u/Kaiser_Billy

I’m going through my annual astronomy phase, so I want this idea public in case it ever turns out to be true.

I think the concept of time as the “4th dimension” may be fundamentally mistaken.

Why?

Because we define time as separate from the dimensions of space, even though general relativity tells us they should be treated as one continuum.

The passage of time is the only truly linear thing in the universe.

Past → present → future.

What is that, if not a line? And what is also a Line? The 1st dimension.

So why do we try to force time onto the concept of a fourth dimension?

The 0th dimension would be a point. It's infinitely small. Like the present. Not an absolute universal present, but an observer’s own present, which is an infinitely small point on their own 1st dimensional line of time.

You stretch that point out and you get a line representing the passage of time.

Stretch that line and you get a plane, which allows you to trace and curve infinite lines.

If you stretch that plane, get space or what we call the third dimension. The dimension allowing you to turn shapes into objects.

So:

Dimension 0 = An infinitely short point in time.

Dimension 1 = Time itself, an infinite line of points in time.

Dimension 2 = A plane, where infinite lines can be traced and curve.

Dimension 3 = Spacetime, merging all previous dimensional concepts into one.

I’m not saying everyone shares the same present. Different observers can have different perspectives, just as one person can hold a cube and another a sphere without invalidating the concept of the 3rd dimension.

My point is simpler:

The present is a point on the 1st-dimensional line of time.

So maybe time is not the 4th dimension but the 1st.