As most everyone knows, we live in a four-dimensional universe. The fourth dimension, time, is inaccessible to us because the time variable is elastic relative to the continual expansion of the universe and human consciousness moves along it.
A lesser-known scientific fact is that the number of dimensions in the universe is completely arbitrary. While ours appears to be a four-dimensional universe, there is evidence to support the belief that universes with more or fewer dimensions may be extant. It is even believed that at the subatomic level, the rules of existence change and there may be more than four dimensions in play.
These are very complex scientific concepts I don't pretend to even begin to understand; I merely know of them, in the same way that I have a general idea of the principles that make my computer work, but could never design one myself.
Very, very few people (on the order of one birth per tens of millions) have the intelligence and mental flexibility necessary to comprehend the paradoxes of quantum theory. Such individuals can only gain such capability if they are carefully cultivated: witness the life stories of people like Feynman or Einstein or Hawking.
Yet there are definite benefits to society to be had by gaining such transcendent knowledge. Advanced quantum theory could lead to advances as profound over our Info Age society, as Info Age society over pre-Info society. Quantum power plants the size of a thermos but with more output than a nuclear reactor. Neutronium alloys stronger than a steel bulkhead but thinner than a human hair. Superstring communicators capable of zero-latency connections over unlimited distances (and with no bandwidth cap, allowing AUS/NZ players to compete with everyone else - imo the most significant of these potential discoveries).
If you doubt the power of gamesmanship to drive new levels of arete in a society, bear witness to the amazing skill of Korean Starcraft gamers, or Brazilian soccer champs, or, of infinitely more historical significance, the leet skills of Thracian peltasts, British longbowmen, or Scythian mounted archers. In Scythian society, men were expected to be able to fire and reload a shortbow, with both hands, while riding bareback at full gallop and surrounded by men trying to kill them.
Go visit a Native American museum; observe their incredibly beautifully designed baskets, so strongly woven out of common reeds that they could retain water as well as a plastic bottle. Native American community had populations of only a few hundred at most, but the skill was so prized that several individuals in each mastered the skill, because of the honor it brought. Similarly consider the amazingly fine Japanese katana, whose quality has declined in proportion to the decline of the importance of the skill of crafting one.
From societies that value particular skills spring forth exceptional super-geniuses in that society's arete. Lysander. Michael Jordan. Robin Hood. Kasparov. Donald Trump. All geniuses in their respective fields, all the product of their respective society's values.
I submit that the prevalence of individuals capable of conceiving innovations in more than four dimensions could be greatly increased by producing a highly addictive video game that gives young children an unnatural inclination to think in more than four dimensions.
The game would take the form of a tactical RPG with a plot and gameplay similar to Disgaea. Whereas most tactical RPGs are strictly four-dimensional, however, this game would feature a variable number of dimensions depending on map. Additional dimensions would be displayed on the 2D screen via either the option to adjust the camera along more than two axes via key combinations, or by indicating changes in dimension by optical effects.
For example, an enemy close in the second, third, sixth and seventh dimensions, but faraway in the fifth and eighth, would appear spatially close, and be illuminated in bright green and blue, but appear shadowed and lacking in red chroma (green and blue representing dimensions six and seven, red and lumina representing dimensions five and eight).
In the same way that some very bright kids develop an unnatural skill at metagaming, this line of games would incline some very bright kids to develop unnatural skill at quantum thinking, with profound repercussions for society. The next generation could potentially claim many more quantum geniuses than any before, making possible unimaginable technological progress.
I would even propose a title and plot for the new game series:
"WRATH OF FEYNMAN"
Two high school students, Josh and Trisha, take an unneeded bathroom break from history class so they can switch all the boxers and panties in the locker rooms. As they wander the corridor, they see the spectre of the believed-to-be-deceased Dr Feynman, who gives them a creepy look before disappearing into a broom closet. Josh & Trisha enter the broom closet, only to find that not only is the good doctor nowhere to be seen, neither is the door. The broom closet seems to have no exit from the interior.
By turns, Dr Feynman reveals he isn't really dead - rather, he absconded from this continuum when he conceived that the four-dimensional nature of our universe is merely a human abstraction, and in fact, there are an infinitely great number of dimensions. Feynman learned to walk at an angle to the other dimensions, so that he could freely navigate them.
He now desires to mentor the very few youths with the necessary mental elasticity to do the same...so they can become his vanguard in his goal of imposing his scientific vision on not only the world, but the universe. Josh & Trisha, after being initially seduced by Feynman's offer of unpredecented knowledge and power, must now master quantum concepts and beat Feynman at his own game!
Players can play as Josh or Trisha (similar to Claude vs Rena from Star Ocean 2) and fight against the corrupted physics professor's misguided schemes. Players fight Feynman six times in the game, in ever-increasing numbers of dimensions, as Feynman-6, Feynman-8, Feynman-9, Feynman-10, Feynman-12, and finally Feynman-20. Weapons in the game are similar to those in any tactical RPG - melee weapons from daggers and fists, as well as ranged weapons including guns, bows, arrows, slings, etc, and also mathematical weapons capable of interacting directly with the dimensional abstractions - similar to magic or the FFT Math Mage.
Other bosses include historical figures enlisted by the transcendent Feynman (including Archimedes, who attacks with a 10-dimensional wrecking ball) and monsters of his own creation (a galactic "demon" and a genetically engineered human).
Overall, the "feel" of the game would be similar to Persona or any other Makai Tensei game. There would also be an online PvP mode, with a substantial purse for the winner in the 20-dimensional format.
