Thinking fifth dimensionally

This 12 minute short uses simple diagrams, animation and sound effects to introduce thinking in ten dimensions. It's based on a book by Canadian composer Rob Bryanton (blog). Check it out.

Now, a few thoughts:

First, we have here a powerful demonstration of visual communication. This single posting of the video above (link) has logged over half a million hits, probably well under the total number of views, since it's also been posted multiple times at YouTube, and no doubt elsewhere too. A pretty impressive audience for such a complex thought experiment.

Second, and building on the first point, a clear explication of the fifth dimension offers a way to visualise and conceptualise a logical (as I say, not necessarily ontological) mechanism that enables alternative futures. Things could be other than they are, and, looking forward (temporally), possibility space encompasses many, many potential paths. Monofuturistic, predictive thinking appears to presuppose only four dimensions -- i.e., unilinear time. The fifth dimension allows room for alternative futures, which makes sense of what happens when we exercise choice, as well as chaotic contingency.

Third, even though the explanation is couched in a simplified language of theoretical physics, a frame which invites evaluation of correctness, I'm not especially interested in whether the claims in this video are true (ontologically correct). For one thing, there may not be any way to test them (i.e., folding the 5th dimension, or higher). But the point is, to me, what's more interesting to me than ontological accuracy is what the consequences might be of lots of people thinking this way and taking it seriously. We don't need to take a special interest in the truth question in order to discuss the potential consequences of it becoming a social truth -- an influential meme. Could it lead to a greater or more widespread sense of personal and political agency? Or at least, a growing desire to explore future possibilities more creatively and systematically? The latter, I suppose, is probably my bias and my hope. What if lots more people are able to wrap their heads around this approach? That question is what excites me about this little video, and the tip of the iceberg of explanatory power that it represents. This illustrates my pragmatist's epistemology: what do certain beliefs, or types of belief, lead to, and what do they enable us to do?

One last thing. Funny that the hyperlinked ads that appeared after the animation screened for me at the book's website (Flash 8 required) all had to do with The Secret and other New Agey concerns. I wonder if this intersection of physics and pop culture (also witness: What the Bleep do We Know?) is leading to pop culture getting smarter, or physics just getting diluted beyond all recognition?

Thinking fifth dimensionally, I guess the answer is: both.