Time Dimension To Become Space-like

KentuckyFC writes "The Universe is about to flip from having three dimensions of space and one of time to having four dimensions of space. That's the conclusion of a group of Spanish astrophysicists who have calculated that observers inside such a Universe would see it expanding and accelerating away from them just before the flip (abstract, full paper pdf on the physics arXiv). 'We show that regular changes of signature on brane-worlds in AdS bulks may account for some types of the recently fashionable sudden singularities. Therefore, the fact that the Universe seems to approach a future sudden singularity at an accelerated rate of expansion might simply be an indication that our braneworld is about to change from Lorentzian to Euclidean signature. Both the brane and the bulk remain fully regular everywhere.'" Update: 10/09 16:06 GMT by Z : A few readers have written in to point out that the article is not peer-reviewed; your mileage may vary.

Mayan Calender

[andyh3930]

So that's whats going to happen when the Mayan calender rolls over in 2012.

Ode to the new way

[fyngyrz]

Oh, I'm living in a tesseract,
a four dimensional box.
It's bigger on the inside,
what why my four-space rocks!
When you get on the inside,
the outside becomes the in,
Dimensionally speaking,
it's all about the spin.

E=MC^2

[jshriverWVU]

If only Einstein was around to see it :)

My advice

[Weaselmancer]

Avoid poetry, coastal cities, and the Catskill mountains. Seriously. [wikipedia.org]

I wasn't expecting that...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody Expects the Spanish Astrophysicists! In fact, our two main weapons are theory and telescopes, theory and telescopes, and an insane amount of genius, wait that's three, our three main weapons are...

Re:Mayan Calender

[dark404]

There will be a patch to update the calendar software to granite instead of sand stone, this will push the calendar into 4096.

TFA

[HalifaxRage]

TFA can be found at our new domain, timecube.asia

Plagarism!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I first read this theory in Oolong Caloophid's seminal work: "Where God Went Wrong."

More of this is elaborated in his development of these themes: "Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes," and "Who Is This God Person Anyway?".

This can mean but one thing

[Arthur B.]

Jeebus will return ! Clean your browsing history and cache.

Re:Another dimension?

[weirdcrashingnoises]

No, but your slashdot ID# should cease to matter.

and there was much rejoicing.

(holy crap we have close #'s too)

Re:So. . . .

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

the intersection of mathematics and cosmology

[circletimessquare]

where the theories and calculations of the brightest brains in the room become indistinguishable from the random brainfarts of two stoners sitting on a smelly couch in a dorm room at 4:20 AM

Re:Not just what, but when?

[Basehart]

I'm guessing some time in the future.

great

[nomadic]

I really hope I'm not in the DMV when time ends.

Re:Not just what, but when?

[timster]

Silly... obviously the question is NOT "When will this happen?" Without time there is no "when", and no "happen", and no "will". Only "this".

Should this research be correct, the only question left will be: "This?" Now and always and forever, this?

Peer review

[MillionthMonkey]

The peers are going to review this a few centimeters from now; give them time.

Re:Not just what, but when?

[ArieKremen]

The real question is not "when is this expected to happen?", but where? I think it already happened on the NJ turnpike a long time ago

Re:Not just what, but when?

[$RANDOMLUSER]

I'm guessing some time in the future.

You missed the whole point. Some place in the future.

Re:E=MC^2

[mikael]

He's spinning in his grave - in a quantum mechanical way of course.

Re:Mayan Calender

[xanadu113]

No, that's just the Mayan Y2.012K bug...

All you D & D players

[Ilan Volow]

Get that last game in before your game stops working with your newly created 144-sided dice.

Lorentzian to Euclidian transformations...

[jnaujok]

All this talk about time becoming a spatial dimension and realities collapsing is making my brane hurt.

Yeah, I said it.

Mileage?

[TheRaven64]

Update: 10/09 16:06 GMT by Z : A few readers have written in to point out that the article is not peer-reviewed; your mileage may vary.

So may your yearage, presumably.

Re:Peer review

[eclectro]

You don't need peer review if you have enough branes.

It is almost physically painful to see

[Nephrite]

slashdotters comment on science topics. Top comments are always "Funny" because no one really understands what it's all about and so everybody just makes stupid jokes instead.

