Time Cube: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively ← Previous edit Next edit →Content deleted Content addedVisual WikitextInline

Revision as of 23:39, 29 June 2004 editBryan Derksen (talk \| contribs)Extended confirmed users95,333 edits →Criticism: restoring previously deleted section, see talk: for discussion of it← Previous edit		Revision as of 23:53, 30 June 2004 edit undoBornintheguz (talk \| contribs)8,097 editsm cube link updateNext edit →
Line 62:		Line 62:
	===Problems with the Time Cube symbolism===		===Problems with the Time Cube symbolism===

	The ''Time Cube'' theory is based on the claimed supremacy of the number '''four''', but the connection between ] and the ] is weak.		The ''Time Cube'' theory is based on the claimed supremacy of the number '''four''', but the connection between ] and the ] is weak.

	The figure most often used to represent the number four is the ], a ] figure. If a ] is required to represent the number four, the most obvious candidate is the ].		The figure most often used to represent the number four is the ], a ] figure. If a ] is required to represent the number four, the most obvious candidate is the ].
Line 77:		Line 77:

	==See also==		==See also==
	*]		*]
	*]		*]
	*]		*]

Revision as of 23:53, 30 June 2004

The Time Cube is a concept promoted by Gene Ray on his Time Cube website, postulating that time is somehow cubic or four-cornered. It is unclear how his ideas relate to any established concept of time. As there are no testable hypotheses or predictions associated to the "time cube," it is not scientifically investigable. It must therefore be considered a speculative belief with little relation to physics or science in general, and is indeed generally viewed as a (somewhat notorious) example of kookery.

Nature's Harmonic Simultaneous 4-Day Time Cube

Supremacy of four

Gene Ray states that "4 is the supreme number of the universe" and frequently divides continuums into four classes, much like the Greeks did with the four humours and the four elements. These classes are called corners. There are several sets of corners mentioned:

The four corners of complexion are black, white, Asian, and Indian
The four corners/stages/lives of a person's lifetime (family time ages) are baby, child, parent, and grandparent
The four corners of a person's head are the face, two ears, and back of the head
The four corners of Earth are four arbitrary quadrants
The four corners of the day are midnight, 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM
The four corners of the year are the four seasons

4-day

Every rotation of Earth, each of the four quadrants will experience a different style of day. One will start and end at night, one will start and end in the morning, one will start and end in midday, one will start and end in the evening. Since these styles are different, he says there are four different days in a 24 hour period.

He says "infinite days is stupidity," showing that he believes that Earth is divided into precisely four classes of location, rather than a continuum of locations. He also calls the universal Greenwich Mean Time standard evil because it represents only one style of day. Anything associated with those who adhere to the standard is derisively referred to as "1-day," rather than "4-day."

He says that each corner of Earth experiences the four corners of the day. So, that's a total of sixteen corners experienced by humanity during every rotation of Earth.

4-year

He says that because the four corners of Earth each experience the year differently (one starts on midnight and ends on midnight, etc.), that there are also four years for every revolution of Earth around the Sun.

He also shows another way of deducing four years per revolution around the Sun. He makes the false claims that the four seasons are occurring simultaneously at different points on Earth and that Earth therefore travels four times the distance of a planet that doesn't have a tilted axis.

People are 1-cornered

A human lifetime is divided into four corners. He says that, at any given point in time, a person is one-cornered (imperfect) instead of four-cornered (perfect) because their perspective is based on experience, and their experience is based on which stage of life they are in. A person's age is not on a continuum; instead, when a person advances to the next corner of their lifetime, their old corner dies.

4/16 time cube

The combination of the four corners of the day and the four stages of a person's life is referred to as the 4/16 time cube.

Humanity as a whole

He also separates humanity into two "sex poles," male and female, and the four corners of complexion. Like other divisions into four, he allows no mixture of classes; in this case, he stands against interracial sex.

According to him (on AboveGod.com), "If the 4 racial components of 2 sex pole hemispheres agreed to a cubing of the sphere as a spiritual unity, heavenly music of cubed sphere could be audible on Earth simultaneously to every human ear, not discord, but harmony." It appears that he doesn't believe that one race is supreme, but he does believe they should be separate. "Cubing the sphere" apparently means to separate the spherical world into four quadrants (the sides of the cube) and two poles (the top and bottom of the cube).

He also correlates his four races with the four corners of the day based on the lightness or darkness in each:

"The simultaneous 4 human races debunks a God for any race.

Sunup represents Indian Race
Midday represents White Race
Sundown represents Asian Race
Midnight represents Black Race"

Words are evil

He constantly excoriates words, usually in connection with teachers using them to teach contrary theories and to suppress the expression of time cube theory. He also appears to believe that words are inadequate to describe his theory.

Criticism

Critics maintain that it is unclear how Time Cube relates to any accepted concept of time, and that it is impossible to disprove it in a meaningful way due to the lack of testable hypotheses.

Due to the general attitude that Time Cube is eccentric nonsense, Ray poses no threat to academia and the government, entities which he considers evil. Although most people view Ray as a crank, Ray claims "many thousands" believe that he is really communicating the "Ineffable Cubic Truth of the Universe" and that he is a great thinker and wise. There is no registered organization with an official membership list to prove that he has any followers at all. Numerous websites appear to be his own work, and postings supporting the theory are frequently anonymous.

Problems with the Time Cube symbolism

The Time Cube theory is based on the claimed supremacy of the number four, but the connection between four and the cube is weak.

The figure most often used to represent the number four is the square, a planar figure. If a solid is required to represent the number four, the most obvious candidate is the tetrahedron.

There is a strong and obvious connection between four and the square, and another obvious connection between the square and the cube. But despite this there is no particularly strong relationship between four and the cube. The most that can be said is that the faces of the cube each have four equal sides and angles.

In arithmetic, four is a square number, but it is not a cubic number.

This weakness shows up in the following way. One of the symmetries of the cube is ignored. The sides are considered as unrelated to the top and bottom. But, an essential property of the cube is that the top and bottom are congruent to the sides. To treat them specially means that what is described is not a cube in essence, but rather a right rectangular prism with a square base, a type of figure of which the cube is a special case. In this way the relatively strong connection between six and the cube is replaced by an artificial connection to four.

The whole thing, in fact, is incoherent and is mostly unintelligible--it is not possible to comprehend what Gene Ray is trying to say to us at all.

Many people view Ray to be simply insane. As a refutation, he asserts on the Time Cube website, "My wisdom so antiquates known knowledge, that a psychiatrist examining my behavior, eccentric by his academic single corner knowledge, knows no course other than to judge me schizoprenic."

Misplaced Pages