Ten dimensions, and we finally reach the fabled land of string theory. String theory is for the moment the only real game in town when it comes to attempts to bundle up quantum mechanics and general relativity into a "theory of everything". It holds that all particles that make up matter or transmit forces arise from the vibration of tiny strings. Those strings are one-dimensional. The space they wiggle about in is not. In fact, it has 10 dimensions: nine of space, and one of time. The theory doesn't work with any fewer: mathematical anomalies crop up that translate into violent fluctuations in the fabric of space-time at scales smaller than the Planck length of 10-35 metres. 10 is not necessarily the magic number. Indeed, one now unfashionable early variant of string theory had 26 dimensions. There are five broadly defined brands of 10D string theory that compete to explain the universe, with no indication as to which, if any, is the right one. But these disparate theories can be unified into one overarching theory, known as M-theory. M-theory has 11 dimensions. In here, we might call all this 'Harrington's String Bag'.
It is assumed that the extra dimensions of M-theory must in some way be squashed down to a size that we can't see. The bad news is that there is an almost unlimited number of ways in which this can be done. How to single out the one way that produces our universe remains a problem. Some say we'll work out the trick eventually, but others are into the "multiverse" the notion that all possible universes do actually exist. The universe we know is as it is because it just happens to be the one we are living in. None of this seems to give us much grok of how we should be trying to live. It probably does tells us that Star Trek style science fiction has little science and is a very old genre of soap opera. We just don't have the biology to be zipping around the galaxies, let alone the technical expertise to flout the laws of physics as we'd know them if we had the education (which would entail close engagement in its practice). Biology (increasingly maths-based) does now allow us to 'create life'. We can model DNA quite literally and create real bits of the stuff from chemicals. We know fatty acids are 'out there' in space, and pre-date the formation of Earth. We know that they form proto- cells when mixed with water, and that we can create components of cells like ribosomes using our man-created DNA. We will soon create cells from what we considered not to have life. Such life may well allow us to extend our biology and sensing. We are already speeding up processes to produce oil and other stuff we have previously only been able to use because it was created without us over aeons. My sense is that we are distracted by this technology because we don't understand it and have a society in which knowledge is very much part of competitions that are out of hand. There is no modern life because we can't imagine what this would be and try to live it because we are hampered by very old ideas and traditions as badly as Darwin was in beginning to advance something beyond myth. I would say 'capitalism' is the current myth we need to 'explode', but that we need to do this from what we know now, recognising it is a religion and that alternative religions, or alternatives adopted as religions (including science as religion) have already failed. The need is for sustainable peace in the recognition that we can't make peace whilst our understandings of the temptations of power remain low priority in public scrutiny. We are distracted from this dialogue by almost everything from science and entertainment because of a madness - sometimes described as the 'paranoid-schizoid' position (economics as 'Dr. Strangelove's Game'). I hope we will be able to find a new form of honesty, but we need to develop this in the knowledge that we are often roused to organisation by madness and myth that quickly distract us from evidence. We need genuine transparency, but this 'urge' is not enough as we approach a time at which any Tom, Dick or Harriet terrorist could use knowledge to reek devastation, and a few men with guns can screw everything. Our politics needs overhaul and we are continually distracted from this. The need to to structure freedom - but on its own this is just another slogan. My guess is that we run scared from this, always thinking peace exposes us to groups who retain power strategies or scrotes. I suspect this is biological in form. There are times when even I miss my gun. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
