Poetically, in that metaphor I like to think of all of eternity existing at once to be like the record, our physical bodies to be like the needle, and our lives as we experience them to be the music.

That's beautiful. Thank you. :)

Yeah, I haven't learned much about string theory with all it's various dimensions other than what some friends have shared with me. I often think about a 2D being told to just "look up" and how absurd that would sound to them. I wonder which direction "in" we need to look to truly see.

This also gets me thinking about the holographic universe theory along with (of course) the simulation theory. Isn't it funny how we might be living in the one century out of millions of years where super intelligence might be birthed? A power so great it could end not only our species, but continue to populate the entire universe, given enough time and resources? Wouldn't that be a good century to devote your simulation resources on to play things out a few trillion times to see what works and what doesn't? Certainly makes me go "Hmm..." Elon Musk might be right after all. If so, I hope we live interesting enough lives to keep the simulators running our simulation. :)