[ExI] infinity

[Mike Dougherty]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 10:28 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> If our space is the three dimensional surface of 4D spacetime, then the
> red shift should be just as it appears.
>
>
>
> Billw, it helps the imagination to do the math.  Agree it is out of reach
> for most of us, specifically those who didn’t master multivariable calculus
> while still a young person.  I can work the equations to some extent but
> the real mathematicians have no trouble with these concepts.  To those
> guys, more dimensions are just additional Greek letters in their equations,
> no problem.
>
>
>
> Perhaps you are familiar with Abbott’s Flatland?  Granted it is mostly a
> social commentary and a bit politically incorrect in our hypersensitive
> times, but informative in its way.
>
>
>
 I like math, but I don't think approaching the problem from equations is
'intuitive' for most people.  We learned how a ball hit from home plate
lands in the outfield by playing baseball; years later we have a physics
class explaining the parabolic trajectory of a frictionless vacuum.  Maybe
you 'weren't into sports'?  So instead you had a computer game involving
monkeys throwing bananas at each other?  Or perhaps angle and power
launching a penguin, or chucking a bird at some pigs?  In all these
examples: play.   Physicists have some seriously expensive toys to learn
how the universe works. :)

Flatland helped me think of analogies in higher and lower dimensions.  I
like the visualization of your 3d surface of 4d spacetime with the analogy
of a 2d surface on a 3d balloon.  The inhabitants of the surface of the
balloon invent all manner of "dark energy" to explain the inflationary
breath that makes the surface of the balloon expand.  We have no issue
thinking about adding more air volume.  Probably could even figure out how
a given volume of air will affect the stretchiness of the balloon to
contain it... eventually we'd get a formula for how much air and how much
stretchiness determines the size of the balloon.  I'm not sure we're at a
perfect formula for our universe.

Do they have to be Greek letters though?
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