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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Interstellar_1 to c/196

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[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 51 points 4 months ago

Distance still works! Think about Flatland - they can't hide "behind" anything, but we still couldn't see the people 20 miles away.

[-] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

That is assuming that our universe is flat in the 4th dimension…

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well, yeah. Once you add another dimension the one below it becomes "flat."

[-] chumbalumber 2 points 4 months ago

Not necessarily. A surface (e.g. a cylinder) isn't 'flat' in our dimension, but is 2D

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Sure, but Flatlanders still can't hide behind anything in their environment. They'd be hidden by the very curvature of space, which is really the same as being too "far away" to be seen.

[-] chumbalumber 1 points 4 months ago

I'm not particularly bothered; this seems just semantics to me. Depends on if you view 'hiding on the other side of the cylinder' as being too far away to see. I don't think it is, but if you feel differently that's fine.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Well think about it from the Flatlander's perspective! They can't even perceive the cylindrical shape of their space. They wouldn't be able to go behind the cylinder from their perspective, all they could do is go forward far enough that the shape of space hides them.

It's not just semantics imo, cuz it would apply to us as well. If you're ever confronted with a 4th dimensional being then the only way you can hide is to get far enough away. You can't see the curvature of spacetime so that's useless for you.