58: Trans-Dimensional Slices

Dimensions.   Reflecting on dimensions has a long history in popular culture, from the geometrically minded satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott to the 1937 film The Fourth Dimension by director Jean Painleve. But how is the relationship between different dimensions explored in the Star Trek universe? From a plane of two-dimensional beings in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Loss," to higher-dimensional beings like members of the Q continuum with their ability to pop in and out of three-dimensional space at will, Star Trek is replete with examples of dimensional interplay.   In this episode of Meta Treks, hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling are joined by Trek.fm Patreon manager and host of Melodic Treks and Warp Five, Brandon-Shea Mutala, to discuss the physics, the philosophy, and the geometry of dimensions in the Star Trek universe.   Chapters  Welcome to Episode 58 (00:01:09)  Introducing Brandon-Shea Mutala and Patreon (00:01:58)  Flatland and The Fourth Dimension (00:15:26)  Time as a Dimension vs. Higher Spatial Dimensions (00:18:46)  Lower-Dimensional and Higher-Dimensional Beings (00:21:01)  Bending Space - Warp Drive and Wormholes (00:30:28)  Higher-Dimensions and Omniscience (00:43:20)  Slices of Cheese - Alternate Three-Dimensional Realms (00:45:51)  Four-Dimensionalism and Wormhole Aliens (00:50:23)  The Motion Picture and Visualizing Dimensional Slices (00:57:28)  Fluidic Space - A Different Kind of Cheese (00:59:07)  Captain Proton and The Fifth Dimension (01:03:12)  Dimensions in Theoretical Physics - String Theory (01:04:46)  The Paranormal and Pseudoscience (01:08:26)  From Theoretical Physics to Experimental Physics (01:12:14)  Dimensions, Transporters, and Personal Identity (01:14:06)  The Mathematics of Higher Dimensions (01:16:57)  Final Thoughts (01:18:14)   Hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling   Guest  Brandon-Shea Mutala   Production Mike Morrison (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Patrick Devlin (Associate Producer) Kay Shaw (Associate Producer) Norman Lao (Associate Producer) Kit Loffstadt (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)   Send us your feedback! Twitter: @trekfm  Facebook: http://facebook.com/trekfm  Voicemail: http://www.speakpipe.com/trekfm  Contact Form: http://www.trek.fm/contact  Visit the Trek.fm website at http://www.trek.fm/  Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.com/trekfm   Support the Network! Become a Trek.fm Patron on Patreon and help us keep Star Trek talk coming every week. We have great perks for you at http://patreon.com/trekfm