delivers depth. But we already see with just one eye, and ignore depth if need be. The aspect of time may further clarify the duality as I present it here: In time there are only two dimensions: future and past. The present in our experience of time is like the depth in our directional world. The flow from one dimension to the other delivers us our present. Our present is all we have; the same can be said of depth, because as soon as we open two eyes (or have two positions) we undeniably see depth - cannot even avoid depth. Just like depth, the present is there. By closing one eye, the experience of depth diminishes; by closing our minds to the present we can bring our memories back alive or spend hours thinking on what we are going to do tomorrow. This way, we flatten our perception: an imaginative painting gets created.

By making it unnecessarily more complex than need be, we can get lost in multiple dimensions (10 or 26), but what we are doing in reality is closing one eye, loose depth, and sit in our heads thinking about how it all can be. We create a painting inside our heads that appears to accurately reflect reality. I would encourage you to investigate the many ideas on dimensions, but I would also encourage you to not lose track of reality (whether that is explained by two dimensions or three, or ten or twenty-six). Sometimes the ideas people present are nothing but paintings, and on paintings reality may appear correctly, but it isn't.

The ten dimensions, the eleventh or the 26, are all beautiful Eschers. Reality works fine with 3 dimensions (or like I think with only two) in which paintings have their place, but they are nothing but reflections on reality.

Shahid Kalim Qureshi


Gurgaon, India +91-9811696210 skqureshi@yahoo.com

You might also like