What Is a Manifold?
What a great read! I&#x27;ve never thought about how the way we experience the surface of the earth as 2D manifold of a 3D space, and how up until recently (relatively speaking) this was unknown.<p>It&#x27;s interesting to expand on this idea and realize that maybe we are making the same mistake again, and that from our local perspective the universe is 3D, when in reality, it&#x27;s a 3D manifold of a higher dimensional space.<p>One thing I am still unclear of though, is that isn&#x27;t this proven to be the case? Is it not true that we are provably living in at least a 4D space, where time is the fourth dimension? We can observe its existence but cannot move freely through it and are confined to free transformations only in 3D space? In this way, aren&#x27;t we living in a 3D manifold in a 4D space? So maybe then the question is are we living in a 3D manifold of a +4D space?