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00:00 Do you ever find yourself questioning reality?
00:03 Have you ever considered that there could be more to this life?
00:06 Today, we're taking a closer look at exactly how the world works, in the deepest and most
00:11 fundamental ways.
00:13 To start, we'll imagine the next dimension - the fifth dimension.
00:17 Then we're asking how could that affect life after death?
00:21 Next we'll spend some time on time with a study that could change everything you thought
00:26 you knew.
00:27 And finally, we're wrapping it all up with the greatest question of all - is anything
00:32 really real?
00:34 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; are there extra
00:39 dimensions?
00:41 Do you need the big questions answered?
00:43 Are you constantly curious?
00:45 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:48 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:54 The laws of physics - the seemingly definite guidelines humans have created to try and
00:59 fathom the mysteries of the sprawling universe we live in.
01:02 But they might not be what we think they are, and our existence could well be structured
01:06 differently.
01:15 We currently recognize at least partially four dimensions in the known universe.
01:20 Three spatial dimensions and one temporal.
01:22 These are length, height, depth and time.
01:24 First, the easy bit.
01:26 Imagine a straight line without any depth whatsoever - that's length.
01:30 Add height and you turn it into a two-dimensional square.
01:33 Throw in width to create depth and you have a 3D object.
01:37 Everything around us that we can see and comprehend is 3D - all the furniture in your house, every
01:42 human you know, the distant planets and stars in the sky.
01:46 The fourth dimension is where things get tricky, because despite knowing what time is, humans
01:51 can't really perceive it - at least, not in the same way a fourth-dimensional being
01:55 would.
01:56 Our 3D cube would be extended yet again to form a tesseract, or hypercube, in a 4D space.
02:02 Sure we can create representations of what we think a 4D tesseract would look like, but
02:07 if one suddenly showed up in real life we wouldn't be able to fully understand it.
02:11 If we were actually 4D creatures, then when we looked in the tesseract, we'd be able
02:15 to see its timeline - its whole life beginning to end in front of you all at once.
02:20 Were we to look at something slightly more interesting - another human being, for example
02:24 - we'd see and comprehend their entire existence from birth to death, like a long photo reel.
02:30 So, if understanding the fourth dimension is already fairly difficult, what does that
02:35 mean for the fifth - the existence of which is contested?
02:38 Partly, we need the concept of a fifth dimension in order to solve many of the problems we
02:43 currently have with the movement of time.
02:45 If time flows at a rate of one second for every one second, as per standard clocks,
02:50 it wouldn't actually go anywhere at all.
02:52 So, we need a new spatial dimension in order to measure the flow of time.
02:56 That's 5D.
02:57 To go back to our tesseract, if you took it into the fifth dimension, you'd now be able
03:01 to see all the different possibilities for the tesseract's life.
03:05 Anything that has happened, will happen or might happen, you'd see it all at once.
03:10 With a human, you'd see every possibility for their life.
03:13 Along the infinite paths that that specific life could take, you'd see parallel worlds.
03:19 With 5D capabilities, you'd be omniscient to some degree.
03:22 You'd have full control over your own timelines, meaning you'd also have influence over all
03:27 others - without the power to outright change them or alter history.
03:31 Via 5D time travel, you could send information and messages backwards or forwards in time,
03:37 communicating with future or past versions of yourself and indirectly with others.
03:41 It would help us to understand our own futures, but also unravel some fundamental mysteries
03:46 of the universe and accomplish an incomprehensible number of things.
03:50 If we all lived in a fifth dimension, we'd be turning humanity's timeline as a whole
03:54 into a circular ring of constant communication between every point in history.
03:59 We'd be endlessly learning, thanks to a collective effort across all generations.
04:04 As such, a fifth dimension would shatter everything we think we know so far - writing off the
04:08 theory of general relativity as our understanding of time completely changes.
04:12 But Einstein's idea that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum
04:16 would also be challenged, with 5D beings whizzing backwards and forwards between the past, present
04:22 and future.
04:23 And, if we break into the fifth dimension - an until now almost incomprehensible realm
04:27 - who's to say we wouldn't unlock more dimensions after that?
04:31 String theory says the universe is the manifestation of one single object - a long string of existence
04:36 made up of photons and electrons all vibrating in different ways.
