Also, why are we confined by a one dimensional ray of time. Why can we not experience things in the past present and future, or things in other dimensions of time that would include events that could have happened but didn't. Why are we confined to a single point in this abstract concept of time. Should we not be able to be in multiple times at once, or at least be able to travel in different directions in it?

Exactly. I find it frankly frightening that if it is always "now," and we are unable to occupy anything other than "now," that it is merely our built-in since of the passage of time that prevents us from being already dead (or, if you prefer to think more positively, becoming conscious for the first time right now).

This is exactly what I was getting at above about how if you ponder these questions long enough, you can scare yourself. This is why I say that you have to find a balance with what you can live with and the limits of your beliefs.

I know, yet I've found it impossible to forgo these thoughts since two months ago, when I first started in on my existential thoughts. In some ways I wish I could return to the obliviousness I had, but the immensity of the issues at stake are too compelling.

As an alteration of the branch universe theory.. I think.. I was wondering if there is an infinite number of dimensions, all containing different outcomes of things that could have happened. So every time something that 'happens' is determined, time, or our dimension, splits, still traveling through time in the same direction, but with different outcomes to the event. And since there is an infinite number of things that could happen, I think there is an infinite number of universes and or dimensions of our universe.

we have also sorts of wierd conversations like this in physics class. my physics teacher is one of the coolest and most intelligent people Ive ever met.

one of his more "interesting" personal theories is that humans are just evolving to the point where some of us can start to see time outside of a linear view, and that a lot of phenomenon like ghost sitings are people seeing things that have already happened or are going to happen. people in our class have had simultaneous dreams with people they knew, been to places they'd never seen before but knew better than their own town, etc.

It's like those aliens off of star trek. They evolved to a point where they did not physically exist, but did physically exist. And could travel dimensions at will, and be 'anywhere'. Mabye any 'god' we have here is just a highly evolved omnscient being.

I believe we are evolving like that. I have personally experienced such things, as seeing into the future, or being able to "sense" things around me.

1) 2 weeks before it happened, I had a dream that our house was going to catch on fire. I thought it was just a dream when I had the dream, but I remembered the dream to vividly, and the damage to boot. When it happened, it shocked me, but I never said anything.

2) A year later, we are on our way on a bus to go to special classes, for auto tech, etc, and my friend was going to drive. I told him not to, because he would be in an accident. It would not be severe, but it would happen. Everyone laughed at me when they heard that, until we got almost to the school, where he was stopped at a traffic light, and had hit another car in the side.

3)Another time, I had a dream about a blue Ford Ranger pickup, sitting along side the interstate, and I dreamt that I would have to get it, and it would not be in that condition when I went to retrieve it. The State Police called us at 7:00 in the morning, and said a semi had hit a pickup truck, (my dad was telling me this as they said it) and I finished off that it was a blue Ford Ranger, telling them the exact location before they said it.

By that time, the dream had faded somewhat, like a memory of yesterdays events that were not overly important. In my dream, I had seen the truck in daylight. When the people came to look at the truck, they said it was totally impossible for me to have seen it in daylight, because the truck had only been disabled since 4:00 that morning, and I hadn't been that way between those times.

I think we are destined for great things, if we (the human race) can ever get away from being so blasted violent all the time... <.<

@Chip: Ah, we were talking about different things and didn't know it. I thought you meant thinking about why humans are here in the sense of what is our purpose, not in terms of multi-dimensions and time. Thinking about our purpose in life is what I meant was a waste of time, not about abstractions in the universe and such. My bad

Although I must pose the question, what if there is no time at all? Time is, after all, a human invention. Why should time travel be possible at all? Why should there be multiple universes? Heat flows from warm to cold, never the reverse. Heat also flows at a constant rate depending on the materials involved, and the temperature deltas. Likewise, why should time be able to 'flow' in the reverse, or 'flow' at different speeds given the same medium (the universe)?

I'm not saying we should rely only on what we sense (for that would be foolish - I certainly can't "sense" radio waves, but I know they are there)

yes, time being a 'human invention' could be some what true. like for instance, today we say *meet me at 3:00* , we are basically saying *meet me when the sun is over there in the sky*. we just invent time to organize our day. time just represents change. or does change represent time

the universe as a turing machine.... :p... of course that would make it impossible to tell when the universe would end....ah the possibilities....wait a sec, is a magnetic monopole a magnet that repels on all sides? you can buy those for levitating toys like the photo cube and stuff like that....

A monopole magnet is a magnet that only has a north or south pole, and has not been found. Think about it, if you chop a bar magnet in half, you don't end up with one being all north and the other all south, but rather each half still has two poles

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole

ok...wierd...there are magnets that have neither pole and repulse everything....

...no there aren't

I have never heard of such a magnet elfie. I would say if you could make a monopole magnet, you could create energy, which is impossible.

@kllrnohj: yes, there is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamagnetic

I would say if you can create a monopole magnet you need to be writing a physics paper and claiming some serious awards, because no one else can

there would also be a lot of physics books that would need revising...

did you even read that link? diamagnetism is a phenonmenon which repels both poles of magnets, not that has only one pole. my original question was for clarification

note the post times dude - i'm reading the link now

and you said a "magnet that has neither pole" - everything has a diamagnet effect, and diamagnet doesn't mean the material is a magnet at all ( "All materials show a diamagnetic response in an applied magnetic field;" )

EDIT: And the diamagnet is an effect of an applied magnetic field, not something that exists by itself ( "Diamagnetism is a form of magnetism that is only exhibited by a substance in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field." )

so shoot me, I haven't even looked at anything on diamagnetism in about 3 years till I looked it up to prove my point that materials exist which repel both poles.