[Dragon Star]

Originally Posted by Blue Fire

Is there any current thought about "accessing" the curled up dimensions of ST in such a way that we could extract energy or something useful? Aren't we in the process of using particle accelerators to possibly verify the curled up dimensions?

The resources used to do such a thing would outweigh any conceivable way for this to be. If an atom was stretched to the size of the solar system, a string would be a meer 3 meters long. You are talking about doing surgery on something that would be like trying to poke the moon with your finger from earth.

Seems like I remember something about an effort to do so regading a theory that posits that gravity might be much stronger in these small dimensions and that is possibly why gravity is comparatively weak in our own 3 spatial dimensions.

I also wonder if it might be possible, in theory, to uncurl any of these dimensions.

Again, read above.

Regarding Pranab's mention of brane cosmology, if I understand correctly, one theory holds that our universe might have been formed by a collision of two branes.

Correct. Well, 2 or more, it could have been a third although extremely unlikely.

In the case of brane cosmology wherein our "brane"/universe exists within higher/larger dimensions than our commonly known 3 (plus 1 time), then it would strike me that humans would face the same problem that the inhabitants of Flatland would. A circle living in a 2D world, like the surface of a sphere, would have a hard time conceptualizing a sphere. A sphere "being" could rise off the surface of the 2D plane and touch the center of a circle "being" without ever crossing the circle's perimeter. I've often toyed with this concept in trying to imagine higher and larger dimensions and how they might explain some phenomena that we detect but do not understand. This is much like the circle trying to comprehend just how something could end up inside it without that something haveing crossed its perimeter,... so in our world, just how would something be able to produce and effect (or get noticed) inside us without us ever having observed anything crossing our perimeter.

Of course, we could get into analysis of hyperspheres and higher dimensional math/geometry, but the challenge still remains as to how we might go about conceptualizing higher dimensions (or additional smaller dimensions for that matter) without resorting to mathematical analysis only. Big, very big paradigm shift perhaps? In any case, if Pranab is asking what place do we, in our universe, have in a higher, larger dimensional universe that encloses our 4D universe,... then I have to ask What place indeed?! Jeez, wouldn't that really put the nail in the coffin as to how insignificant we mere humans really might be? And here I thought we were already less than noticeable in the universe we Know about!

Bah, it's all conceptualization, and all way beyond anything we can image or comprehend for now, so lets work on what we can physically have a possibility of testing/experimenting now so we have a better idea about that tomorrow.