04:40 If it's true, it turns the universe into an even greater, unified body - made up of
04:45 as many as ten different dimensions.
04:47 M-theory is similar to string theory, but it goes one further by adding an eleventh
04:51 dimension.
04:52 And then there's the bosonic string theory, which suggests there are as many as twenty-six
04:57 dimensions out there.
04:58 Make it to the tenth dimension in string theory or the eleventh in M, and you are essentially
05:03 a god.
05:04 Not only can you see and visit any point in your particular timeline, as per 5D, but you
05:09 basically are at every point in every timeline in the entire multiverse, instantly.
05:15 You understand the life of every one and thing that's ever existed in this universe, as
05:19 well as you do every one and thing that's ever existed in every infinite variation of
05:24 this universe.
05:25 But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
05:27 It's the fifth dimension we need to master first.
05:31 Unlock this comparatively humble plane and we'd still be able to travel through many,
05:35 many worlds, moving all across our own personal timelines, and observing the infinite changes
05:40 which make a difference in our many lives, big or small.
05:44 In one world you got a different sandwich, in another JFK was never shot.
05:49 In one lifetime you miss your bus, in another the Black Death never happened.
05:53 If we occupied the fifth dimension, we'd be able to watch all of these different realities
05:57 play out.
05:59 It may currently be beyond the realm of human perception, but it'd grant us a higher understanding
06:03 of our universe, ourselves, our planet and time itself.
06:11 Where do you go when you die?
06:13 Is there an afterlife?
06:15 Will you remember this life?
06:16 These are questions as old as humankind itself… but in recent years, we've discovered an
06:22 all-new approach toward finding the answers.
06:33 Death comes to us all, but is it really the end?
06:36 Some philosophers, scientists and academics are beginning to think that no, it isn't.
06:41 One of the most prominent voices in the debate for and against some kind of continuation
06:45 after you die is the British mathematician and cosmologist Bernard Carr.
06:49 Alongside his more conventional physics background, including a reputation for black hole research,
06:55 Carr is also interested in psychic phenomenon, the nature of consciousness, end of reality
06:59 and death.
07:00 In numerous papers, articles and interviews, he has set out his ideas on how a multi-dimensional
07:05 space could be the key element to understanding the lot.
07:09 Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Carr is "if you don't want God, you better
07:14 have a multiverse".
07:16 As a response to the so-called "fine-tuning problem", it underpins so much of what he
07:20 has to say.
07:21 The suggestion being that for life, the universe and everything to exist, there either has
07:26 to be a God creating it so that it all works, or there has to be a multiverse to host all
07:31 of the endless variations including this one that works.
07:35 In this way, we all exist in a multi-dimensional space, even if we're only aware of the three-dimensional
07:40 planes we can see.
07:42 For Carr, though, that doesn't mean we're limited to only 3D-ness all the time.
07:46 For example, he has spoken before about the nature of dreams; about how while they don't
07:51 exist in our physical reality, they clearly do exist.
07:55 In a way, we might say that while dreams aren't three-dimensional (not exactly), they are
08:00 something-dimensional.
08:01 So, where and how do they happen?
08:04 They also unfold alongside what we do understand as 3D physical reality; the two things are
08:09 happening at the same time.
08:11 So, how is that explainable?
08:13 Carr has also spoken at length more generally about the nature of consciousness in the mind.
08:18 Of course, this has been an urgent problem for science for hundreds of years, and we
08:22 still haven't properly solved it.
08:24 But again, for Carr, the key to understanding consciousness could lie with unlocking the
08:28 truth about our reality; that there are more, perhaps many more, hyper-spatial dimensions
08:34 - that is, dimensions beyond the height, width and depth combined with time - that we understand.
08:41 When it comes to death, much of what we do know and have theorised starts with the testimonies
08:45 of those who have had near-death experiences, or NDEs.
08:49 And perhaps there are elements to NDEs that are very similar to how we would otherwise
08:53 describe dreams.
08:54 There are seeming physical impossibilities, out-of-body visions, a sense of heightened
08:58 or distorted emotion.
09:00 In papers and interviews, Bernard Carr frequently mentions a mysticism.
