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ruletation (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 4 months ago (5 children)

One interesting fact about 4D creatures is that they can see you, no matter how hard you try to hide in 3D space.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Distance still works! Think about Flatland - they can't hide "behind" anything, but we still couldn't see the people 20 miles away.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That is assuming that our universe is flat in the 4th dimension…

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Well, yeah. Once you add another dimension the one below it becomes "flat."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not necessarily. A surface (e.g. a cylinder) isn't 'flat' in our dimension, but is 2D

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but Flatlanders still can't hide behind anything in their environment. They'd be hidden by the very curvature of space, which is really the same as being too "far away" to be seen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not particularly bothered; this seems just semantics to me. Depends on if you view 'hiding on the other side of the cylinder' as being too far away to see. I don't think it is, but if you feel differently that's fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Well think about it from the Flatlander's perspective! They can't even perceive the cylindrical shape of their space. They wouldn't be able to go behind the cylinder from their perspective, all they could do is go forward far enough that the shape of space hides them.

It's not just semantics imo, cuz it would apply to us as well. If you're ever confronted with a 4th dimensional being then the only way you can hide is to get far enough away. You can't see the curvature of spacetime so that's useless for you.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago

I think it would be possible to hide if you where given a map of where fourth dimensional curvature exists around you but you wouldn’t being able to observe anything different.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

What if they close their eyes! Checkmate atheist.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Somehow it triggers my "be scared" response.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

They can't see you, the same way you can't see a 2D object.