May 27 2009
My Brain Has at Least 147 Dimensions
A recent technological advance has once again got me thinking about the term, dimension. What an advance it is.
‘Five Dimensional’ Discs With A Storage Capacity 2,000 Times That Of Current DVDs
Cool. Gold nanoparticles were incorporated into a disc surface, without adding to the physical size, yet increasing the storage capacity immensely.
How did they do it? Perhaps they used some String Theory, which “implies” that our universe has a number of dimensions beyond the standard three-plus-time available at Wal-Mart.
Discs currently have three spatial dimensions, but using nanoparticles the Swinburne researchers were able to introduce a spectral – or colour – dimension as well as a polarisation dimension.
Here’s my semantic-slash-metaphysical beef with talk of extra dimensions. Is the polarization dimension the same sort of dimension that is length, width, or height? Does it really belong in the same category and thus appropriately represented with the same word? I kinda doubt it.
Is that also the case with String Theory? I don’t know. When we talk about extra dimensions, what we are often referring to is additional scalar variables. And if variables provide us with additional information about something, a new type of information, is it wise to imbue this type of information and measurement with spatial connotations? In other words, with the information provided by a new variable and data, is there really a there there?
As for my brain, sure, you could put it on a stainless steel table and measure just it’s height and width and length. But there is so much more to my brain than that. Are there thus more dimensions?