09:04 It's not exactly a traditionally scientific term, but one interpretation of Carr's approach
09:09 is that during an NDE we perhaps enter, or get very close to entering, a different dimension
09:15 - higher than what's physically possible for us now.
09:18 And for those hoping for an afterlife, that could be extremely good news.
09:22 But exactly how would it work?
09:24 Carr himself never promises to know exactly what might happen.
09:27 However, he has repeatedly highlighted that not everything is explainable through the
09:30 laws and frameworks of physics as we currently have them - i.e. through general relativity
09:35 and quantum mechanics.
09:37 With things like NDEs, out-of-body experiences and hallucinations, it can be as though physical
09:42 reality breaks.
09:44 For Carr, though, perhaps it isn't broken during these times, even if it is unknowable.
09:49 And the existence of extra dimensions could be an inevitable truth in order to allow for
09:53 these otherwise impossible phenomena.
09:56 And therefore, readers of Carr might justifiably ask, if it's true of near-death moments, then
10:02 why not of the moment of death as well?
10:04 In 2021, Carr published a paper titled "Making Space and Time for Consciousness in Physics".
10:11 In it, he proposes that in order to reach a true theory of everything, we need a model
10:15 that provides "some form of unification of matter, mind, space and time".
10:22 He suggests that we require a new paradigm of physics to accommodate for consciousness.
10:26 And he discusses the current distinction in scientific thought between physical time (i.e.
10:31 as it plays out in the outer world) and mental time (i.e. as it happens in the inner world,
10:37 in our consciousness, through experience).
10:40 The paper in itself is something of a culmination of all of Carr's thoughts and theories on
10:44 the subject to date.
10:46 What's seemingly key for the potential of life, or something after death, however, is
10:50 the possibility for what Carr calls "psychophysical space-time", proposed as an explanation for
10:56 the relationship between physical and perceptual space.
11:00 Carr writes, "The prime feature of our proposal is that perpetual space exists in its own right
11:06 rather than just inside of our heads."
11:09 Perceptual space is then a major, independent and fundamental facet of reality as a whole.
11:14 More broadly, for those who support Carr's model, the perceptual space is where anything
11:19 that apparently isn't physically possible would be allowed to unfold.
11:24 In the context of today's question, could it be where the afterlife is waiting?
11:28 It's tied up with another key concept called the "specious present", which, in short,
11:33 relates to the timescale through which we experience reality.
11:36 For humans, it's typically predictable enough to be unnoticeable in our everyday lives,
11:41 but every so often it can speed up or slow down.
11:44 For example, in a near-death experience, you might live your entire life in a second.
11:49 Or if you're ill with a fever, it might feel as though reality moves faster or slower.
11:53 Our perceptual space becomes significantly blurred during these times, but it's difficult
11:58 to explain why using just the physics we have.
12:01 Carr builds on this by suggesting, toward the end of his paper, that consciousness may
12:05 not even be only an individual thing; that it might not be confined only to any one person,
12:11 independent of everything else.
12:12 He posits that after human consciousness, there could be a terrestrial or planet-wide
12:17 level of consciousness, and then galactic, and then cosmic.
12:21 In the paper, he doesn't reveal exactly how these levels might be linked, but he later
12:24 describes them as a "hierarchy of compactified extra dimensions".
12:29 In his conclusion, Carr writes that his proposed model regards "physical space and perpetual
12:34 space as slices of a five-dimensional space, with the fifth dimension being associated
12:40 with mental time as distinct from physical time."
12:44 Throughout the essay, he suggests that there could be more than five dimensions, though;
12:48 that the fifth dimension is really only the minimum that would be required, if we ever
12:52 wanted to incorporate mental, perceptual phenomenon into a unified theory of everything.
12:57 Carr doesn't specifically mention life after death in the 2021 paper, although he has spoken
13:02 about it at length in various past interviews and pieces.
13:05 More broadly, though, his insistence in a fifth dimension at least - a plane to host
13:10 mental time - implies that suddenly we aren't bound by just the 3D or 4D physicality of
13:15 our bodies.
13:16 And so, when we die in the third and fourth dimensions, could it be that we continue in
13:21 the fifth?
