The Fourth (or is it Forth?) Dimension

Human beings usually perceive space as a three-dimensional space as long as they don't notice anything with high relative velocity. Three-dimensional space has a number of properties that distinguish it from spaces of other dimensions. It is, for example, the only dimension in which it is possible to tie a knot in a piece of string. Many of the laws of physics, such as the various inverse square laws, depend on dimension three.

The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought not to be completely intuitive, and must be learned during infancy using an unconscious inference. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception. This leads us to the fourth dimension: Cyberspace.

The "space" in cyberspace has more in common with the abstract, mathematical meanings of the term than physical space. It does not have the duality of positive and negative volume (while in physical space for example a room has the negative volume of usable space delineated by positive volume of walls, Internet users cannot enter the screen and explore the unknown part of the Net as an extension of the space they're in), but spatial meaning can be attributed to the relationship between different pages (of books as well as web servers), considering the unturned pages to be somewhere "out there." The concept of cyberspace therefore refers not to the content being presented to the surfer, but rather to the possibility of surfing among different sites, with feedback loops between the user and the rest of the system creating the potential to always encounter something unknown or unexpected.

That being said, in modern art, Cyberspace, said fourth dimension, is mostly used as a synonym for "virtual reality" and remains more discussed than enacted. Visual arts have a tradition, stretching back to antiquity, of artifacts meant to fool the eye and be mistaken for reality. This questioning of reality occasionally led some philosophers and (especially) theologians to distrust art as deceiving people into entering a world which was not real.

Before cyberspace became a technological possibility, many philosophers suggested the possibility of a virtual reality similar to cyberspace. In The Republic, Plato sets out his "Allegory of the Cave," widely cited as one of the first conceptual realities. He suggests that we are already in a form of virtual reality which we are deceived into thinking is true. True reality for Plato is only accessible through mental training and is the reality of the forms.Another forerunner of the modern ideas of cyberspace is Descartes' thought that people might be deceived by an evil demon which feeds them a false reality. This argument is the direct predecessor of the modern ideas of brain in a vat and many popular conceptions of cyberspace take Descartes' ideas as their starting point.

After careful consideration of the fourth dimension, it is obvious that it doesn’t really exist. At all. These words are not real. This blog is not real. The computer you’re reading this at is not real. In fact, it could be argued that you yourself are not real as well, but that is a discussion that only the fifth dimension can handle.