Rethinking Our Place in Space Time

 We, as humans, have evolved the ability to observe and perceive the universe in three dimensions only. Although with our cunning minds and amazing mathematical skills we have started to observe the 4th dimension, which we refer to as time, we are still far from understanding it. At our highest ability, we perceive time as a linear flow—like one dimension but worse—because although we do traverse it forward, we lack the ability to even choose our own speed while traveling in this dimension, unlike the other three dimensions.

A unique dimension?

Is there something inherently different about the 4th dimension from the other three? Because the other three do show common features and differ only in their directions. So if we can perceive these three so well, why not the fourth? Is the 4th dimension categorically different from them? Or is it a flaw of our brain that limits us from experiencing the full capacity of the 4th dimension? Or is it the way we are raised after birth? What if, at birth, when all children have absolutely no perception of space and time—or at the very most have a partial sense of it—they are rigorously pressured to see the world in a certain way, the time to flow a certain way? And lose the possibility of a unique perspective.

Ants

If you observe ants, you will see they travel in two dimensions only. Of course, they aren't actually two-dimensional, but they tend to be. They walk forward, backward, left, and right—but not upwards. Again, I'm talking relatively, so of course they will walk downward if they walk down a vertical wall, but that's our down. For them, it's only forward.

For this reason, I'd like to argue that they are 2.5-dimensional beings. Because they perceive the two dimensions in their full capacity (they can walk forward, backward, left, and right as much as they'd like), but the third dimension (that of height) is not perceived by them at its max capacity—though it is perceived to some extent nonetheless.

For example, imagine an ant walking on top of a cubical box. When it's walking straight, that is its 1st dimension. When it walks left or right, that is its 2nd dimension. But when the ant reaches the edge of the box, there is a moment—a moment when it can see that the way forward has "bent." It is going "down." It's not going straight, not left or right, but down. This is a brief moment when the ant can experience the 3rd dimension. And once it has crossed the edge and hopped onto the vertical wall of the box, it no longer needs to bother about the third dimension anymore and will continue to live its 2D life, not knowing what's beyond. And due to this limited capacity of its interaction with the 3rd dimension, we can argue ants are somewhere between 2D and 3D in terms of being able to perceive it—therefore, 2.5D.

Humans

In that same way, we humans can walk forward, backward, left, and right—even jump up or use rockets to go up—making us able to perceive the three dimensions in their full capacity. What we now lack is the ability to walk back, left, or right in the 4th dimension (time). Our only path is forward, and even that at a constrained speed. We cannot make time go fast or slow even.

Just like ants have a very limited understanding of the 3rd dimension, we have a very limited understanding of the 4th one. But the difference is we understand time even less than ants understand heights. Ants may not be able to jump or launch themselves in a rocket, but they can still fall. What we lack is this ability to fall through the 4th dimension. We have a constant rate of traversing in this 4th dimension. We are very limited in this dimension. So we can argue we are beings of somewhere between the 3rd and 4th dimensions—maybe 3.5 or 3.1 (given we can explore time less than ants can explore heights).

What we need to do is adapt a new way of seeing reality, which isn't as simple as it sounds. Our brains are hardwired due to the rigorous training we had as infants to see the world a certain way—and also by our own biology. An infant has no spatial recognition senses, but as it interacts with this world, it "grows" one.

What if we gave up the idea of the world as we see it and adopted a new form—one that can perceive time at its fullest—making us 4-dimensional beings, practically time travelers... or maybe 4.1...

They

What now rises is the question: Can there be an intelligent species out there in the universe—or beyond—that can perceive the 4th dimension completely, essentially making them real-life time travelers, not by some time machines but by their own nature? And can this species interact with us? Like we struggle to interact with an ant, would they be struggling with the same? Maybe they are up there currently observing us, figuring out a way to interact with us while we are busy being ourselves.

We can do nothing but wait,either for the brightest minds of our species to figure out a way to make contact, or those 4D beings to do the same.

Our intelligence limits us