13:22 There's no doubt that the 3D matter that makes us is finite.
13:25 It will decay, fail, and disappear.
13:27 There's only so long that the human brain can last, despite its incredible complexity.
13:32 But again, as Carr writes, the prime feature of this new proposal is that perceptual space
13:37 exists in its own right, rather than just inside our heads.
13:41 So, when the brain is no more, could consciousness just move on?
13:46 Has it always existed in a higher dimension?
13:48 So is death actually not that important to it at all?
13:51 What's your opinion on the wider implications of Carr's alternate model of reality?
13:56 Do you believe that it is possible that some part of us will remain after our bodies have
14:01 perished?
14:02 Let us know in the comments.
14:03 For now, these are intricate, at times speculative, but potentially radical ideas.
14:09 Carr himself concedes that his extra-dimensional theories certainly don't represent mainstream
14:14 physics and that most physicists would be very sceptical.
14:18 But nevertheless, if what he proposed is right, and if it could offer an explanation for not
14:22 just known phenomenon like dreaming and NDEs, but also for what will ultimately happen at
14:28 the end of our lives… then that's why there really could be another dimension after
14:33 you die.
14:37 The concept of time for humans has always been somewhat tricky.
14:41 It seemingly moves in one direction, but many natural laws appear to work backwards in time
14:46 as well.
14:47 Time seems to move at a constant rate, too, but we know that in the wider picture it's
14:51 actually completely subjective, and can change depending on how fast someone is travelling.
14:57 We still don't fully understand time as a species, then, but scientists may have just
15:02 made another fascinating discovery about it.
15:12 Because time is such a challenging concept to investigate, many aspects of it are arbitrary.
15:18 Philosophers often have different concepts of time compared to scientists, and even our
15:22 standard measurement system of time, made up of seconds, minutes, and hours, is simply
15:27 how we choose to measure it.
15:29 It's not as though it has to be that way.
15:32 Breaking time down into intervals of sixty was first developed by the ancient Babylonians,
15:37 who inherited their general number system from the Sumerians.
15:40 Meanwhile, the length of our day is derived from how long our planet sees the sun in the
15:45 sky… which means that a day as we know it is actually only really specific to Earth.
15:51 As science has advanced, we've been able to define each unit of time more clearly.
15:55 For example, the true scientific definition of a second is now how long it takes for a
16:00 cesium atom to complete a set number of oscillations.
16:04 This length of time is true time, within our own structures for it.
16:08 Zooming further out, we can view time as the fourth dimension of reality.
16:13 Physics exists in three dimensions of space, but in order for them to experience change
16:17 in any of those dimensions, time must pass.
16:21 Space-time was a concept developed by Albert Einstein in the early 1900s to show that all
16:26 of the dimensions - the three space plus time - can be collapsed into a single model that
16:31 explains how they interact.
16:33 Until today, that four-dimensional, 4D model has gone largely unchanged.
16:38 So, when physicists announced, in July 2022, in the journal Nature, that they've essentially
16:43 created a new, theoretical dimension of time, it's no surprise that people took notice.
16:49 The study was held by a team at the Centre for Computational Quantum Physics, based in
16:54 New York, although the experiments were staged in Colorado.
16:57 And, as it turns out, the discovery that was ultimately made wasn't exactly intentional.
17:03 The team behind it were actually studying how to create a new phase of matter… but,
17:08 in the process, they ended up hosting a new dimension of time, as well.
17:12 At first, to create a new phase of matter, as was their intention, the team completed
17:16 experiments in quantum mechanics.
17:18 They wanted to create what's called a topological phase of matter, also known as quantum matter,
17:23 which uses quantum entanglement patterns to build an all-new product.
17:27 There's intricate science here, but what it comes down to is that different phases
17:31 of matter are defined as such because they have what are known as different symmetries.
17:36 When water is liquid, for example, the atoms within it are random and move around in space
17:40 to fill empty spots.
17:42 But when water freezes, it loses that freedom.
17:45 Its symmetry has changed, the atoms within behave differently, and it has therefore become
17:50 a new phase of matter.
17:52 In essence, the breaking of the symmetry of atoms is what signals a change in the phase
17:56 of matter for anything.
