It makes an eloquent point of how a person living in 2D has no idea, no concept and very few ways to even detect the world we live in (3D)... yet, here we are, robust and thriving with all we have constructed (and our tech).
Thus, in-turn, we are limited by these same boundaries in 3D regarding the dimensions above us... yet, they are there, robust and thriving with all they have built (and their tech).
The folks in the 2D world had means to detect whether they were on a curved surface, by geometric measurements. So do we, with respect to 4D curvature. No results. Unless something is susceptible to detection, and thus to measurement, and thus to possibly technology, it is really indistinguishable from nothing.
Curves in a 2D world can only be on one flat plane since there is no such thing as up and down does not exist. A round ball could pass through the 2D world but the 2D inhabitants would only perceive the ball one slice at a time (as a flat plane) as it passed through their world.
Similarly, something akin to this happens as 5D passes through our 3D world... in that, some aspect of the 5D existence could be detected but no enough to explain exactly what it is.
This is child fairy-tale thinking. The examples are from 90-year-old science fiction. I was referring to the 2-D people living on the surface of a 3-D curve, which is kind of what the Einsteinians imagine is happening with our 3-D world and 4-D "spacetime." Otherwise, higher dimensions are only a mathematical abstraction, not a metaphysical reality. And why do you pick 5 dimensions, and not 4 or 6...or 732? This is fiction and magic.
Flatland is 2D, so what is your point?
It makes an eloquent point of how a person living in 2D has no idea, no concept and very few ways to even detect the world we live in (3D)... yet, here we are, robust and thriving with all we have constructed (and our tech).
Thus, in-turn, we are limited by these same boundaries in 3D regarding the dimensions above us... yet, they are there, robust and thriving with all they have built (and their tech).
The folks in the 2D world had means to detect whether they were on a curved surface, by geometric measurements. So do we, with respect to 4D curvature. No results. Unless something is susceptible to detection, and thus to measurement, and thus to possibly technology, it is really indistinguishable from nothing.
Curves in a 2D world can only be on one flat plane since there is no such thing as up and down does not exist. A round ball could pass through the 2D world but the 2D inhabitants would only perceive the ball one slice at a time (as a flat plane) as it passed through their world.
Similarly, something akin to this happens as 5D passes through our 3D world... in that, some aspect of the 5D existence could be detected but no enough to explain exactly what it is.
This is child fairy-tale thinking. The examples are from 90-year-old science fiction. I was referring to the 2-D people living on the surface of a 3-D curve, which is kind of what the Einsteinians imagine is happening with our 3-D world and 4-D "spacetime." Otherwise, higher dimensions are only a mathematical abstraction, not a metaphysical reality. And why do you pick 5 dimensions, and not 4 or 6...or 732? This is fiction and magic.