You ever see a dog that’s got its leash tangled the long way round a table leg, and it just cannot grasp what the problem is or how to fix it? It can see all the components laid out in front of it, but it’s never going to make the connection.

Obviously some dog breeds are smarter than others, ditto individual dogs - but you get the concept.

Is there an equivalent for humans? What ridiculously simple concept would have aliens facetentacling as they see us stumble around and utterly fail to reason about it?

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    514·
    1 year ago

    We live in 4D though. The three spacial dimensions (length, width, depth) and time.

    That’s why the term “4D chess!” is so comical. 4D chess is just a normal game of chess lol.

    • owenfromcanada@lemmy.worldEnglish
      253·
      1 year ago

      When people say “4D” they typically mean four spatial dimensions, in addition to time. You’re not being clever, you’re misinterpreting the context.

      • KrokanteBamischijf@feddit.nl
        41·
        1 year ago

        We’re not even quite sure yet that time is actually different from space. All research seems to suggest they are sides of the same coin.

        Depending on how you look at it, considering time a separate dimension at all just seems silly.

        Then again, this is just some more context for your context.

        • owenfromcanada@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I’m not arguing that time can be considered a fourth dimension, or the relationship between time and space.

          But the comment about 4D being hard to comprehend was referring to the idea of a fourth spatial dimension (as we could comprehend such a thing). Obviously, we don’t have a hard time comprehending time (at least superficially), so the comment about it being “comical” is pedantic and has strong “AKSHUALLY” energy.