17:58 But the team behind this latest study found themselves confronted with a further unexpected
18:02 question… because what if you broke the symmetry in time instead of in space?
18:08 Led by the physicist, Philip Dumitrescu, the team worked on a quantum computer with qubits
18:13 in the initial attempts to create their new phase of matter.
18:16 While regular computers use regular bits - zeros or ones, aka binary - quantum bits, or qubits,
18:22 can allow something to be either a one, a zero, or, because of quantum strangeness,
18:27 both at the same time.
18:29 This is important because it's this that allows quantum computers to be so much faster
18:33 than traditional ones.
18:34 And with the right know-how, it means that qubits could also, theoretically, be used
18:38 to create that new topological phase of matter, as they entangle with other qubits.
18:43 In simplest terms, it's as though, in the quantum world, anything is possible… or
18:48 at least, nothing is guided by standard physics anymore.
18:52 The problem is, however, quantum particles stop being quantum if they interact with the
18:57 outside world in any way… and in this sense, they are extremely unstable and short-lived.
19:03 To make the quantum properties last longer, then, and to potentially create matter in
19:07 this instance, the researchers wanted to stabilise the qubits by adding in time symmetry.
19:13 Whereas spatial symmetry is just something that's repeated over and over in space, such
19:17 as the atomic structure of a diamond, time symmetry is such that the individual qubits
19:22 will always be the same at certain points in time.
19:26 To accomplish this time symmetry, then, the team used a regularly flashing laser.
19:31 By having the laser pulse continuously at the same interval every time, an apparent
19:35 dimension of time could be imposed onto the quantum objects, in hopes of stabilising them.
19:41 However, as complex as all that sounds, it didn't work.
19:45 Despite the time symmetry added in, the qubits still barely lasted for more than a second.
19:49 Their quantum properties almost instantly failed, and no new phase of matter was achieved.
19:55 But this is where the idea for adding in another, extra time symmetry came into play… as next,
20:01 the team used another, additional laser - one that produced a different symmetry - to almost
20:07 shore up the conditions for their hoped-for quantum matter.
20:10 By doing so, they were arguably now imposing two dimensions of time onto the quantum particles
20:16 - two lasers pulsing at different intervals, in a bid, again, to stabilise the qubits into
20:22 matter.
20:23 The second laser was pulsed according to the Fibonacci sequence, which is a non-repeating
20:27 pattern that actually already occurs throughout nature.
20:30 It can be seen in everything from the arrangement of leaves on a flower, to the pattern of pine
20:35 cones, and the shapes of some fruits.
20:38 Ultimately, by adding in this second Fibonacci time symmetry, the researchers were able to
20:43 stabilise their qubits for a short time, and therefore create the new phase of matter that
20:48 they had originally sought.
20:50 The stabilisation still only lasted for a few seconds, but nonetheless, for significantly
20:54 longer than any other attempt made before.
20:57 Most significantly of all, though, because of the additional time symmetry required to
21:02 make the experiment work, it was as though the new phase of matter also only existed
21:07 in a new dimension of time.
21:10 Under ordinary conditions, it hadn't been possible, but by bending time to their will,
21:14 the team were able to make it happen.
21:16 So what's next?
21:18 The study highlights a potential method for increasing quantum stability through dimensions
21:22 of time… but what does that really translate to in the real, non-quantum world?
21:27 Well, for one, it's said that this breakthrough has the potential to revolutionise and fast-track
21:32 our general efforts toward quantum computing… and information storage.
21:38 Anything to increase quantum stability, or quantum coherence, could lead to more viable
21:42 and less error-prone quantum computing technologies.
21:46 Currently, fully-functioning quantum computers are still considered to be quite a way off…
21:51 but, for the team behind this study, and for many watching on, the adding in of an extra
21:56 time dimension could mark a vital first step along that path.
22:00 Philip Dumitrescu, in an accompanying statement for the study, refers to the ongoing development
22:05 of quantum computers as "an open problem we're working on".
22:09 It's tipped to become one of the most exciting and important technological advances in the
22:14 near future, and this study may well have provided the key to unlock the door.
22:19 As we step over the threshold into the quantum age, there are some predictions that quantum
22:23 computing could quickly become a trillion-dollar industry.
