Whenever you read a story about a potential scientific breakthrough, you can safely assume it is complete bullshit. The news is full of stories of cures for diseases that don’t work in the long run, and new sources of energy that aren’t as practical as we hoped. But it is sill fun to half-believe the stories, just to feel the little rush of hope.
That happened recently when I read about the physicist who thinks we might be able to create a Unified Theory of Everything if we allow for one additional dimension of time and one of space.
http://www.physorg.com/news98468776.html
The part that gave me pleasure was the analogy of our three-dimensional existence being more like shadows from the four-dimensional reality that we can’t perceive.
I’ve been saying for years that evolution as we perceive it is not a feature of reality so much as an internally consistent perception, like a shadow. Our brains aren’t equipped to understand the nature of reality. What we understand as the gradual change of species over time is no more a feature of reality than your shadow is a real person.
Because I doubt all stories about potential scientific breakthroughs, I figure it is unlikely we will create a theory of everything by adding one dimension of time and space. But let’s say this idea turns out to be validated by scientists. And let’s say you currently believe the theory of evolution is reality. Would this hypothetical breakthrough in physics be enough to convince you that your understanding of evolution has only a shadow connection to reality?
This new work in physics, if it panned out, would not invalidate the evidence of evolution in our three-dimensional perspective. But it would prove that all three-dimensional perspectives are false. At best, the theory of evolution would be a useful fiction, like religion.
For your convenience, I will list the comments I predict for this post:
1. Evolution is true, you idiot! Read a book!
2. We KNOW the Earth is more than 10,000 years old!
3. That physicist is probably wrong!
4. You keep changing your story! Gotcha!
5. Blah, blah, gaps in the fossil record!
6. When will you stop your woo-woo blathering about evolution?!
7. We live in three dimensions. Physics is just useful math.
8. Get back to penis jokes!
Did I miss any?