Searching for the Fourth Dimension, by Salvador Dali, explores humanity’s quest for an additional dimension to our Universe. Image credit: S. Dali, 1979.

How would the Universe change if we grew an extra dimension?

If it weren’t just the three space and one time dimensions, what would be different?

“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.”
-Rod Serling

Imagine, if you can, the ability to move in an extra direction: one beyond up-and-down, north-and-south, or east-and-west. That there’s an independent direction beyond our conventional notions of x, y, and z-axes. And let’s make it more interesting for you: imagine that you’re the only one in the world who can access this fourth dimension. To someone in our three dimensional world, you’d be able to do some amazing things that would — in many ways — make you appear godlike:

• you could teleport from one location to another, disappearing in one place and reappearing someplace else,
• you could rearrange or remove someone’s internal organs, performing surgery without the need to cut someone open,
• or you could simply remove someone from the 3D Universe they’re inhabiting, plunking them down at some later time in any location (or not) at your whimsy.