I love the topic of free will.
Free will seems to be dependent on whether our universe is created of merely 4 dimensions (3 Spatial + 1 Time), or 10 dimensions (3 Spatial + 1 Time x Infinity).
I tend to be of the camp which accepts the idea that eternity is one giant 4D object that extends from the birth of the universe to its death, all of which would exist simultaneously in 4D space, just as the top of an object in 3D space exists simultaneously with the bottom. As 3D beings ourselves, our brains are only able to perceive one slice of the great 4D object at a time as we slide along it in our bubble of immediacy that we call "the Present". Otherwise, to experience the 4th Dimension in the way it truly exists (if indeed it is a solid object as mentioned) means you would experience your entire life from birth to death all in the same instant.
I had a friend once who said that our experience of time is like the universe giving itself an MRI, which sounds accurate, but seems to be a bit more crude and less poetic way to put it. I like to think that it's like playing a record on a turntable. The entire album exists all at once on the record, but the music doesn't play until you add a "present moment" which moves forward along the groove - the needle. 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.
I really like the needle/record analogy.
Thank you. I think it's just because I was a DJ for about 10 years. LOL
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. :)
I saw that Elon Musk interview, actually, where he talks about how there could be billions of universe simulations going on simultaneously, so how can we possibly determine that ours is the real one?
See, this is the kind of discussion I could never get on Facebook. THIS is why I don't go there anymore.
INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION!
Is there room for a 10th dimensional "god"?
My thoughts on God (or maybe, more accurately, God of religion) are fleshed out in my Losing Eternity blog post. One thing I haven't mentioned there is the idea that what we call "God" might actually be the one running the simulation we all exist in. The Master Programmer. He/She/It might have tweaked a variable here or there through history in such a way as to alter people's understanding of reality to such a great degree that whole religions were formed around those experiences. Or... it could all just be some stories we created because our little primitive brains like to make meaning out of things, even if no meaning exists there.
I think that might depend on what one accepts as a definition of "god". From what I can tell, if there is a god, I tend to like the idea that it IS eternity and all it's possibilities, not something that lords over it. This would mean that all of us, everything we see and experience, as well as all that which is unknown to us as of yet are all part of it.
And if that's the case, Buddha was right.
"God" would simply be a process by which all possibilities are expressed in all versions of eternity, and would encompass all dimensions.
As Robert Anton Wilson used to say, "You are the master who makes the grass green."
Love me some Robert Anton Wilson. Here's a fun recording of him just hanging out which I enjoyed watching a while back: