Analogy of Our Relationship to the Universe

An Analogy of Our Relationship to the Universe
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I was doing some thinking the other day and this thought popped in my
head. We, as humans, know of three spacial dimensions and one of time.
Our ability to see PAST these dimensions is hindered only by our minds.

Here is the analogy I have come up with.

If you were a fish in the sea and were capable of advanced cognitive
processes, you would know of three spacial dimensions and maybe if
the brain allowed, one of time. BUT, think of everything else in the
universe that they will NEVER be able to see, let alone even the
slightest bit comprehend. Here is the explanation.


Aquatic Life and Their World

The sea bed would be equivilant to our land, some fish burrow, which would be akin to our digging. The actual waters of the ocean would be like our air. Some fish are specificly bottom dwellers, these are the "humans" so to speak. Unable to "fly", yet they can see other fish swimming around, flying.

Now, the fish who are able to swim, are aware of the bottom of the ocean,
which is their land - as well as the waters they swim in. Now, some fish
with "gifted" abilities are able to go even a step further. These fish
are deemed "astronauts" in their world. They speak of a place far out
of the reach of the bottom dwellers, and would be considered a nut job
by many of the even smartest organisms who are "land" based.

To take it even a step further, is OUR outer space. This would be a
completely unknown, inconcievable idea to even the "astronaut" fish
that are able to go beyond the known waters into an unknown world
above them. But because they cannot even fathom the idea of anything
beyond that world, it does not mean it dosent exist. It just means
their perception of the world is limited due to the nature of their
being.

So, say we were to take the smartest fish in the universe. We brought
him aboard our space shuttle and took him into a world even further
beyond the furthest reaches of any other sea based species, outer
space. This fish on his return, would speak of marvelous things, a
world beyond even the unknown world. Branded a lunatic and scoffed at
by the population, his crazy experience is deemed insanity.

This, in my opinion, in just like how us humans are unable to even
fathom the idea of other dimensions, worlds, and universes that lay
beyond the boundries of our minds. Maybe one day, us as "fish", will come
into contact with a "human" that takes us beyond the boundires of
anything we can ever imagine.

Just because we cannot see it, measure it, touch it, hear it, or
know if it - dosent mean its not there.

What do you think?

I think you're right about this.

The only reason reality is to us what it is, are the forms that make-up or senses, and our minds, hindering in a way what we can perceive.

Man overcomes his hindrance through the use of invention and instrument.

If only our ears could hear it all.

If only our eyes could see it all.

The ability to comprehend more than you know, is hindered by the belief that what you know is true.

the human mind is a powerful thing or non-thing as it may be put. it processes over 12 billion virtual particles/second. thats like creating and destroying 12 billion "micro-suns" /second. gray matter is like virtual space for your own little galaxy in your skull. a virtual galaxy.. this means that from birth the human mind is trying to comprehend the entire galaxy (of 12 billion stars by the way} like a quantum computer breaking an encryption but at a speed measured in terabytes it' only a matter of time... i believe mankind has incredible potential. i think our current world is like a child going thru the terrible 2's and things will get better. all the nukes lies and bickering are like the movie shawshank redemption "just because your body is in prison doesn't mean your mind has to be"

reply to post by Choronzon

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You are right.

The minds eye has tremendous resolution. The vessel of thought.. has no dimension.

Cool analogy...One time while entranced in deep thought about the universe, I too pondered relating the great unknown to that which is already familiar to us...The wild life here on Earth. It may seem a little far fetched but here goes: Planets are flowers. Comets and meteors are the birds and the bees. And "DNA" and universal elements essentail for life are the pollen. Comets and meteors travel the universe spreading the elements of life(hydrogen, nitrogen, methane, sulfer whatever) much the way birds and bees travel the Earth spreading seeds and pollen. Nature is self-sustaining, even in the most extreme conditions.

reply to post by cynical572

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Far-fetched? I say quite plausible.

Actually, your analogy reminds me of something i've always thought about in terms of the actual size of the universe.

In my eyes, I've always seen the way the electrons orbit the nucleus in a way similar to how our plants orbit our sun. Now think of this, the protons/neutrons of an atom determine its atomic mass - this is akin to how a different mix of planets/interstellar gas may make up the "atomic mass" so to speak of a solar system, and in terms of galaxies, a certain sum of the solar systems determines what vibrational level each galaxy resides on. Thus allowing for infinite realities all within the same spatial universe.

Also, to think of each solar system to us, may be another races' electron.

Oh how wonderful speculation is.


[edit on 12-9-2007 by deadline527]

you must have gone to "thinking school." obviously you didn't learn that in the public school system.



[edit on 12-9-2007 by DIRTMASTER]

Actually, I went to a horrible public school, lol. My graduating class had close to 1200 people in it - almost 4000 in the whole school. But, I've always been into anything remotely interested in the universe since even pre-k, so have always paid attention when something along them lines popped up. And luckily my line of work leaves me with countless hours reading ATS and whatever other interesting articles I find.

Anyway, its not that far out of a concept - just assuming every possible position in relation to another. No matter how big or small things are, they could all "seem" to appear the same size, all depends on the viewers position in the universe. A good analogy for this I remember is - if there was an ant, living on a strip of paper, he would only know of 2 spatial dimensions that he could travel - length and width. Now us living in a 3-spacial dimension world would perceive his situation MUCH different then how the ant views the world around him. Now again, to take this a step further - a being that may operate in 4 or more spatial dimensions would see our reality as overly simple - while to them, the same idea of higher dimensions would still cause just a headache im sure to them, as it does with us.

I'm on a roll tonight -

[edit on 12-9-2007 by deadline527]

dimensions are fun.. play around with this: neutrino hyperbolic refraction (tiny hyperbolic mirrors going faster than photon light} mixed with Eisenstein's "spooky property"(unknown communication between particles) and you get a very tasty jumblia. how may dimensions are people processing subconsciously out of the light waves and processed by their brain "a nuclear mirror" and you get a re composite of many dimensions as one virtual broadband dimension woo.. that was a mouthful! or 1 single dimension composed of all sub-dimensions.. who knows...but fun