A Theory of the Mechanism of Survival: The Fourth Dimension and Its ApplicationsSmith, W. Whately (Walter Whately)
Philosophy
A Theory of the Mechanism of Survival: The Fourth Dimension and Its Applications
Smith, W. Whately (Walter Whately)
Fourth dimension; Parapsychology
We all of us say, when we are bored, that "the time passed slowly" or,
when we are happy and amused, that "the time flew" and although this
may appear at first sight to be no more than a loose way of speaking I
think that there is more in it than that. It is here, in fact, that we
find what I can only call a "check" on the measurement of time.
It is the apprehension of something capable of undergoing change, of
Psychic states to wit, whose changes are yet totally independent of
the spatial changes by which we ordinarily measure time. A man who is
hanging by a frayed rope over a precipice waiting for someone to come
and rescue him might very likely say that "It seemed hours" although it
might really have been no more than a very few minutes.
Yet in one sense he might be speaking the literal truth. The changes
which took place in his mental states during those few minutes might
well be as complex and extensive as those he would normally experience
in the course of hours.
This should suffice to make clear the difference between the "real time
process" which we measure and the recurrence of spatial simultaneities
by which we measure it.
If we consider the latter alone we soon find that they are difficult
of comprehension. As Mr. Lindsay says in his book "The Philosophy of
Bergson," p. 128.
"If we eliminate real time altogether we get a number of
simultaneities whose relation to each other we cannot understand....
For the relation between the simultaneities is taken to be that of
the parts to the whole, but ... that is itself a simultaneity ...
the relation of the simultaneities which are now taken as in their
aggregate constituting change must be conceived of as necessary, as
somehow all existing at once."
And again:
"We can only understand change by realising that it is incapable of
spatial expression...."
This quotation seems to me to be important because it brings out
clearly the points with regard to which I think that the higher space
hypothesis may be important.
For although I am entirely in accord with the idea that there are, so
to speak, two sorts of time I feel that in the light of the hypothesis
we cannot allow the statement that "change is something which is
incapable of spatial expression" to pass unchallenged.
If it were put in the form, "material change is incapable of expression
in terms of space of three dimensions," I should have nothing to say.
But in the course of my remarks on the phenomena of change in
a two-dimensional world, I pointed out that it is possible to
integrate an infinite number of three-spatial simultaneities into a
four-dimensional whole.
The introduction of this concept seems to me calculated to modify the
whole aspect of the question.
For, by its light, we see that all the three-spatial simultaneities by
which we mark time _can_ exist at once.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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