Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00125)

There was an episode of The Simpsons where Homer
Simpson steps through a vortex to find himself in a
strange world. The scientist comes along and explains
to those present that Homer has entered a three
dimensional world, as opposed to the two dimensional
cartoon world. As the scientist explains the concept
all the other characters find it hard to grasp. And so
it is with the notion of the fourth dimension - time.
I have spent many hours contemplating how one can
perceive such a dimension, though I have had little
success. That was until a few weeks ago when I finally
realised how I could view the fourth dimension - it
was starring at me the whole time. I was examining a
sediment core that had the environmental history of a
sawmp just outside of Sydney over the last 1000 years.
Each layer in that core told a different story for a
particular point in time. Looking at the entire core
you could see a story. It then occurred to me that I
was looking at the fourth dimension. In the next
moment it occurred to me that every book that was ever
written was done so in order to record the fourth
dimension. Viewing evolution from a purely Darwinistic
perspective it can be seen that there has been a
gradual evolution towards perceiving the fourth
dimension. It starts with simple spatial memory. Then
memory over a longer time period develops, for example
Pied Currawongs cache small birds in the fork of trees
for later consumption yet the Currawong must remember
where that bird was cached. Memory gets better, as
with hunter/gatherer humans who have no written record
but their memory is passed down through stories and
other means. For example, Indigenous Australians,
walking through their land, sing the song of their
ancestors before them. These songs reflect the
creation of a certain landmark, eg a waterhole or a
rock. As the songs are passed onto each generation
unchanged so to is knowledge of the geography of the
land. Memory got even better with the advent of
writing and, later, the printing press. Today I can
step into a library and "remember" the creation of the
universe, the solar system, what the climate was like
400 million years ago, what sort of animals I would
have found back then etc etc. Although I have no
memory of events that happened to me personally in
past lives, I do have this cumulative memory, or
psuedo-collective memory, that I may take advantage of
for the benefit of myself and others.

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