I don't have the skills to create such a game. But, for the sake of mankind, I surely hope someone does.
A lesser-known scientific fact is that the number of dimensions in the universe is completely arbitrary. While ours appears to be a four-dimensional universe, there is evidence to support the belief that universes with more or fewer dimensions may be extant. It is even believed that at the subatomic level, the rules of existence change and there may be more than four dimensions in play.
These are very complex scientific concepts I don't pretend to even begin to understand; I merely know of them, in the same way that I have a general idea of the principles that make my computer work, but could never design one myself.
Very, very few people (on the order of one birth per tens of millions) have the intelligence and mental flexibility necessary to comprehend the paradoxes of quantum theory. Such individuals can only gain such capability if they are carefully cultivated: witness the life stories of people like Feynman or Einstein or Hawking.
Yet there are definite benefits to society to be had by gaining such transcendent knowledge. Advanced quantum theory could lead to advances as profound over our Info Age society, as Info Age society over pre-Info society. Quantum power plants the size of a thermos but with more output than a nuclear reactor. Neutronium alloys stronger than a steel bulkhead but thinner than a human hair. Superstring communicators capable of zero-latency connections over unlimited distances (and with no bandwidth cap, allowing AUS/NZ players to compete with everyone else - imo the most significant of these potential discoveries).
If you doubt the power of gamesmanship to drive new levels of arete in a society, bear witness to the amazing skill of Korean Starcraft gamers, or Brazilian soccer champs, or, of infinitely more historical significance, the leet skills of Thracian peltasts, British longbowmen, or Scythian mounted archers. In Scythian society, men were expected to be able to fire and reload a shortbow, with both hands, while riding bareback at full gallop and surrounded by men trying to kill them.
Go visit a Native American museum; observe their incredibly beautifully designed baskets, so strongly woven out of common reeds that they could retain water as well as a plastic bottle. Native American community had populations of only a few hundred at most, but the skill was so prized that several individuals in each mastered the skill, because of the honor it brought. Similarly consider the amazingly fine Japanese katana, whose quality has declined in proportion to the decline of the importance of the skill of crafting one.
From societies that value particular skills spring forth exceptional super-geniuses in that society's arete. Lysander. Michael Jordan. Robin Hood. Kasparov. Donald Trump. All geniuses in their respective fields, all the product of their respective society's values.
I submit that the prevalence of individuals capable of conceiving innovations in more than four dimensions could be greatly increased by producing a highly addictive video game that gives young children an unnatural inclination to think in more than four dimensions.
The game would take the form of a tactical RPG with a plot and gameplay similar to Disgaea. Whereas most tactical RPGs are strictly four-dimensional, however, this game would feature a variable number of dimensions depending on map. Additional dimensions would be displayed on the 2D screen via either the option to adjust the camera along more than two axes via key combinations, or by indicating changes in dimension by optical effects.
For example, an enemy close in the second, third, sixth and seventh dimensions, but faraway in the fifth and eighth, would appear spatially close, and be illuminated in bright green and blue, but appear shadowed and lacking in red chroma (green and blue representing dimensions six and seven, red and lumina representing dimensions five and eight).
In the same way that some very bright kids develop an unnatural skill at metagaming, this line of games would incline some very bright kids to develop unnatural skill at quantum thinking, with profound repercussions for society. The next generation could potentially claim many more quantum geniuses than any before, making possible unimaginable technological progress.
I would even propose a title and plot for the new game series:
"WRATH OF FEYNMAN"
Two high school students, Josh and Trisha, take an unneeded bathroom break from history class so they can switch all the boxers and panties in the locker rooms. As they wander the corridor, they see the spectre of the believed-to-be-deceased Dr Feynman, who gives them a creepy look before disappearing into a broom closet. Josh & Trisha enter the broom closet, only to find that not only is the good doctor nowhere to be seen, neither is the door. The broom closet seems to have no exit from the interior.
By turns, Dr Feynman reveals he isn't really dead - rather, he absconded from this continuum when he conceived that the four-dimensional nature of our universe is merely a human abstraction, and in fact, there are an infinitely great number of dimensions. Feynman learned to walk at an angle to the other dimensions, so that he could freely navigate them.
He now desires to mentor the very few youths with the necessary mental elasticity to do the same...so they can become his vanguard in his goal of imposing his scientific vision on not only the world, but the universe. Josh & Trisha, after being initially seduced by Feynman's offer of unpredecented knowledge and power, must now master quantum concepts and beat Feynman at his own game!
Players can play as Josh or Trisha (similar to Claude vs Rena from Star Ocean 2) and fight against the corrupted physics professor's misguided schemes. Players fight Feynman six times in the game, in ever-increasing numbers of dimensions, as Feynman-6, Feynman-8, Feynman-9, Feynman-10, Feynman-12, and finally Feynman-20. Weapons in the game are similar to those in any tactical RPG - melee weapons from daggers and fists, as well as ranged weapons including guns, bows, arrows, slings, etc, and also mathematical weapons capable of interacting directly with the dimensional abstractions - similar to magic or the FFT Math Mage.
Other bosses include historical figures enlisted by the transcendent Feynman (including Archimedes, who attacks with a 10-dimensional wrecking ball) and monsters of his own creation (a galactic "demon" and a genetically engineered human).
Overall, the "feel" of the game would be similar to Persona or any other Makai Tensei game. There would also be an online PvP mode, with a substantial purse for the winner in the 20-dimensional format.
I don't have the skills to create such a game. But, for the sake of mankind, I surely hope someone does.