Re:But what does that mean?

[planckscale]

Well lets hope that when I abruptly stop that I am frozen in front of my laptop reading Slashdot. That way I can ruminate on the comment "I really hope I'm not in the DMV when time ends." for eons.

Re:Not just what, but when?

[prat393]

It's not the future anymore. It's just "that way". *Points*

Re:Not just what, but when?

[Dr. Eggman]

In the future, time will become very confusing...

Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?
Sandurz: Now, you're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now is happening now.
Dark Helmet: What happend to then?
Sandurz: We passed then.
Dark Helmet: When?
Sandurz: Just now. Were at now, now.
Dark Helmet: Go back to then!
Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now.
Sandurz: Now?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Sandurz: I can't.
Dark Helmet: Why?
Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: When will then be now?
Sandurz: Soon.
Dark Helmet: How soon?

Re:Not just what, but when?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you're saying the universe will become a Fark thread?

ow ow my brane hurts!

[Anonymous Coward]

..maybe if I wait a few feet it'll feel better

Assumptions

[camperdave]

Change requires time. It's a logical paradox.

You're assuming that there is only one time dimension. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Re:Mayan Calender

[DeepZenPill]

No no no, you have it all wrong. It goes like this:

Time 0: Universe has time and is normal.
Time 1: Universe suddenly flips and now has 0 time, 4 space.
Time ??: ????
Time 42: Profit!

Re:E=MC^2

[bar-agent]

He's spinning in his grave - in a quantum mechanical way of course.

Would that be spin-up or spin-down?

Re:M-Theory is bad science

[fyngyrz]

M-Theory was the brain child of a bunch of mathematicians

M-Theory was the brane child of a bunch of mathematicians

[tips hat]

Well, I for one welcomed our five dimentional

[crovira]

overlords.

Breaking "time's arrow" will really fuck with our verb tenses.

But I worried about that tomorrow...

Y 2 K been berry good to me..

[bdwoolman]

I called it Y 2 K Y Jelly.

And more on topic, Can I say that the arrow of time is an illusion?

Be here now.

Re:Assumptions

[flyingsquid]

All I know is, my boss has now declared that our fifteen-minute breaks are to be replaced by 15-centimeter breaks. Asshole.

Re:Time speeding up

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Okay, that's my rant. You can slap the straitjacket on me now and ship me off to the funny farm.

Or give you a Phd in theoretical physics. It's all good.

Re:E=MC^2

[HTH NE1]

Would that be spin-up or spin-down?

Both, obviously.

I find that strangely charming.

Re:Eternal Life

[ConceptJunkie]

That means no movement and no thought.

Don't look now, but it's already happened in Washington, D.C.

Re:Assumptions

[dpiven]

Easy. Time is what keeps everything from happening at once, and space is what keeps everything from happening to you.

Re:Time speeding up

[phoenixwade]

Okay, that's my rant. You can slap the straitjacket on me now and ship me off to the funny farm.

Or give you a Phd in theoretical physics. It's all good.

IS there a difference?

Re:Time speeding up

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

IS there a difference?

It's possible to actually get certified as sane if you're sent to the funny farm.

Thank you, Doctor

[Prototerm]

Don't blink, don't turn away, don't close your eyes, and whatever you do, don't blink!

(for those of you who didn't recognize the Doctor Who quote in the parent, turn in your geek badge!)

Re:Time speeding up

[russ1337]

Our observed universe is self-contained within the event horizon of a giant black hole.

dude, you just totally changed the way I see the universe. I swear I almost blacked out for a second...

Quack alert!

[Fujisawa Sensei]

You still haven't produced the code for COSA, its been more than a month. Do you have it?

A time dimension is crackpottery.

I suggest you read Relativity by Albert Einstein. He explains Special Relativity in simple mathematics that even somebody who has taken Algebra in US public school system can understand.

Read Nasty Little Truth About Spacetime Physics and get the facts.

I will refer you to the following questionnaire: Are you a quack? [sunysb.edu]

Re:Y 2 K been berry good to me..

[blahlemon]

The arrow of lunch time, doubly so.

Re:Assumptions

[genner]

I knew you where going to say that......so it begins.

Re:Mayan Calender

[fractoid]

Soggy? His Noodly Appendage Shall Not be Overcooked!