@icedquinn @matrix don't tell them about closed time-like curves!

@newt @matrix i have a meeting at 4*sqrt(-2) we will/won't discuss/silence whether the latest scrum iteration is completed/never happened.

@icedquinn @matrix I remember reading a book set in a universe where time was two dimensional. Meaning, you could totally move faster or slower in time relative to someone else, depending on your angle to him in time space.

@icedquinn @matrix oh wait, no. I'm stupid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_(series)

"Orthogonal is <...> taking place in a universe where, rather than three dimensions of space and one of time, there are four fundamentally identical dimensions. While the characters in the novels always perceive three of the dimensions as space and one as time, this classification depends entirely on their state of motion, and the dimension that one observer considers to be time can be seen as a purely spatial dimension by another observer. "

@newt @matrix i don't actually know what the ramifications of imaginary time are. only that hawking was chuffed it was his only theory that hadn't been stolen by sci-fi writers.

i'm not entirely sure what imaginary numbers are either, other than something that is literally incalculable and we just have a gentleblob's agreement to pretend it exists symbolicly

@icedquinn @matrix oh.. complex numbers are just a fun and useful abstraction, that can be applied to a whole plethora of problems. Think of them (and other mathematical thingies) not as something that platonically exists in real world, but as a programming library that is waaaaaaay more abstract to be obviously useful. But once you get a taste to it, you'll see how you can apply "code" from it in a lot of things.

@newt @matrix that's what i said

@icedquinn @matrix did you?

When I compared it to computer code, I mean this in the most literal sense. Except you have to compute this stuff using pen and paper. Or maybe use Mathematica, i dunno.

@newt @icedquinn @matrix The best intuitive insight I had about complex numbers is that it can be used to do rotations on the 2D number plane, without having to resort to trigonometric shenanigans. Just multiply two complex numbers and you are already doing a turn on the 2D plane. Now imagine what exponentiation would do. You would be going round and round in circles, spirals and crazy turns.

@unabomber @icedquinn @matrix name checks out

@newt @icedquinn @matrix
What dou you mean one time?
Time is the 4th dimension.

I am not an expert, but as far, as I understand the space as it is, you are always moving at speed of light through the 4 dimensions, but you can change the direction. When you astart moving in the 3 dimensions we call space, the angle gets changed, and you no longer move as fast in time.

@LukeAlmighty @icedquinn @matrix in our universe, time is special. In that book, there is no separate dimension for time, but rather everyone can "choose" which dimension is time and which three are space.

Honestly, Greg Egan is just into some really mindbending brainfuckery that has enough maths worked out to make sense. Go read his books if you like this stuff.

@newt @icedquinn @matrix
Sorry, I'm still having probmels wrapping my head around gravity and electro-magnetism in our own space.