For human beings it can be tricky to comprehend
the existence of even a fourth dimension,
or a fifth.
If we could move between them, what would
we see?
And how would our perspective change?
Despite the challenge in imagining even one
extra dimension, though, some physicists believe
there are at least ten extra levels to our
universe.
This is Unveiled and today we’re answering
the extraordinary question; What if we found
a tenth dimension?
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We, of course, live in a three-dimensional
world.
The three spatial dimensions that we can see
and interact with are length, width, and height.
We’re aware of the fourth dimension as well
- time - but it exists alongside the other
dimensions of space.
We don’t interact with it in the same way.
Time is unique because it’s the only temporal
dimension.
Even in a proposed universe with ten dimensions,
nine of them are still thought to be spatial.
The general idea allowing for ten dimensions
is known as String Theory.
String Theory attempts to unify all forces
and particles in nature into a single structure
- it’s a proposed “theory of everything”
and it ultimately argues that mathematically
there are at least six extra dimensions as
well as the four that we’re familiar with.
There are other variations of string theory,
too, which posit even more… including M-theory
which proposes eleven, and Bosonic String
Theory which allows for a whopping twenty-six.
But, even if we stick to “just ten”, if
there really are so many dimensions, then
where exactly are they?
There are some proposals as to why we can’t
perceive them…
For one, we could live in a 3D part - a kind
of offshoot - of something bigger called a
Brane.
This theoretical structure would restrict
all the evidence of the other dimensions that
aren’t accessible for us...
Everything we know would essentially exist
in a pocket; a pocket that makes sense to
us but doesn’t provide the full picture
of what reality really is.
The alternative is that the extra dimensions
are too small for us to experience; they’re
curled up and compacted down into tiny structures
called Calabi-Yau manifolds.
While we would never know for sure that this
was the case (without somehow evolving to
see these tiny dimensions), there have been
studies to suggest that the universe had ten
dimensions at the time of the Big Bang, with
only three of those - the three we experience
- expanding into the observable universe.
The rest exist in unseen Calabi-Yau manifolds.
We can, though, use what we know about the
three dimensions we live in to predict what
proposed other dimensions could be like if
they weren’t so small.
Our first dimension is length, which can be
a straight line.
If we add another straight line through that,
we get width and two dimensions.
Add another line at a different point and
we have height; the third dimension.
If we could see time (the fourth dimension)
we’d have a trail of all the variations
of a 3D anything, from birth to death.
But now we move to truly uncharted territory!
Most models pitch the fifth dimension as another
timeline - where an alternate Earth exists
in time with similar conditions to our own,
providing us with a “different version”
of our reality.
For the sixth dimension, we’d see many of
those worlds, all similar and all still starting
with the same conditions and the same laws
of physics as our own did.
A sixth dimension would reveal all the possible
outcomes that could have happened to us and
everything else; it’s the basis for some
interpretations of the “Many Worlds” theory.
The seventh dimension brings it up another
level, though, granting access to the timelines
of worlds that started out completely differently
to our own - with different fundamental physical
laws.
By the time we reach the eighth and ninth
dimensions, if we could access them we’d
be seeing a plane of infinite universes built
of the same or different physical properties
as our own…
While all of that’s pretty mindboggling,
however, the tenth dimension is the eye-watering
icing on top of our colossal, cosmological
cake.
If humans were able to find and see such a
dimension, well, they wouldn’t really be
human anymore.
They’d have the ability to view all of the
possible universes and realities, regardless
of each one’s fundamental physical properties,
but also all of the possible timelines that
all of that could create.
It’s every possibility in any space or timeline,
right before our ultra-ultra-advanced eyes.
There’s nothing that we wouldn’t know!
And, while bosonic string theorists imagine
a different, more populated path to get there…
there’s really nothing (at least nothing
imaginable) beyond this.
Back in the real world - that is, the one
we can see and comprehend - string theory
physicists theorize that there are vibrating
“superstrings” which form all the matter
we know about - right down to subatomic particles.
In the tenth dimension, every other dimension
and all possible particles (all possible strings)
are wrapped up into a single point - and it
accounts for literally everything there is.
If you could control the tenth dimension,
you’d have ultimate, unmatchable power.
Finding the tenth dimension would answer any
problem that humanity had ever encountered.
By now, today’s ultimate questions like
how and when this universe began would feel
like small fry.
We’d not only know all about our own universe,
but all about every possible universe.
We’d also know precisely how life evolved
on our planet, in our star system, in our
universe - as we’d have access to our specific
timeline.
But we’d also know all about every instance
of life that has ever lived in the multiverse.
What’s more, we’d automatically know the
eventual fate of all of it, too.
With every timeline laid out in front of us
it wouldn’t so much be us “looking into
the future” as we wouldn’t really be having
to look anywhere… we’d just know it.
But, in this way, we’d understand every
single civilization that has lived and also
that ever will live.
If there is to be an “end of humanity”,
we’d be able to perfectly pre-empt it.
Even an eventual end of reality would be something
a tenth dimensional being would naturally
and objectively understand!
In many ways, the universe would feel bigger
than ever.
But it would also be more manageable than
ever.
We’d understand the smallness of Planet
Earth in amongst everything else, being able
to instantly map the Milky Way, and even our
entire universe as we currently view it.
We’d also know all there is to know about
our own timelines - our own life and death
stories - but also everything about every
possible alternate version of ourselves.
Again, our lives would feel crazier than ever,
but also easier to accept and comprehend as
one strand of truly infinite possibilities.
With tenth dimensional powers we could actually
see and experience the lives of anyone or
anything; much as we could appreciate any
other planet as existing in a similar state
of importance and uniqueness as Earth.
All possible combinations of the fundamental
forces of nature would be accessible for us.
We’d have god-like omniscience and wisdom,
with the only “limit” placed on our knowledge
being that we’d already know everything
there is to know.
We’d no longer be tethered to a single perspective
or a single point in space or time; instead
allowed to travel through and enjoy every
single aspect of it.
Unfortunately, while some argue that ten dimensions
could be a mathematical necessity for our
reality…
We’re a long way away from unlocking new
dimensions for ourselves.
Until then, we’re like a fish that spends
its life in the ocean but suspects that there’s
a completely different world above the water.
The potentially multi-dimensional multiverse
is close, but also so, so far away.
And that’s what would happen if we found
a tenth dimension.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
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