The 5th Dimension: A Speculatory Examination

I was having a conversation earlier with a friend on the likelihood of technology become as much a part of us as our own flesh, and the possibility of humankind fading away as we transfer our likenesses to the much more durable vessels that nanotechnology and bionic augmentation may offer. And I had a thought: if we transferred our consciousness to a virtual world, like in the Matrix, then wouldn't that introduce a 5th dimension? The first three we are already familiar with, and I would hazard a guess that 'time' constitutes a 4th dimension...but what if the 5th dimension is that of the mind? If dozens of virtual worlds were created and you could travel between all of them even while standing still, your consciousness is the only thing moving, the only thing processing these worlds. Your body's only role is to provide an anchor for your mind. You are not interacting with the three dimensions we are familiar with. You are interacting on an entirely separate level.

I don't know, I'm just playing around here. What say you, ATS?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


What if we are the 5th dimension for other's thoughts??!
I like your premise and I suppose by definition , cyber frontier will be a new dimension. I too have wondered if our future inevitably hosts a migration from this reality to a virtual one. Then I wonder if this is part of our natural evolution, or has something come about to redirect that momentum into a more technical avenue. Are these emerging technologies swaying us from an intended biological evolution? Or is this all how it is supposed to go?

Now what happens once we are in virtual world, then from within we begin to explore virtual virtual worlds? Oh man, my brain hurts. haha

Have you read Snowcrash by chance?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Imagine this.

All possibilities are like bubbles which has a 3D world inside and each bubble is connected to all the others, and based on our attitude and actions we get to choose which "possibility" bubble we will walk into. So, all possibility bubbles are real and are existing now, possibility feels less real than reality because "reality" is the possibility bubble that we walked into - so we call this possibility bubble we are inside of "reality" and all the other ones "possibility", until we travel to another one - then we call that one which we left "the past" and the ones we may travel into as "the potential future"

Right now, I am walking into a 3D possibility bubble where I am eating food, because I am hungry, but when I actually enter it I'll call it "now" and "reality".

If these technologies exist, these "virtual world" will be humanity peeking into other 3D possibility bubbles more vividly than the mind.