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Message from discussion Imagining the Tenth Dimension
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Phillip SanMiguel  
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 More options Jul 4 2006, 2:06 pm
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: Phillip SanMiguel <pmig...@purdue.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2006 16:06:23 -0400
Local: Tues, Jul 4 2006 2:06 pm
Subject: Re: Imagining the Tenth Dimension
Mike Schilling wrote:
> "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsm...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1151648273.274034.34440@d56g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>> Mike Schilling wrote:
>>> "Gene Ward Smith" <genewardsm...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:1151647258.102606.201770@h44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>>>> This web site is basically broken; my browser sits there loading data
>>>> endlessly, but never shows anything.
>>> It works fine for me.  I'm using Firefox.
>> I'm using Firefox also, and have a pretty fast connection.

>> So, what does the tenth dimension look like, and what happened to the
>> previious nine?

> It's a big dot, which apparently subsumes the first nine. If I'd had the
> pateince to watch the whole thing, instead of skipping to the end to find
> out whodunit, I might know more.

Here is how to watch the whole flash presentation without getting bored
because of the slow download speed. I've got about 1.5 Mbps download
rate--I can actually see that on internet speed download speed tests. It
probably took 10-15 minutes for the entire presentation to completely
download. I'm doubting that the presentation is 100 megabytes, so I
presume there is some other bottleneck.

Anyway, go to the site:

http://www.tenthdimension.com

It takes a little while for the first page to load, but if everything
goes well, you will see a little right-handed helix rotating about a
line. If you click on the "0" end of the the line, the presentation begins.

Unless you were a teenager before MTV launched, you will find the wait
too long to be worthwhile. But you can just keep your newsbrowser open
and read a newsgroup until you start to hear Mr. Bryanton's voice. At
that point switch to the browser window and watch. You will see an
"episode" of the presentation--usually 1 dimension. When the
"downloading assets" icon appears, flip back to the newsgroup and read
some more.

I've watched it twice. It seems pretty wacky to me. You'll see some
_Flatlander_ tropes, but also Brian Greene's ant from _Elegant
Universe_. I'm fairly tolerant of flash presentations. This one struck
me as not in the least objectionable. Actually it is as minimalist as
one is likely to see--in flash.

To answer Gene's question: Basically you just go through the first 3
dimensions 3 times, at the end of each collapsing the entirety of that
structure into a point and starting again. First time you have the
entire lifetime of our universe, the second time all possible lifetimes
of our universe, the third time all possible lifetimes of all
universes--including those that start from different initial conditions
from our own.

All in all, I find it a little haunting. Any physicists want to comment?

Phillip


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