The Land of Straight lines

The Land of Straight Lines.

There is a strange planet called Straight Net somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy. So, what is so weird or special about it? The land (planet) is built upon objects with straight lines. Which means the planet is a big rectangular land. They play soccer with a cube and rugby with rectangular boxes instead of spherical objects; their body, trees, roads, and animals are built using straight lines.

Now, try to ask straight-lander the following questions. 

1. How do you explain to them about something in a spherical shape (soccer ball, volleyball, etc.)?
2. Can they think about an object which does not have edges?
3. How do you tell them there is a specific shape where you can't specify the object's center (on the surface)?

Here is a conversation with a person from the land of straight lines and a scientist from planet Earth.

Scenario: 

Straightlineman (the person from the straightnet planet) sits on a beautiful couch of flat rosewood. However, he is a little nervous as his new visitor is from another galaxy. What helps their communication is the new intergalactic language translator he bought recently from Salmart stores. His guest didn't find any comfort sitting on the flat wooden sofa either because he knew he was going to spend some time with the host.

Straightlineman: Hello, you don't seem to belong to this land.
Earthlian: Yes, you are right. I came from a distant place. A place is different than this place.

Straightlineman: Interesting. So, how different is your world? 

Earthlian: Everything looks the same except for one thing. They don't come near me. You are gonna hurt me.

Straightlineman: I don't get it. We are a peace-loving species; of course, there are exceptions. 

Earthlian: You have sharp edges. As a matter of fact, everything in this land is made up of straight lines, which ends up having sharp edges for everything.

Straightlineman: What is so strange about it? Everything in this world is built using straight lines. This whole universe is made using straight lines. Even you are like that.
Earthlian: True. That's because your brain is tuned with the laws of your world. So it rejects things it finds outside that law, and it's projecting my image in a form you can understand easily.

Straightlineman: That's funny. Now you are saying I should not believe my eyes.
Earthlian: You see the mental projection of your brain's interpretation. Your brain interprets much information and filters out information it feels is unnecessary. End of the day, you see what your brain wants you to see. So, even though my image is different, it doesn't look different within the context of your laws.

Straightlineman: OK, OK. No arguments. I need to prove you are right and wrong. However, I would like to understand this new concept rather than try to understand it. (smiles)
Earthlian: Before I explain the new concept, I would like to show you a paragraph (translated to straightnet language by the intergalactic language translator).

"I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was necessary."

Earthlian: So, did you notice anything strange?

Straightlineman: Despite the messy spelling, I could read everything correctly on the first attempt. This shows that my mind (brain) interpreted everything correctly when my eyes read it wrong. Now I am getting a feeling where you are going to head. However, I will get uncomfortable with it.

Earthlian: OK, Let us take this step by step. Can you think about a shape that doesn't have any edges?

Straightlineman: Is that a valid question? If you take any shape, let us say a triangle, square, hexagon, pentagon, or any 3-dimensional shape cube, pyramid, anything. Everything has an edge.

Straightlineman: Let us continue this exciting discussion with a cup of coffee. Straightlineman 2 served two cups of coffee for the stranger and the straightlineman. The cup was made of a cube with the top opened and served in a flat square saucer.

Earthlian: Coffee is pretty good. Let us come back to our topic. Before I answer your query, let me pose another question. Take any of the shapes you mentioned. For example, take a triangle – How many center points (on the surface) will you find?

Straightlineman: Of course, just one central point on the surface, whether it is a triangle, square, hexagon, etc. In the case of 3-dimensional objects, you will find one center point on every side.
Earthlian: So far so good. How about a 3-dimensional object, where you can have infinite center points.

Straightlineman: Infinite number of center points. That's impossible. It is mathematically not possible.
Earthlian: It is possible, however challenging, to explain with the current set of laws.

Straightlineman: By enhancing our laws or with a new set of rules, you can show the mysterious object that may contain infinite center points on the surface.
Earthlian: Yes. Here is a 3-dimensional object made up of triangles.
Straightlineman: Looks interesting. But it still has a lot of surfaces.
Earthlian: Let us add more triangles to this object by reducing the size of the triangles and see what happens?

Straightlineman: It is getting weird. 

Earthlian: Let us add more and more triangles to this object.

Straightlineman struggling to find his breath, he stares at the object and sees a transformation in the visitor. The visitor looks completely different. The visitor has acquired an image that is beyond his imagination.

Epilogue 

Thanks to the magic of triangles ending up as a sphere, in the end, it took great effort to illustrate the concept of the sphere to a person who lived in the Land of Straight Lines.

In the same thought process, is it possible to think about a concept without beginning for Time!

If there is no beginning for Time, then what is the relevance of the concept of past and future?

Are we in a matrix (created by our mind) that imposes the constraint of Time moving in a direction where the past is behind us while the future is in front of us and we live in the present? "There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination." - Bertrand Russell.

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Further Reading

Internet1. Answers.com - Triangle, Sphere, Geometry
2. Geometry Thru Art -http://mathforum.org/~sarah/shapiro/triangle.diagonals.html
3. Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926)Flatland – A romance of many Dimensions
4. PBS – Time Travel
5. How Stuff Works – How Time Travel will work?
6. Stanford University – Time Travel and Modern Physics
7. Caltech University – Time Travel in Flatland
8. Wikipedia – Grandfather Paradox
9. Absolute Astronomy – Causality (Physics)

* Image courtesy of Intergraph Computer Systems