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Time Cube is a hypothesis proposed by Gene Ray on his Time Cube website, postulating that time is cubic, not linear, and that there are four simultaneous days in a single rotation of Earth. The website [1] is well-known within Internet culture, with many imitations and parodies.
The website itself contains exceptionally long strident tracts of large font text in a variety of colours. Gene Ray states that many people tend not to understand Time Cube because "[They] are educated singularity stupid by evil ass educators". He claims Time Cube's supremacy on the grounds that "Time Cube is above academic comprehension. Universities equate doomed Towers of Babble", and he claims to "have demonstrated absolute unrefutable proof" of his ideas. The most common view is that Time Cube is eccentric nonsense philosophy.
[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg -->|thumb|right|200px|Screenshot of the Time Cube website]]
Features of Time Cube
Supremacy of the number four
Ray states that "4 is the supreme number of the universe" and frequently divides continua into four classes. The classes are called "corners", and there are several sets of them mentioned:
- The four corners of human races are black, white, Asian, and Indian
- The four corners/stages of a person's lifetime are baby, child, parent, and grandparent
- The four corners of a person's head are the face, two ears, and back of the head (Ray says: "Humans are Cubic forms that rotate a 4 corner face lifetime.")
- The four corners of Earth are the following: the places where days start at midnight, the places where days start at sunrise, the places where days start at noon, and the places where days start at sunset. Ray calls these corners Midnight, Sunup, Midday and Sundown, respectively. (more on this below)
- The four corners of the day are midnight, 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM
- The four corners of the year are the two equinoxes and two solstices
According to Ray, the four corners of the Earth divide Earth into four quadrants. For example, the Sunup-Midday quadrant is the portion of Earth between Sunup and Midday.
He calls the universal Greenwich Mean Time standard "bastardly queer" because it represents only one style of day. Anything associated with those who adhere to the standard, and beliefs related to the standard, are derisively referred to as "1-day", rather than "4-day".
Principle of opposites
Ray has stated that "Earth [is] 2 opposite hemispheres rotating in opposite directions." Based on a flag displayed by him at the MIT lecture, on the opposite sides of which are illustrated opposite hemispheres, it appears that this refers to the Earth rotating clockwise when viewed from the south pole, and counter-clockwise from the north pole. He states: "Planets [are] created via opposite rotating poles.".
Ray frequently contrasts the concept of opposites with the concepts of "singularity" and "entity" associated with so called "1-corner perspectives". He says: "Earth is not an entity"; "YOU can't handle Cubic Time, Cubic Life or Cubic Truth - for inside of Time Cube equates the most magnificent symmetry of opposites existing within the universe - for every corner has an equal opposite corner, every 2 corners has an equal opposite 2 corners, every tri-corner has an equal opposite tri-corner and every 4 corners has an equal opposite 4 corners. No human or god can utter such powerful ineffable opposite Cubic Truth. God is singularity. Evil singularity dooms Opposite Creation."
Humanity as a whole
He separates humanity into two "sex poles", male and female. Between these opposites, he designates 4 corners of race. The four races are correlated with the four corners of the day, based on the lightness or darkness in each:
- "The simultaneous 4 human races debunks a God for any race.
- Sunup represents Indian Race
- Midday represents White Race
- Sundown represents Asian Race
- Midnight represents Black (Negro) Race"
- "If the 4 racial components of 2 sex pole hemispheres agreed to a cubing of the sphere as a spiritual unity, heavenly music of cubed sphere could be audible on Earth simultaneously to every human ear, not discord, but harmony."
Ray doesn't believe that one race is supreme, but he does believe that they should remain separate and should stay in the geographical regions where they originated, stating "Racial integration equals 'Racial Slop'"[2]. He stands against interracial reproduction: "Interracial marriage is stupid and evil for it creates a child not of either race, betraying the child and both the races."
Academia
The Time Cube website has a large amount of text on theories relating to academic and government conspiracies to suppress Time Cube via the school system.
Gene Ray says:
- "Teachers are hired evil word pedants who enslave childish minds to a lifetime stupidity."
- "Educators are the primary cause of evil mathematics."
- "Physicists [are] forbidden to acknowledge Time Cube."
- "Schools are actually churches."
- "Singularity educators are unfit to even live."
- "Your own people will kill you to prevent this 'Forbidden Truth Cube' from ever being known."
Religion
Ray has stated that "God can't occupy 4-corners. Time Cube disproves God. God is an evil adult 'word scam' against children that justifies adult plunder of all natural resources on Earth." He invokes his "Cubic geometrical principle of the Self" being but 1 of 4 corners to claim that a human-form God would fail to occupy the full 4 corners, and therefore could not possibly be omniscient/omnipotent. Consequently, Ray claims that it is illogical to claim the existence of an omniscient and omnipotent human-form God, such as the one worshipped by Judeo-Christian religions.
With regard to religion, Ray says things such as:
- "Christianity is subservient to the Jews."
- "Worship of Word as God equates to adults eating their children."
- "The male god singularity and same sex trinity equates denouncing motherhood and supporting a state of queers."
