688
ruletation (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 years ago* by to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Source

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 87 points 2 years 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.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 46 points 2 years ago (1 child)

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

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

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

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

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

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

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

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years 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.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent