From Wikipedia:
“In physics, spacetime (or space–time; or space/time) is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Spacetime is usually interpreted with space being three-dimensional and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions.”
It’s often analogized as a two-dimensional material substance (spacetime is a blanket, the sun is a bowling ball, etc.). However, if you forget the physics-made-simple metaphors, spacetime is really nothing more or less than a mathematical concept. It is an imaginary sheet of probabilities that predicts the most likely path that light, or objects, will take. I think that’s still sinking in for me. But then my question became: the most likely path that light will take in what?
I’m not talking about a substance . . . I’m wondering about the nature of dimensionality (as someone with a background in social science I feel it’s totally legitimate to invent words, especially if they end in -ality). What the hell is going on that my body occupies 360 degrees of something (or, alternatively, nothing. But what really is the difference between something and nothing?)? Where is light going? If spacetime isn’t a “thing,” what allows things to be multidimensional? What am I in?
