All of which invites questions not only about how many dimensions we experience the world in, but how many we actually exist in. For most of us the mind boggles when we try to imagine more than a few steps beyond time and space. Movies conjure images of blackboards and notepads covered in enigmatic equations punctuated with Greek letters and wayward vectors, exciting but incomprehensible. But one of the co-founders of Modern String Field Theory has come to the rescue on The Big Think. CUNY’s Dr. Michio Kaku believes we exist in no fewer – and no more – than 11 dimensions. I like the musical metaphor that connects it all together:
The subatomic particles we see in nature, the quarks, the electrons, are nothing but musical notes on a tiny vibrating string. What is physics? Physics is nothing but the laws of harmony that you can write on vibrating strings. What is chemistry? Chemistry is nothing but the melodies you can play on interacting vibrating strings. What is the universe? The universe is a symphony of vibrating strings.
What a sublime thought. Here we are, trembling together, quivering imperceptibly in harmony on levels we can only imagine.
