Marketing is everything. Whereas Gene Ray and his TIME CUBE theory has been heavily ridiculed since the early days of the web, Rob Bryanton’s 10 dimension story is actually selling books and seeding hippy pseudoscience cults.
I always considered string theory to be too above my head for me even to fathom it, so I always avoided exploring it – I was saving it for later when I was old and had time to learn tensor calculus and stuff. When someone told me there was a video that makes sense of 10 dimensions and string theory in an easy to understand manner, I was all over it. I have to admit that I got suckered in by Bryanton’s slick animations and smooth narration. There was a moment where I was getting excited because I thought that mainstream physics condoned the notion of time travel and alternate realities. “Woah, I totally understand string theory,” I thought to myself. Then I did a cursory wikipedia search of string theory and 10 dimensions. At that point I realized that Bryanton’s imagination has nothing to do with reality or any educated theory whatsoever and that I was a sucker for believing him.
Normally I wouldn’t be angry – Bryanton’s 10 dimensions is a cool sci-fi concept that unifies time travel, alternate realities and alternate universes. But when you consider that he’s literally selling his imaginary world as truth to eager believers who don’t know any better, then this man is a unremitting charlatan.
Anyways. My main point: marketing makes all the difference. First we’ll have Rob Bryanton’s nice, polished bullshit:
10 DIMENSIONS
See. That was nice. Sort of cool. I’d buy that for a dollar if I didn’t know any better. And people are paying many dollars to buy his books.
Now Gene Ray’s Time Cube as a reference:
TIME CUBE
When you’re selling hot air it’s all in the technique.
