Originally posted by SpaceCase:
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Originally posted by Shiny:
Okay, picture a two-dimensional universe. Now picture another two-dimentional universe laid atop it in the third dimension.."
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In other words, "M-Theory."
[
Shiny goes running to Wikipedia for help.]
And now I've just learned that "M-Theory" is the new name for "String Theory." However, before it went into the Theory Protection Program and adopted an alias, it gained superpowers and spent a while as "Superstring Theory." Cooooool.
I thought "M-Theory" was a pretty lame name, until
I read that it stood for "magic, mystery, or matrix, according to taste," per the guy who invented it. That's pretty nifty. (Its detractors claim it stands for "Moronic," but when your opposition has nothing better to do than make up fourth-grade insults, you're doin' pretty good.
)
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"Another dimension" has long been science-fiction shorthand for "Another universe parallel to the first, located in the next unseen dimension."
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It's a plot device (however you want to call it) allowing a writer to explain a situation, and then have the characters experience variations on it.
Well, yeah, but I was thinking of language habits, not plot mechanics. "Another dimension" seems to me to be a legitimate way of shortening "Another universe that lies next to ours along a dimension that we can't perceive but which is nevertheless perpendicular to ALL the ones we CAN perceive." This became shortened to "a universe lying in another dimension," which then became "another dimension." Perfectly kosher, as languages go.
Not unlike Larry Niven's "All the Myriad Ways..."
Never ran into that one, but I am a big fan of Frederick Brown's
What Mad Universe? Also, although I've never read the original, I've been somewhat obsessed with the "Flatland" premise ever since I heard about it (that if you could interact with two-dimensional beings in a 2D universe, they would think you were a magician: able to see into spaces that to them were completely enclosed in a solid object, you could "appear" out of nowhere and move around the same way, etc. etc. ).
Note to self: Read all the *@&#^$%! posts first!
Especially mine!