String theory often invokes extra spatial dimensions — six, seven, or more beyond the familiar three — compactified in ways we cannot directly observe. Popular accounts speak as if these dimensions “exist out there,” folded into reality, waiting for detection.
Effect: This instals a latent materialism — the assumption that unobservable dimensions are ontologically real, rather than symbolic handles for structuring equations.
Relational Reframe: Extra dimensions are not hidden places in the cosmos. They are degrees of freedom in a symbolic system, ways of representing relational possibilities between entities and interactions. Compactification is a tool for aligning constraints, not a secret vault of reality. The “size” or “shape” of these dimensions encodes patterns of instantiation, not actual physical chambers in space.
Takeaway: The temptation to literalise extra dimensions is a category error. They are symbolic levers, not extra rooms in which the universe hides its furniture.
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