22:27 Such is the power and influence that it will hold over society.
22:31 From chemical research to biological engineering, cyber security, encryption and artificial
22:36 intelligence, the scope for quantum tech is incredibly wide… even if the specifics are
22:41 still somewhat ambiguous.
22:43 The picture is clearing, though, and all it's taken is some major temporal remodelling to
22:48 push the process forward.
22:50 When you think about it, science in the twenty-first century is pretty incredible.
22:58 How far do you trust your own senses?
23:00 Are you 100% certain that what you see is actually what exists?
23:04 The human brain is the most complex thing on the planet, but also one of the least understood.
23:08 And as we learn more about our neural centre, human perception and the nature of reality,
23:13 there are some suggestions that what we see might not be what's really there.
23:26 Philosophers have debated the nature of reality and perception for millennia, with one branch
23:29 of modern philosophy, metaphysics, focusing on two distinct questions; what is there,
23:34 and what is it like?
23:36 The idea is that if we can ever conclusively answer both of those questions, only then
23:40 will we have a definitive answer to what reality really is.
23:43 The problem is that it's hard to do just that; to totally prove what's real.
23:47 In ethology, the study of animal behaviour, the word "unwealth" is key; taken to mean
23:52 "the world as experienced by a particular organism".
23:55 It's a crucial idea in philosophy and neurology, too, relating to how we can never know if
24:00 we all see the same things in the same ways.
24:03 On a basic level, one person's interpretation of the colour red may actually be green for
24:07 you, but there's no way to test that such a difference exists.
24:11 Every individual being's experience rests on how every unique brain constructs and understands
24:16 the world around it.
24:17 That's not to say that there isn't some method we can look to, though, and science
24:20 does help us to measure and quantify reality.
24:23 Simple experiments can serve to highlight the differences in how we see things, such
24:27 as the rabbit-duck experiment, where subjects are shown an image that can be interpreted
24:31 in two ways - as a rabbit or a duck - and they're almost always split on what they
24:35 see first.
24:37 Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously used the image to explain two different ways
24:41 that he believed human beings see, which he called "seeing that" and "seeing as",
24:46 with "seeing that" being what you've unquestionably seen and "seeing as" being
24:50 what you've interpreted despite multiple options.
24:53 For cognitive psychologist Donald Huffman, though, the significance is greater still.
24:57 Huffman proposes that we never see, or in any way experience, reality as it actually
25:02 is, but rather as a set of delusions catered to ourselves which help us to survive.
25:06 In this way, we're not seeing - or even feeling, smelling or hearing - what's objectively
25:10 real, more a series of shortcuts specifically created by our brains in order to give us
25:15 the best chance of understanding and processing the information that's put before us.
25:20 Since reality is so hard to measure, then, can we ever know the truth?
25:23 The murky world of quantum physics provides arguably the best scientific platform from
25:27 which to pick it apart.
25:29 Quantum physics is the study of the world at its smallest points, where the laws of
25:32 nature break down and stop making any kind of sense.
25:36 John Wheeler's Delayed Choice Experiment, first proposed in the 1970s, provides one
25:40 of our finest examples of how reality can change simply by viewing it.
25:44 The experiment begins with the understanding that an atom of light can act as a wave or
25:48 as a particle… but at which point does it choose which form to take?
25:52 To find out, researchers place a crossroads in the path of an atom of light, knowing that
25:56 if it were a wave it could travel down both paths… but if it were a particle it would
26:00 have to choose one direction or the other.
26:02 The paths are then randomly reconnected, with some merging back together again and others
26:06 not.
26:07 It's a complicated process, but the crucial bit is that the experiment finds that an atom
26:11 of light's form is only determined once its destination - a merged or non-merged pathway
26:16 - has been decided.
26:18 The future dictates its past, meaning that the atom wasn't in any form until it was
26:22 measured.
26:23 According to Andrew Trescot, one scientist to have conducted the test, at the quantum
26:27 level reality does not exist if you are not looking at it.
26:31 It's heavy science, but it also forces us to fundamentally rethink how we experience
26:35 life.
26:36 And there have been plenty of theories put forward as to why nature acts in this way.