Reactions and criticism
Views of Time Cube, of the website and of Gene Ray are varied. Many view the website and theory as examples of absurdism or surrealism and some value it as a website they find humourous. Some find it incoherent and unintelligible—and may therefore consider Ray insane, to which he has responded: "My wisdom so antiquates known knowledge, that a psychiatrist examining my behavior, eccentric by his academic single corner knowledge, knows no course other than to judge me schizophrenic." Some of the website's statements and claims bear a resemblance to conspiracy theories—the website alleges the existence of academic and government conspiracies to suppress Time Cube. Others view it as having gained notoriety as a so-called crank website. On the other hand, there are some who claim to understand and follow Time Cube, and associated philosophy promoted by Gene Ray.
Critics invoking scientific principles consider it unclear how Ray's ideas relate to established concepts of time. Furthermore, from a scientific point of view a lack of testable constructs in Time Cube makes this doctrine unfalsifiable, thus a priori unscientific. Critics argue that Ray's writings are semantically unclear to a degree that makes meaningful discussion in scientific terms impossible.
Since many members of academic and religious institutions view Time Cube as eccentric nonsense, Ray poses no threat to academia and the government, entities which he considers evil.
Criticism of the Time Cube symbolism
The Time Cube theory is based on the claimed supremacy of the number four, but some fail to take into account that which renders four important—Time Cube's rotational properties. Neglecting these, the square and tetrahedron bear a stronger connection to the number. Although four is connected to the square, and the square connected to the cube, there is no particularly strong relationship between four and the non-rotating Cube.
This criticism is negated by the aforementioned rotation. Time Cube rotates about an axis that passes through the center of one face and the center of the opposite face. These two faces are designated (interchangeably) the Top and Bottom. The rotation breaks the full symmetry of the cube and divides its six faces into a group of two (Top and Bottom), each with a stationary center on the axis; and a group of four (the four sides), each with a moving center not on the axis. He says that the group of 4 faces is like the 4 walls of a Cube-like room, existing between the Top and Bottom, or ceiling and floor. The corners are where the walls intersect; this means that by "corners", he is referring to the vertical edges of the Cube (those parallel to the rotational axis). There are 4 vertical edges, or "corners"; the other 8 are designated "horizontal". This nonstandard definition often causes confusion, since although a room's corners are normally considered to be the areas where the walls meet, a Cube's corners are generally taken to be its 8 vertices, or its 12 edges (both horizontal and vertical).
Ray uses this model to represent the Earth's rotation. The centres of the Top and Bottom are placed (interchangeably) at the north and south poles. The centres of the other four faces intersect with the equator. Since the Earth is rotationally dilated, the cube must also be dilated by the same magnitude. This creates a square prism. If the rotational speed of Earth were to approach zero, gravity (neglecting structural resistances) would cause the dilation to also approach zero; this would cause the square prism to approach an undilated, fully symmetrical Cube. This is the rationale for using a cube rather than a square prism.
As mentioned, Time Cube entails rotation as a fundamental property. Time Cube supporters justify this by claiming that rotation is an inherent property of significant gravitational bodies, such as stars, planets and galaxies. They claim that almost all such bodies are formed from rotational vortices, and would only cease to rotate out of chance. It is viewed as evidence of rotation's importance that the most significant ones, such as galaxies, could not sustain such an event; without the rotation-induced centripetal force, they would collapse. The hypothesis is further supported by the fact that almost all observable significant gravitational bodies (planets, stars, galaxies) have an angular velocity of considerable magnitude.
Criticism of Time Cube Mathematics
Does Ray have any followers?
Although Ray is generally viewed—albeit fondly—as a crank, he claims "many thousands" believe that he is really communicating the "Ineffable Cubic Truth of the Universe" and that he is a great thinker and wise. As yet, no official Cubic organisation has been formed; however, a following has nonetheless presented itself through less formal avenues, including an online petition demanding representation of the Time Cube doctrine in academic and social institutions.
On timecube.com Ray often makes claims such as "Google has over 2,000,000 links to [the] Time Cube site", offering an URL such as this as proof of his popularity. However, this search is based on a naïve criterion in which any page containing the words "time" or "cube" is included. It also makes the assumption a majority of the pages speak of his theories in a positive manner. A more stringent search[3] shows a significantly smaller figure of 33,700.
See also
External links
- Time Cube: Gene Ray's official Cubic website.
- Cubic Awareness Online A fansite with Cubic explanations.
- Above God, The Greatest Thinker, The Wisest Human: Gene Ray's auxiliary official sites
- Time Cube page on CrankDotNet
- Time Cube MIT lecture/debate synopsis
- Learning Triangle: A parody of Time Cube, from Something Awful
- Waltoncube: Parody featuring NBC basketball announcer Bill Walton
- Another parody describing the rival Game Cube theory
- Time Cube card game
- A letter from Gene Ray explaining Time Cube; Interview with Gene Ray
- Time Cube: Communications From Elsewhere Randomly generates Time Cube-like text
- Time Cube lecture at Georgia Tech. April 14, 2005.
- Newtonian Physics: Parody at Uncyclopedia
Category:Pseudoscience Category:Surrealism Category:Internet culture