26:40 One idea is that we live in a simulation - a proposal gaining some traction in the scientific
26:45 community - with figures like Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson lending their support
26:49 to it.
26:50 For advocates, the atoms that make up our world could mirror the pixels used to build
26:53 video games, while our genetic code is, well, just that - a code not unlike the data streams
26:59 which pass through other digital technologies.
27:01 In fact, in 2017, a team from the University of Washington showed that our actual DNA can
27:07 even be infected with computer viruses, suggesting that both our makeup can be programmed and
27:11 also that that program could be at risk of getting hacked.
27:15 For some, another key indicator is how immersive and lifelike our own simulations are becoming
27:19 - the idea being that if video games are now so technologically advanced that they could
27:23 soon be indistinguishable from reality, then what's stopping us from already featuring
27:27 in a sim that's tantamount to real life?
27:30 While it's a much more hypothetical answer to today's question, most games don't
27:34 load their entire maps all of the time, but rather only the areas that your character
27:37 enters into.
27:39 Match the same process to our own lives, and perhaps nothing exists outside of that which
27:43 you're immediately experiencing.
27:44 Here's where we begin to cross into another field of philosophy called "solipsism",
27:49 which is the idea that your own mind is the only thing in the world we can know to exist.
27:54 Rene Descartes famously said "I think, therefore I am".
27:57 To him, his thinking was the one part of reality that he could be absolutely sure was real.
28:02 Everything else in a person's life might simply be imagination.
28:05 In this way, people, places and things only come into play when you hear, see or feel
28:10 them through your senses; before then, they're not there.
28:13 Again, because everyone has a unique point of view, it's another mind-bending theory
28:17 that's ultimately impossible to prove or disprove.
28:20 We can, in a manner of speaking, disprove those senses, however, because, in some ways,
28:25 those senses don't actually exist.
28:27 Sights, smells and sounds aren't truly real; they're just the product of your brain working
28:31 out what to alert you to, and how specifically to convey that information.
28:36 Your brain has never seen or heard the outside world because it's encased within your skull.
28:40 So, it uses various tools to detect the world around it, like eyes and ears, but those tools
28:45 could well be faulty or deceptive.
28:47 At its heart, our reality is more the result of electrical signals that course through
28:51 our brains.
28:52 Our experience is whatever our neurons tell us it is.
28:55 And the world itself follows suit, but by swapping brain activity for basic atoms.
28:59 Now, cars aren't actually cars, for example; they're just a bunch of different atoms
29:04 sorted in a particular way.
29:06 Yet we see a car because our brain forms that image.
29:08 So, from some perspectives, we can say that a car doesn't exist until we see it, because
29:13 it's only atoms until we perceive it as a car, until we assume Ludwig Wittgenstein's
29:17 seeing as mode.
29:18 There's no need for crisis just yet, though, because none of this changes how or why we
29:23 live our lives as we do.
29:25 If we're part of a simulation, then what difference does it really make?
29:28 If atoms beyond our perception are capable of changing as soon as we glance away, then
29:32 the human experience continues as it has always done regardless.
29:36 Every time you look at something, it's going to be there.
29:39 But still, it's an idea which pushes us into a total change of perspective.
29:43 Perhaps the only things that exist right now are whatever it is we're currently experiencing.
29:47 Perhaps even when we blink, everything else disappears, or there's nothing behind you
29:51 until you turn to look at it.
29:52 Really, it doesn't matter.
29:54 Life goes on, and we should all try to enjoy the exciting uncertainty of it all.
30:00 So what's your verdict?
30:02 How many extra dimensions do you believe there are?
30:04 Or are you satisfied with just the three space plus time that we know and have right now?
30:10 As always, air your views in the comments.
30:13 For now, this is one field of theoretical science that truly asks us to reimagine the
30:18 world.
30:19 Because actually, 4D might not be enough to properly explain everything there is.
30:25 And that is a pretty major realization.
30:27 [MUSIC]
30:55 Are there extra dimensions?
30:57 The jury's still out, and the research is still ongoing.
31:00 But if we ever did go beyond length, height, depth, and time, then it surely would change
31:06 everything forever.
31:09 What do you think?
31:10 Is there anything we missed?
31:11 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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